ĠENN, UNUM

In 2017, Childhood friends, vocalist Leona (vox) Farrugia, bassist Leanne Zammit, and guitarist Janelle Borg left their home island of Malta and moved to the UK. Brighton to be exact. There they met drummer Sofia Rose Cooper and Ġenn was born.

Ġenn takes it's name from the Maltese word for frenzy. Unum is the Latin word for oneness, unity, and a sense of being whole. Together, these two words greatly define the tone and tenor of Ġenn's music. Drawing from their diverse backgrounds and influences, the band somehow has woven post punk, noise-rock, Maltese folk, some Jamaican rhythms (Cooper has Jamaican and Portuguese roots) and a little bit of psych-rock into a tapestry of sound that is surprising and exciting to hear. Most importantly, the band's eclecticism works. 

Loud, caustic, quiet, moody, hypnotic, Unum will have your heart racing and resting and your head wanting more. Ġenn's delivers one of the best debut albums of the year.

ON ROTATION

 Lots of great music. Not enough time to write about it all...but here's what's on rotation for me right now. 

Miles Miller, Solid Gold

Victoria Bailey, A Cowgirl Rides On 

DECLAN WELSH AND THE DECADENT WEST, 2

2019 was a very good year for the Glaswegian band Declan Welsh and The Decadent West. Their debut album, Cheaply bought, Expensively Sold, was a hit in Scotland and earned the band a Scottish album of the year nomination. New EP's followed as well as  touring. Then COVID happened.

Tucked away in his room for months on end, lead singer and songwriter Declan Welsh wrote and demoed a new set of songs. The songs drew on the band's influences is new ways and the lyrics reflected feelings and ruminations concerning isolation and anxiety that Welsh was experiencing. But the songs also then gave way to moments of humor, hope and love which as Welsh explained in an interview, 'break through to lift the songs and provide light to the shade'. The band then took his demos into the studio and came away with their sophomore album, 2. 

It's been a minute since I could say that every song on an album was a standout, but that is the case with 2. From the opening song, Mercy to closing song, The Comedian, Welsh and the band deliver one of the best albums of the year and satisfy my need for great Scottish Alt rock.

ON ROTATION

 Lots of great music. Not enough time to write about it all...but here's what's on rotation for me right now. 

Vincent Neil Emerson, The Golden Crystal Kingdom

Cat Power, Sings Dylan:The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert

COYLE GIRELLI, MUSEUM DAY

English singer-songwriter Coyle Girelli has done a little bit of everything. He's fronted two bands, co-written songs for two French musicals, written hit songs for a diverse group of artists from Macklemore to BTS, he's collaborated with other hit-making songwriters such as Linda Perry, and he's released two solo albums. He's done...just a bit.

Girelli now calls New York City home and on his latest album, Museum Day, he draws inspiration from living and loving in the Big Apple. He also tips his hat to some of the bands that have inspired him over the years...The Smiths, The National, The War On Drugs, and even New Order. Yet these songs are all Girelli. 

Standing alone, each of the ten songs on Museum Day are fantastic with melodies and lyrics that capture moments in time beautifully whether they are ones filled with love, joy, sadness...or all of it. Put them all together and you get one of the most enjoyable and best albums of the year. 

DYLAN LEBLANC, COYOTE

LeBlanc was in Austin, Texas, climbing the face of a 100-foot cliff, gambling with 'Mother Nature’s good graces' as he pulled himself up by tree branches. Once he reached the top, all that laid ahead of him was a lush treeline. There was a breath of stillness, then the sound of a thunderous rustling that drew closer and closer to him. In a blink, LeBlanc watched as a frenzied raccoon came speeding out of the treeline, trailed by an animal that stopped and stared at him with striking intensity: a coyote. 

As LeBlanc describes the moment, “We’re looking at each other dead in the eyes…and I’m saying -- out loud -- ‘If it’s you or me, I am going to kick you off the side of this cliff. I’m not going down.’ LeBlanc recalls that it was an intense, human-animal moment. A moment that he's never forgotten. 

Living on the edge of danger with its many consequences is the theme woven throughout the songs on Coyote, LeBlanc's fifth album. LeBlanc has said that that it's an autobiographical and concept album built around a character named Coyote, a man who is on the run. Set against a moody and atmospheric folk rock musical backdrop with a tinge of psychedelia, LeBlanc's songs have a cinematic feel to them, like the closing scene of a movie where the protagonist is last seen walking down an empty Texas highway on a cool clear night reflecting on his many trials and tribulation while his camp fire is left smoldering, crackling, and popping in the distance. It's a highway where I want to be. I just love this album and I think that you will as well.