HCTF's best of 2017 (20-16)

• 20-16
• |
• 15-11
• |
• 10-6
• |
• 5-1

» Best of 2017 playlist

» Listen here

HCTF's annual list of the 20 albums that will be in regular rotation for many years to come. The long list of memorable releases boasted about 50 albums. Tough decisions were made narrowing it down. As per usual it's a mixed bag of genres: rock in its various incarnations (garage, hard, post, prog), avant-garde, jazz, pop, folk, funk. Also of note: four live albums made the cut.

Today: countdown from number 20 to 16.

Please keep in mind to shop at your local record store, buy directly from the artist, attend live shows. And shut the fuck up while the band is playing.

Fit and the Conniptions: Old Blue Witch

BEST OF 2017
17
HCTF

Few people in the UK were more hated than Margaret Thatcher, the conservative Prime Minister from Hell. When she died in 2013 those sentiments came to the fore in an unprecedented show of jubilation: the witch was dead. Folk singer Wayne Myers found the inspiration for a new album with his band Fit and the Conniptions. about the havoc she wrecked and connect it the current state of affairs. Thatcher may be long gone, but her ideology of divide and conquer is very much alive. The economy is in flux, the Brexit has split the nation in two halves shouting at each other.

Myers has a case for being pessimistic and angry, but as an artist he couldn't be happier. Short of being in some kind of relationship trouble nothing beats an arrogant adversary to get the songwriting juices flowing. He dons the guise of an outsider during a party who (Festival Of Fools), brings fabled union leader Bob Crow back to life and sums up all the cuts on health care and the rampant unemployment in Valentine's Day. He tries to escape from it all, travels to an unfashionable German city (Stuttgart In October) and dreams about potential female companions named Carolina and Brenda Finn, and fantasizes about befriending a mythical creature in Mermaid Song.

Fit and the Conniptions: Sleeping Beauty

Twelve years ago Wayne Myers, main man of UK indie folk band Fit and the Conniptions was trying to finish an album called Sleeping Beauty. In the midst of emotional turmoil, the project was shelved. A few tracks surfaced on the Bush Of Thorns EP, but that was it. He dug out the stems and decided he would release the album without messing around with the original recordings. Just a newly recorded cello part for Mistress Song and a fixed guitar part for Bush Of Thorns.

Sleeping Beauty is more jazzy than their 2010 album Sweet Sister Starlight - thanks to the brass skills of Kevin Davy in songs like.When The Penny Dropped and Irish Coffee Blues. Myers has always been a keen observer of his surroundings and he manages to tell a full story in less than two minutes in The Ghost Of Emma Goldman. As a DIY comic artist he knows that every word counts.

Fit and the Conniptions:
Wayne Myers: guitar, bass guitar, vocals
Brian Hedemann: drums (tracks 1, 2, 6, 7, 8)
Kevin Davy: trumpet, flugelhorn (tracks 3, 6, 7, 8)
Alero Scott: backing vocals (tracks 1, 2, 4, 7)
Danny Keane: cello (track 5)

Sleeping Beauty is a self-released album. Buy it (pay-what-you-want) from the band's website. The CD version will be available on 21st of April.

Tracks:

1. Bush Of Thorns
2. Sleeping Beauty And The Beast
3. Dark Eyes
4. The Ghost Of Emma Goldman
5. Mistress Song
6. When The Penny Dropped
7. Chez Tina
8. Irish Coffee Blues

» conniptions.org

HCTF review of Sweet Sister Starlight.

Fit and the Conniptions: Sweet Sister Starlight

From busking in the London Underground to assembling a host of jazzy pop players to cut an album. Wayne Myers is a DIY artist with a knack for writing catchy melancholic pop songs, about halfway The Real Tuesday Weld and The Buzzcocks. He creates his own comics too, about the ups an downs of being a professionial musician trying to make a living with his band Fit and the Conniptions.

With Sweet Sister Starlight Myers follows the back road of UK pop. Switching between blues, folk, pop and jazz the band provides a comfy bed for Myers' relaxed vocals. A superb Sunday Morning album that flows like a crystal clear brook. You would never guess that it has taken over three years to make. Myers is an entertainer, a lounge lizard and a bluesy folkie rolled into one. A below-the-radar musical Robin Hood with a soft playing band of Merry Men capable of surprise attacks.

Fit and the Conniptions:
Wayne Myers: guitar, bass, piano, vocals
Jamika Ajalon: vocals
Kevin Davy: trumpet
Saskia Doornbos: vocals
Brian Hedemann: drums
Alex Lynn: guitar
Sean Taylor: guitar
Paul Tkachenko : bass

Sweet Sister Starlight is a self-released album. Buy it (pay-what-you-want) from the band's website.

Tracks:

1. Sweet Sister Starlight
2. Turnaround
3. Love Less And Live
4. Spellbound
5. Spider Song
6. Wander In A Dream
7. Many Many
8. Mistress Song
9. Wood For The Trees
10. Broken
11. Nothing's Any Fun Any More
12. Solemn Ground

Live dates:

• 06/01 The Luxe, 109 Commercial Street, London E1 6BG
• 06/07 Elixir Bar, 162 Eversholt Street, London NW1 1BL
• 06/19 The Good Ship, 289 Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR
• 06/22 New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Road, London, SE14 6AS
• 07/02 Ashley Wood Festival, Ashley Wood Farm, Fonthill Gifford, Tisbury, Wiltshire, SP3 6PY
• 07/06 The White Lion, 232, Streatham High Road, London SW16 1BB
• 07/19 The Green Dragon, 58-60 High Street, Croydon, CR0 1NA

» conniptions.org