Got some vouchers burning a hole in your pocket? Well, here’s some albums you might want to add to collection…
FRANK TURNER “The No-Hit Wonder by Cory Branan. Cory is singer-songwriter from Nashville and he’s very much a songwriter’s songwriter. Everyone I know who makes music for a living cries inside when they hear him because he’s just so fucking good. But for reasons that are obscure to me, he’s not hugely acclaimed in the world at large. There’s something so classic to his songwriting that I envy and his lyrics are just phenomenal. There’s a song called The Only You on his new album that’s breathtakingly brilliant. He’s a Southern gentleman, so he’s very modest and humble about all of this, but he is just brilliant. I’m hoping to bring him over to the UK next year because he’s such a great performer and he’s also a funny motherfucker too.”
BROCK LINDOW, 36 CRAZYFISTS “I’m just going to go ahead and give nods to my boys in Unearth. Their record Watchers Of Rule is great. I love those guys. I think they’re fiercely underrated, and that album is just angry. I’m really proud of them, and really happy they managed to get a new record out too. They’re kind of similar to us– like suitcases, they’ve been around the block a bit – and I recently saw them open up for Crowbar in New York city. They absolutely annihilated the place!”
MIKE KERR, ROYAL BLOOD “I’ve been listening a lot to the new record by DZ Deathrays, who’re also a two piece actually, from Australia. I’m good friends with those guys, but beyond that, their record Black Rat has been on constant repeat, so I’ll say that.”
ANDY CAIRNS, THERAPY? “My favourite record this year is by a band from Australia called Total Control, and it’s called Typical System. It’s a punk record, but more post-punk, almost like a younger cousin to the Manic’s Futurology. I really recommend it.”
CODY CARSON, SET IT OFF “This may sound bad but when I’m writing new stuff I kinda get wrapped up in older albums for inspiration, but I’d have to say I love X by Ed Sheeran and X by Chris Brown. Two incredible albums with the same damn name!”
BECCA MACINTYRE, MARMOZETS “My album of the year would have to be Royal Blood’s album [Royal Blood]. It’s just different for a UK band to release something like that and it’s even cooler because were friends with them.”
ROU REYNOLDS, ENTER SHIKARI “I’m always rubbish at this because I can never remember when things are released. But at the beginning of the year, my workout music for a few months was Architects’ album, Lost Forever // Lost Together. That was brilliant. We did Warped tour over the summer and Marmozets were out there too. I was already a fan of their music and their album The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets captured how good they are live. I’d say those two were my standout albums of 2014.”
MARK TROTTER, LONELY THE BRAVE “I love the Marmozets record, The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets. They’re really good guys. We did a co-headline tour with them and I’m a big fan of their work. I also love Ryan Adams and he had a new record out this year, which is a good one. Otherwise, I listen to some weird stuff, which probably wouldn’t be quite as known. But yeah, those two were special records for me this year.
ROB DAMIANI, DON BROCO “People might think I’m trying to help out my mates, but the new Lower Than Atlantis album [Lower Than Atlantis] is really special. I know they really worked hard on it. We were working with our buddy Dan, who produced our last album, and he did that album, so we got to hear a lot of the album in their formative stages. It was nice to see how it was growing. They’ve really stepped things up with their songwriting and people are digging it too.”
GEOFF RICKLY, NO DEVOTION/UNITED NATIONS
“Wow. There’s so many. There’s been so many great records. I mean, everyone loves the Run The Jewels record [Run The Jewels 2], everybody loves the Death From Above 1979 record [The Physical World], but that stuff’s really easy to say. And then there’s friends’ bands like Pianos Become The Teeth, who put out such a great record [Keep You], but for me personally I would say HTRK’s Psychic 9-5 Club is probably my record of the year. It’s so awesome!”
SAM MCTRUSTY, TWIN ATLANTIC “My album of 2014? I think I’ll pick the Ryan Adams record. It’s just called Ryan Adams. That’s probably my favourite one. The songwriting’s pretty fluid on it and it’s really easy to get from the start to the finish of the record and that’s the sign of a really good album.”
