1. January 2020 By Walter Price 0

Global Texan Chronicles Top 5 Rock N Roll Albums 2019

Global Texan Top 5 Rock N Roll Albums 2019 and more in the GTC archives.

Rock N Roll is ALIVE!. Breathing fury, love, destruction, solution, and awarenesses through dozens of sub-genres and its powers are the strongest within the indie rockers producing a vast array of personal music.

And, in 2019, there were so many great releases it was a terrible task to choose just five, but here are the GTC Top 5 Rock N Roll Albums for your consideration.

NUMBER ONE

And We Should Die Of That Roar – Where We Lay Our Bones

What We Said: Highlights are the Gospel opening of “Woke Up This Morning”, the roadhouse grit of “Too Much Blues Can Break You Down”, Tom Waits power of the title track, and (fave, so far) “Big Bright Sun” replete with Hum’s signature growl, classic rock licks and whistling to boot. No one whistles in song anymore…

And Now? Social conscience is a fun plaything these things. Repetitive noise with no real backbone. That stops with this album. Hardy Hum is standing up and growling truths… And like it or not this is the loudest, crunchiest and most important folk album you’ll have to come to terms with this year. Or maybe, ever.

“That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.” – George Eliot

Written by Hardy Hum

Video conceptualized by Vidar Olsson courtesy of V.P.L.O Studios & Olliver Larsson. Directed, recorded and edited by Vidar Olsson. Lyrics & Music: Hardy Hum. Produced by: Kenny Lundström & Hardy Hum. Song recorded at Kapten Studios Nkpg.

NUMBER TWO

Billy Momo – Roots & Vision

What We Said: What haven’t we said about this album or this collective…

And Now? This band is as much a community, a family as it is a music project. Folk based pop/rock with palpable depths that you can sing, love, cry and dance to. Roots & Vision, for me, will go down as a must-have for any road trip.

The Cold Kids Crew are Edith, Noah, Salina, Nora, Lovisa, Ester.

Track recorded at The Creak Studio

Mixed by Maksymilian Biernacki

Tomas ´Barba Rosso´ Juto // Oskar ‘Orren Ishee´ Hovell // Tony
‘Gramp´ Lind // Mårten ´Hotlips` Forssman // Oscar ´the Head´ Harryson // Christopher ´the Coffa´ Anderzon // Andreas ´Preacherman´ Prybil

NUMBERS THREE & FOUR

Hands Off Gretel – I Want The World / Lauren Tate – Songs For Sad Girls

What We Said: South Yorkshire’s skater/grunge revivalists Hands Off Gretel latest album ‘I Want The World’ is a rebellious and energetic monster. Thoughts of Bikini Kill, Melvins, Nirvana, and even a smidgen of Guano Apes wafting from its twelve tracks. Songs that could, and probably should soundtrack a stylish hard-edged coming of age indie flick. As vocalist, the powerful Lauren Tate, transitions with ease from FU punk growls, guttural neu-metal wails, and emotional introspective pop-punk.

And Now? Double-hitter! If HOG’s brilliant alt-rock album wasn’t enough to move the hard-rockin’ indie lovers, Tate went and embarked on a beautiful solo journey and released an extremely powerful Hayley Williams/Janis Joplin-esque album, ‘Songs For Sad Girls’…An instant heartfelt and soul churning classic cementing the fact that whatever this voice wants to do…the world will follow.

“Style-wise I already had in my head what I wanted and then some I wouldn’t think would work, some are a bit soft. I know the band does soft stuff. Songs like ‘Freaks like Us’ was right on the edge of becoming a soft song or a song rocking it up with a balled. I was nervous to do a balled with a punky grunge band, I thought people might not like it and whenever I write there’s a line between what goes solo and what goes into Hands Off Gretel. Then I realised that I had as many solo songs as band songs so I decided to make the album. I thought I’d produce it all myself and see how it sounds and then if I like how it sounds I’ll get a producer to do it before me. Then when I got down to it and I got really into mixing it and thought this is a project on it own, like my own growth as a solo artist. For six years I’ve lost who I am on my own, it’s become me in a band and me standing on my own is terrifying and I thought I wanted to conquer that and do it.” – L. Tate (louderthanwar.com)

HOG: Lauren Tate Vocals and Guitar // Sean McAvinue – Guitar // Sam Hobbins – Drums // Becky Baldwin – Bass

Songs For Sad Girls: Written, recorded and produced by Lauren Tate

NUMBER FIVE

Palm Haze – Rêve Bleu

What We Said: Vancouver alt-rock duo Palm Haze’s latest release ‘Rêve Bleu’ is anything but predictable. Each track sonically misdirecting, lyrically poetic and an emotional psych trip through an abundance of textures. Just imagine, Mazzy Star, Black Bananas, Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine blended into a project of disquieting brilliance.

And Now? This shoegaze masterclass hasn’t stopped exposing its secrets. Every listen something new, unexpected crawls clanging from its shadowy nooks. Not a single moment of this album wants you to forget the producing powers of Fløver nor the hauntingly ethereal voice of Anna Wagner.

“We started working on Rêve Bleu right after the release of Tangy Dream. The album title track, Rêve Bleu, was the first one I made and after that we made Wildflower. We had just gotten a new acoustic guitar and Wildflower was the first song made on it. It was pretty fast, and that song barely changed since the first demo.

“This head start made me want to release a new EP kind of soon, I remember that at first, I planned to finish it in May 2018. But for some reason, after making those 2 songs, every time I tried to go on and finish other songs, something else would happen in my life. That made the evolution of this album very slow. It wasn’t easy to finish this album and I think it’s all reflected in how it turned out to be. I feel like it got heavier, darker but at the same time the calmer parts feel more sober and raw.” – Lucas Inacio (via Bandcamp liner notes)