STACK #207 Jan 2022

MUSIC FEATURE

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2021

Our darling and distinguished music writers have combed through their submissions of this year, and chosen their very top records; together these albums comprise STACK ‘s Music Class of 2021, featuring the best country, pop, indie, electronic, rock, and all the slivers between.

DENISE HYLANDS

BRYGET CHRISFIELD

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis Carnage “ Carnage ‘s amorphous song structures and illustrative orchestration demonstrate glorious

Charley Crockett Music City USA “Charley Crockett sings and plays in his own style, steeped in the heritage of country music while reviving and staying true to its originators. He‘s survived the life of a travelling musician, no money, petty crime, open heart surgery, a pandemic and long distance rides in a van, to get to where he is, and Music City USA is his 10th album in six years... If you like true real deal country, there‘s no one doing it quite like Crockett.“ (Cooking Vinyl) HONOURABLE MENTION: Sierra Ferrell, LongTime Coming (Rounder/Concord)

technicolour in full flight. Cave‘s menacing growl conjures voodoo magic; often his macabre, poetic delivery is the stuff of toddler nightmares. Ask Uncle Nick to tell your kiddies a bedtime story at your own peril. By the time [White Elephant‘s] The Flaming Lips-level celebratory chorus kicks in – “A time is coming/ A time is nigh/ For the kingdom/ In the sky…“ (a recurring motif) – it sounds as jubilant as a carousel horse galloping to freedom.“ (Goliath/AWAL) HONOURABLE MENTION: Amyl and the Sniffers, Comfort to Me (b2b) (Domino)

JEFF JENKINS Vika & Linda The Wait

“This is the sound of two women taking control of their careers and refusing to play it safe. The result is as close to perfect as any record you‘ll ever hear... Fixtures of the Australian music

scene for more than three decades, they now well and truly take centre stage after being 20 Feet from Stardom . “I won‘t back down, this is my world now,“ Linda declares in Raise Your Hand . It‘s no idle boast, just a statement of fact. Their time is now. The Wait is the album of the year.“ (Bloodlines) HONOURABLE MENTION: Liz Stringer, First Time Really Feeling (Milk!/Remote Control)

girl in red if i could make it go quiet “In an ever-changing, tumultuous year, girl in red offered a reflective, warm embrace in if I could make it go quiet . Laying herself bare in a strikingly honest debut JACQUI PICONE

record, she offered solace and reassurance that the dips and swells of being alive are in fact the best part, no matter how chaotic and convoluted they may feel.“ (AWAL) HONOURABLE MENTION:

IDLES, Crawler (Partisan/Liberator)

28 JANUARY 2022

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