MOPE Mid-Year Review: The Best Albums I Missed in the First Half of 2019

As committed to MOPE as I try to be, there are always gonna be some albums which slip through the cracks. At the end of June, I decided to take a look back over the first half of the year and see which new albums that I love haven't been given a review on this site so far - either because I've been too busy or because I just didn't get round to listening to them soon enough. Even in this little feature, there are records I couldn't fit in, so I'd like to give a few honourable mentions to the following:

• Baroness - Gold & Grey 
• Full Of Hell - Weeping Choir
• Jamie Lenman - Shuffle
• Bad Breeding - Exiled (check out my review of this one on Already Heard here)
• Slowthai - Nothing Great About Britain
• The Wildhearts - Renaissance Men

So, without further ado, here are six albums from the first half of 2019 that you should be checking out right now. Enjoy!

Her Name Is Calla – Animal Choir

10/10

Best Tracks: The Dead Rift, Kaleidoscoping, A Moment of Clarity, Robert and Gerda

FFO: Radiohead, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai

Animal Choir is special because it’s not too often you hear a genuine masterpiece. Often, when you do, it comes out of absolutely nowhere – and that’s the case with the final record from Her Name Is Calla (a band I hadn’t ever been exposed to before this album, and who have now called it a day). The post-rock visionaries flew very much under my radar until the LP was covered on the Riot Act Podcast (big up) recently, and now I’m kicking myself for not listening to them sooner.

The first thing I picked up on when I first listened to Animal Choir was how well-crafted it is in terms of flow and structure. As clichéd as it sounds, it genuinely feels like a journey, tirelessly leading the listener from one overwhelming sensation to another. Truly, it’s a record which needs to be heard in full to be appreciated properly. At the same time, though, there are countless moments that you could pick out which are just as powerful on their own: the intense, catchy, violin-led ending of ‘The Dead Rift’; the hugely immersive, Radiohead-inspired atmosphere of ‘Kaleidoscoping’; the gorgeous, floating vocal lines of the album’s best track, ‘Robert and Gerda’. Each song immerses and astounds in its very own way.

Musically, the album is a smorgasbord of intriguing influences and ideas put to use in a manner that comes across as wholly original and strikingly unique. Whilst - as aforementioned - Radiohead is the artist most easy to cite as an inspiration, there are also noticeable elements of folk in the record's instrumental choices, hulking post-metal on tracks like 'Swan' and 'Bleach', and even the outer reaches of ambient and post-rock on 'Pyre' and 'Deer Trapping'. Everything comes together to add to the distinctive aura of Animal Choir, and the listener is left feeling at once dwarfed by it and enveloped in its world. There's imagery scattered across the canvas of the record so rich that it feels like it stimulates all five senses, and a powerful use of dynamics which goes from one extreme to the other in the most effective way possible.  

It frustrates me that I’d never heard of Her Name Is Calla before this album was released, and now they’ve broken up. It’s a bittersweet way to discover such an outstanding piece of art, but it’s made all the more poignant for it. Animal Choir truly feels like the best swan song any artist could wish for, and – to be fair – you might as well call it a day after dropping a record this good. I cannot recommend it enough.

SeeYouSpaceCowboy - Songs for the Firing Squad

8.5/10

Best Tracks: I Am A Trans-Continental Railroad, Please Run A Train On Me, Stop Calling Us Screamo, Pep Talk From A Nihilist

FFO: Botch, Converge, Fear Before

I didn’t initially review this album upon its release because technically it’s a compilation, but having not stopping listening to it since, there’s no way I can go any longer without talking about Songs for the Firing Squad. California metal/mathcore/screamo (sorry) outfit SeeYouSpaceCowboy have garnered a lot of hype with these songs, and it’s easy to see why.

This record has absolutely everything I love most in music: dissonant, chaotic guitars; left-field structural shifts; manic, wild, screaming vocals; insanely brutal breakdowns; even lengthy, tongue-in-cheek song titles (how good is ‘Self Help Specialist Ends Own Life’?). The breakneck pace of this maelstrom is absolutely intoxicating, with the band managing to fit countless ideas and sudden changes into each sub-two-minute track (and thirteen songs into an eighteen-minute long record). The fourth track, 'I Am A Trans-Continental Railroad...', for example, starts off with violent, sporadic bursts of angsty dissonance and ends in a strange, off-kilter disco-beat breakdown. Even though this drastic switch takes place in just one minute and eleven seconds, the pacing seems to make sense (in a fairly deranged way). 

Whilst this album doesn't necessarily break any new ground within its genre, it doesn't really need to. It’s easy to make comparisons here to Jane Doe-era Converge, early mathcore bands such as Botch and The Dillinger Escape Plan, and even the best of early 2000s post-hardcore acts like Fear Before. Songs For The Firing Squad wears its influences on it’s sleeve in bold colours, but at the same time doesn’t feel particularly derivative - primarily because they explore so many different avenues, and never stay still in one place for too long. 

If you like your music fast, aggressive, and full of personality, you'll do no better this year than SeeYouSpaceCowboy. With their debut LP proper in the works and scheduled for release later in 2019, Songs for the Firing Squad should act as the first maniacal step on this band's path to infamy.

Green Lung – Woodland Rites

7.5/10

Best Tracks: Woodland Rites, Let The Devil In, May Queen

FFO: Ghost, Black Sabbath, Puppy

Take the huge, classic-sounding, doomy riffs of Black Sabbath, the modern-pop style hooks of a band like Ghost, and a heaping spoonful of stoner rock in the vein of All Them Witches, throw it all in a bubbling cauldron under the light of a full moon, and what do you get? Green Lung’s Woodland Rites.

As a wonderfully occult-driven rock record peppered with huge, sticky choruses, this debut LP from London five-piece Green Lung gives the Puppy album from earlier this year a decent run for its money. Through its themes of witchcraft, satanism, and the rituals that come with them, the record conjures a brilliant sense of atmosphere, helped along by skyscraper riffs and an emphasis on the low-end throughout. The rhythm section seems intent on keeping the listener headbanging for the length of the record, and it pretty much succeeds.

Some might say this album sounds a little too Sabbath-worship heavy for it's own good (even taking the famous "Oh lord yeah!" from 'War Pigs' to kick off the title track). It's true to an extent; Tony Iommi's influence on the riffwork is plain to see, as is Ozzy's on the vocal styling. There are, though, a few things which make it more interesting than all that. John Wright's work on the organ on a song such as 'The Ritual Tree', for instance, helps to make it feel like the record somehow heralds from a time of magic and rampant superstition. Vocalist Tom Templar's effortless grasp on the art of the catchy chorus is one of the primary selling points here, too, and songs like 'Let The Devil In' and 'May Queen' will be stuck in your head for weeks to come.

Woodland Rites is an album which can transcend genre boundaries, in that fans of rock and metal of any sort should be able to find something about it that they enjoy. Green Lung have done well to create as strong a debut as this.

Injury Reserve – Injury Reserve

8/10

Best Tracks: Koruna & Lime, GTFU, What a Year It’s Been

FFO: JPEGMAFIA, BROCKHAMPTON, clipping.

Injury Reserve have often been cited as one of hip-hop’s most unfairly overlooked artists, and rightly so. The experimental trio have been responsible for some of the most exciting releases of the past decade within their genre, with their last two mixtapes in particular (2016’s Floss and 2017’s Drive It Like It’s Stolen) gaining critical acclaim from those on board. Now, on their self-titled debut album, they aim to shake off the label of “underrated” and step into the spotlight.

Injury Reserve continue to break the boundaries of experimental hip-hop here. Some of the instrumentals, most noticeably, are just mind-blowing; opener ‘Koruna & Lime’ has a glitchy beat frankensteined out of clips of random yelps and screams which only starts to make sense once some percussion kicks in, and 'Jailbreak The Tesla''s instrumental appears to be accumulated from the sounds of the vehicle from which it takes its name. This exercise in pushing the envelope, as expected, results in a couple missteps - notably 'Rap Song Tutorial', which is effectively what it says on the tin, going through the elements of a typical track step-by-step in the manner of an instructional video. The song has an interesting idea behind it, but unfortunately the execution makes it feel a little too gimmicky. Still, one dud in thirteen ain't bad.

It's not just the wild experimentation on this record which make it stand out. After the hype of the album's first half dies down a little, songs like 'What a Year It's Been' and 'Three Man Weave' allow the group's lyrical prowess to shine through atop some more simplistic (and even jazz-influenced) production efforts. There are introspective, heartfelt, and emotional moments hidden on these tracks, which one might not expect from a record that also features a song consisting mainly of guest vocalist JPEGMAFIA repeatedly yelling "get the fuck up!".

Injury Reserve's debut self-titled album might well be my favourite hip-hop release of the year thus far. It excels at as many things as it subverts, and is more than likely to be the release which puts the group's name in many more mouths.

Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising

9/10

Best Tracks: Andromeda, Something to Believe, Movies

FFO: Kate Bush, Beach House, ABBA

So here it is: the year’s most surprising release, at least in regard to my personal tastes. Natalie Mering’s third solo LP under the Weyes Blood name, Titanic Rising is simply a fantastic pop record which continues to reward more richly with repeated listens.

From the actual sound of the record to its lyrical themes, such a palpable feeling of nostalgia, longing, and sadness is conjured over the course of these ten tracks that it can often end up feeling like a tidal wave of emotion. Second track 'Andromeda' is a prime example, driven by an acoustic guitar and simplistic percussion but surrounded by strings and near-ethereal effects. When Mering's voice cuts through with lines like "Looking up to the sky for something I may never find" and "Treat me right, I'm still a good man's daughter", it pulls at the heartstrings instantaneously. 'Movies' is the record's centrepiece, a six-minute slow build which uses arpeggiating synths and a chorus of backing vocals to evoke wonderment and deep-seated melancholy at the same time.

The influence of 1970s and early ‘80s pop music here is hugely apparent. In fact, when I first heard it, I described this album as “falling asleep underwater and having a dream about ABBA”, which is a comparison I still stand by. The vocal harmonies all over Titanic Rising are hugely reminiscent of the Swedish pioneers, and on a song like ‘Everyday’, you’d be forgiven for thinking a B-side from Arrival had slipped through the cracks. There are nods to artists like Kate Bush, David Bowie, and The Beach Boys (Pet Sounds in particular) which lend the record a tangible baroque-pop atmosphere, as well as a strong sense of timelessness. Play this to somebody unfamiliar with it, tell them it's a hidden classic of years gone by, and they'll have no reason to disbelieve you other than the outstanding quality of the production.

Titanic Rising may be far from standard fare for MOPE, but it’s easily one of my favourite records of the year. No matter who you are or what you like, I urge you to give it a listen.

The St. Pierre Snake Invasion – Caprice Enchanté

9/10

Best Tracks: Remystery, Casanovacaine, Pierre Brassau

FFO: Mclusky, Jamie Lenman, HECK

The long-awaited second full-length from Bristol noiseniks The St. Pierre Snake Invasion is finally here, and (spoiler alert) it’s worth the wait. 2015's A Hundred Years A Day, their full-length debut, was a brilliantly wild statement of intent, but Caprice Enchanté is something far more involved and richly-textured.

Still, the opening salvo of 'The Safety Word Is Oklahoma', 'Remystery', and 'Braindead' should be enough to signal to any listener that St. Pierre aren't pulling any punches on this album. With strong echoes of equally raucous bands like Mclusky and Future Of The Left (both self-admitted influences on TSPI), the record's most intense moments are arguably its best - from 'Remystery', with its repeating panic chords and outrageously heavy riffage, to 'Pierre Brassau''s snaking, math-rock inspired guitar lines and spasmodic rhythm section. Even some of the more moderately-paced tracks, like 'The Idiot's Guide To Music', still manage to maintain the same chaotic energy through instrumental ideas and production techniques.

I might be a sucker for the most frenetic stuff featured on Caprice Enchanté, but it’s definitely worth mentioning that the more melodic and atmospheric tracks stand out, too. ‘Things to Do in Denbigh When You’re Dead’ and closer ‘I Am the Lonely Tourist’ (which features an excellent melodica section) both showcase vocalist Damien Sayell’s dulcet tones, as well as the band’s ability to build some watertight tone in the midst of chaos. Sayell's lyricism lends the record another dimension, as well; whether he's lashing out at right-wing fearmongering on 'Braindead' ("There's someone in your garden and they've come for your kids") or dropping cryptic one-liners like "I'm a cyst for a heart / I'm a lung in a bucket", his words refuse to shift from centre-stage for one moment.

This album feels like an important moment. With the release of Caprice Enchanté, The St. Pierre Snake Invasion have not only started to truly come into their own as a vital institution of "underground" British rock music, but have bolstered the scene as a whole.