Northern Ireland Tunes - Round-Up #32

It's always great doing the annual round-up of this blog's favourite releases of 2014, however one thing it means is that we focus all our attention towards it, and a result there might be some great songs that we may have written about but didn't get around to due to our laser-focused attentions being elsewhere. So to remedy this, here's a few tracks from Northern Ireland that we've been rather taken by in the past few weeks that we think will float your Metaphorical Boat - 
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Viola Dust - Trick

Having featured on this blog on several occasions throughout 2014, you'd think that Newry band Viola Dust don't need any introduction, but I never let that stop me.

Viola Dust have built up a stellar reputation, and a little bit of blog lovin', with their rather intelligent take on electronic-pop. As of today, "The Big Hop" has racked up over 25,000 streams on Soundcloud, which is pretty fantastic going for a band who've only being a going concern since May. Their latest single to made available is "Trick", a fantastic single with a monster of a chorus. It would not surprise me if Jay-Z nicked it as the main hook of his next hit single. It's available to download for free, which is a steal if I ever saw one.


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Lauren Bird - Goodbye, Good Luck

Last month, I went down to Dawsons in Belfast city centre to watch a friend of the blog who was taking part in a singer/songwriter competition that they were running. As part of the competition, they had to perform two songs, one original song and one cover. Although most of them were okay, I was completely blown away by one performer in particular. Armed with a ukulele, she broke into one of the most downbeat songs ever made, "No Surprises", and turned it into a thing of beauty. I joked on Twitter at the time that I refuse to listen to that song unless it's played by a girl from Strabane on the ukulele, but the more I think about it, the more I agree with myself.

I later learned that her name is Lauren Bird (having spent hours searching for her music in vain after mishearing it as Byrne), and discovered that she released a self-titled E.P of her own songs a few months ago, which is available on a pay-what-you-want basis. Taken from the E.P is "Goodbye, Good Luck", which was the song that she performed alongside "No Surprises" when I saw her last month. It's a heartfelt ode to a relationship gone awry, which calls to mind a more acoustic version of Kate Nash.


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Aspen Pales - Blue

And finishing off the round-up this month is Rostrevor band Aspen Pales. The track "Blue" premièred on Chordblossom earlier this month, taken from a recently released self-titled album. It's a deceptively simple song that ebbs and flows throughout, whilst burying itself deep under your skin without you realising it. It's one of those songs that seems to have existed in a time bubble, as if it has always been ever-present in the background, like cosmic radiation.

The Metaphorical Boat's Top Songs/Albums of 2014 - The Lists

For the benefit of those who like cold, hard data, here is The Metaphorical Boat's top albums and songs of 2014 in easy to digest list form.

Top Songs of 2014 - 

1. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Eurydice
2. Alvvays - Next of Kin
3. Wonder Villains – Golden Five
4. The Fat White Family - Touch the Leather
5. King Creosote - For One Night Only
6. Billy Lockett – Old Man
7. Go Swim - Call Sign
8. The War on Drugs - Red Eyes
9. In An Instant - Something Right and Something Real
10. Eels - Parallels
11. Nick Mulvey - Cucurucu
12. Rainy Boy Sleep - Ambulance
13. Faul & Wad Ad vs. Pnau - Changes
14. Indiana - Solo Dancing
15. Little Matador – Stitch Yourself Up
16. Kassassin Street – Centre Straight Atom
17. Southern - Where The Wild Are
18. East India Youth - Dripping Down
19. Glass Animals - Gooey
20. George Ezra - Budapest
21. Kaiser Chiefs - Coming Home
22. American Authors - Best Day Of My Life
23. alt-J - Every Other Freckle
24. KONGOS – Come With Me Now
25. Sheppard - Geronimo
26. Temples - Mesmerise
27. Elbow - New York Morning
28. The New Pornographers - War on The East Coast
29. Jack White - Lazaretto
30. The Death of Pop - Whenever
31. Cheerleader - Perfect Vision
32. Shonen Knife - Bad Luck Song
33. The War On Drugs - Under The Pressure
34. The Magician ft Years & Years – Sunlight
35. We Were Evergreen - False Start
36. Calan Mai - We've Got Love
37. Tigercats - Junior Champion
38. We Are Aerials - We Are Chemicals
39. Bakermat - Vandaag (One Day)
40. The Wood Burning Savages - Boom
41. Kasabian - eez-eh
42. The Corner Laughers - Midsommar
43. Malibu Shark Attack! - Better Off As Friends
44. Saint Motel – My Type
45. PORTS - Second In Line
46. SOAK - Blud
47. BABYMETAL - Gimme Chocolate!!
48. Andrew Montgomery – After The Storm
49. Ibibio Sound Machine Let's Dance (Yak Inek Unek)
50. Clean Bandit - Rather Be (feat. Jess Glynne)

Top Albums of 2014 - 

1.  Wonder Villains – Rocky
2. The War On Drugs – Lost In The Dream
3. Alvvays – Alvvays
4. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Days of Abandon
5. Eels – The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett
6. King Creosote – From Scotland With Love
7. Little Matador – Little Matador
8. Elbow – The Take Off and Landing Of Everything
9. Kaiser Chiefs – Education, Education, Education & War
10. nano.RIPE - Namida no Ochiru Sokudo

The Metaphorical Boat's Top Albums of 2014 - 5-1

5. Eels – The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett

(E Works)

For an artist who's never been afraid of bearing it all on record, the directness of approach on "The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett" by Eels is still very stark. If past albums have been like rifling through pages of E's diary, then "Cautionary Tales" is like looking directly into the heart of his soul. With songs dealing with break-ups, death and despair, this is a very human album, that still manages to find beauty in the darkness. The best tracks from the album are the wonderful "Parallels", the explosive "Lockdown Hurricane", and the surprisingly upbeat "Where I'm At".

4. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Days of Abandon

(Fierce Panda)

2014 saw The Pains of Being Pure At Heart effectively becoming a solo project, after Kip Berman was left as the only original member of the group. Regardless, he managed to get a new bunch of guys together to create "Days Of Abandon", a worthy and infectious follow-up to "Belong". 

The album features some of the best songs of the band's career, with the faultless "Eurydice" and the shoegaze-y "Until The Sun Explodes" being among the highlights. And surprisingly, despite the change in personnel, Kip takes the back seat for several tracks on the album, with Jen Goma taking over lead vocal duties on the religious portrait "Life After Life" and the wonderful "Kelly". It's a great pop album, and a wonderful conclusion to a trilogy of fantastic albums. Although the less said about that artwork, the better. 

3. Alvvays – Alvvays

(Transgressive Records)

The self-titled debut album from Canandian band Alvvays is a master class in subversive indie-pop. Whether it's the jauntiest song about a riverside drowning, "Next Of Kin", the quarter-life crisis of "Adult Diversion", or the anti-wedding sentiment of "Archie, Marry Me", the band have made a perfect antidote for a genre that, either fairly or otherwise, has a reputation for being twee and fluffy. 

For a more in-depth analysis of its awesomeness, follow this link.

2. The War On Drugs – Lost In The Dream

(Secretly Canadian)

Many years ago, a group of the world's leading thinkers holed themselves up in a bunker in a secret location, quite possibly Austin. They had been gathered there in order to solve a problem that had been troubling them for many years - just how do we sell Dire Straits and Bruce Springsteen to a generation of hipsters? After spending years attempting to come across the correct answer to this troubling conundrum, the boffins finally managed to find their answer.

And that answer was "Lost In The Dream" by The War On Drugs. The album is a love letter to 80s corporate rock, yet has somehow managed to appeal to a younger, more 'hip' demographic than anyone could have anticipated. Indeed, just last week it was announced the album had been certified silver in the UK, which is a remarkable achievement in 2014. But a very much expected one, for even if it does feel all too familiar, "Lost In The Dream" is a near faultless rock album.

1. Wonder Villains – Rocky

(Third Bar/No Dancing)

Let's be honest, there was only ever going to be one album that was going to top this poll.

After teasing us for all too long, Wonder Villains finally got around to giving us their debut album, "Rocky", this year. The album was 12 slices of pure, unadulterated pop music, devoid of cynicism and downbeatness, and filled to the brim with fizz and good times. It's an album where it's genuinely hard to pick a favourite track, be it the ode to the boob tube ("TV"), the terrace anthem in waiting ("Zola"), a song about one of the protagonists of the oft-forgotten Heroes ("Oh Peter"), or, of course, the infectious "Golden Five", its an album that should be savoured from start to finish. 

It's a real shame that the album hasn't received the wide attention it deserved this year, a nomination for the NI Music Prize aside, but hopefully the band can get some solace in knowing that they have released The Metaphorical Boat's Number 1 album of 2014.

The Metaphorical Boat's Top Albums of 2014 - 10-6

After all the fun and hijinks of looking at our favourite songs of 2014, it is time to delve into listageddon once more, by looking at the ten albums that most shaped The Metaphorical Boat's listening habits over the past twelve months.

To repeat the same thing I've said the past three years, it is usually much harder to decide on an order for best albums of the year than it is for best songs. For single tracks, it goes in order of which songs I'd be happy enough to hear again and again in descending order. For albums on the other hand, there are a lot more variables involved. Should an album with lots of decent tracks receive a better placing than an album with two of the greatest songs of the year and some filler? Should an album that works well as a complete work be given preference to an album with better songs, but with more variety and a poorer flow? Should an act who I've loved immensely in the past place highly even if their album from this year didn't match up to their usual high standards?

So after taking these thoughts into consideration, and after much self-deliberation, here is the first half of The Metaphorical Boat's top albums of 2014:

10. nano.RIPE - Namida no Ochiru Sokudo

(Lantis)

We start off the album countdown with an album that I can almost definitely say does not feature in any other UK music blogs' Top Albums of 2014. In fact, I'm so confident that if there is a blog in which it features, there is 20 Caramac Bars in it for them.

"Namida no Ochiru Sokudo" (which I believe is translated as "The Speed of Falling Tears") is the sixth album of Japanese pop-rock group nano.RIPE. Whilst the band might not be generally well known outside their home country (I had to spend £20 ordering in this album from Japan as it's not available here, even on iTunes/Spotify), they are known for providing theme tunes for Japanese animation. (Two of the songs on the album, "Tsuki Hana" and "Nanairo Biyori", serve as themes to Hataraku Maou-Sama and Non Non Biyori respectively.) It's an album of fun J-rock tunes which are instantly recognisable from Kimiko's idiosyncratic vocals, which are about as high as the human voice can reach without being reliant on helium.

It's an acquired taste of an album, especially as it may be too sugary for some, and too impenetrable for others (the entire album's in Japanese), but it's definitely one of my favourites of the year.

9. Kaiser Chiefs – Education, Education, Education & War 

(Fiction)

"Education, Education, Education & War" by the Kaiser Chiefs is not only TMB's 9th favourite album of 2014, it is also the best album of 2006. With its title being an obvious allusion to the policy's of Tony Blair's Labour government, as well as the poem recited by Bill Nighy on "Cannons" alluding to the Iraq War, this album feels like it should have been the artsy, political follow-up to their monster début album "Employment", rather than reaching us eight years later.

But regardless of it seeming out of place in 2014, there's no denying that "EEE&W" saw the band returning to fine form. "Coming Home" saw the band deservedly enter the top 40 for the first time in six years, and "The Factory Gates", "Ruffians On Parade" and the glorious "Meanwhile Up In Heaven" are worthy additions to the band's back catalogue. 

8. Elbow – The Take Off and Landing Of Everything

(Fiction)

Although we're unlikely to see Elbow give us another rock monster like "Grounds For Divorce", "Fallen Angel" or "Forget Myself", it's nice to hear the band continuing to do their own thing on their sixth album, "The Take Off And Landing Of Everything". It's another album of Elbow doing what they do best - grandiose music to warm your cockles. Highlights of the album are the sweeping "New York Morning", the lifting title track, and as you might expect, the wonderful "My Sad Captains". 

7. Little Matador – Little Matador 

(Fiction)

Helping to smash the stereotype that all side-projects are self-indulgent twaddle, Snow Patrol guitarist Nathan Connolly's first album with Little Matador is an album of straight-to-the-point rock beasts. From the opening of "Stitch Yourself", the glam-rock aping "Reasons", through to the frantic sub-2 minute punk of "Liar Liar", it's an album that doesn't mess around.

6. King Creosote – From Scotland With Love

(Domino)

"From Scotland With Love" by King Creosote is the soundtrack to a documentary of the same name that was released this year to commemorate the Commonwealth Games being held in Glasgow. The film condensed decades of archive footage from Scottish history and condensed them down to 75 minutes, with the songs of Kenny Anderson being the only sound accompaniment. Although if thought that songs wouldn't work outside the context of the film, you'd be dead wrong.

From the euphoric ode to the weekend, "For One Night Only", to the jaunty seaside ditty of "Largs", through to the almost hymnal "Pauper's Dough", the album is an album that is both sombre, thought provoking, and thoroughly enjoyable. Plus, you can't not like the children's choir who join Kenny on a rendition of the folk song "Bluebell, Cockleshell 123".

The Metaphorical Boat's Top Songs of 2014 - Number One

1. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Eurydice

Eurydice, I never stop losing you.

And we reach the end of the road, with "Eurydice" by perennial favourites of ours, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. The songs takes its name from the ancient Greek myth, and demonstrates the band's continuing excellence at crafting the perfect pop song. Just when you thought they couldn't top "Heart In Your Heartbreak", they offer us a song as sumptuous and infectious as "Eurydice". Its shining moment is at the 3 minute 10 mark, when the counter-melody kicks, and you realise just how special this song really is. Never has perfection sounded so good.

So hit up the play button below, and enjoy The Metaphorical Boat's Top Song of 2014 -