The Music Spectrum 2004 Year-End Lists: English RockThe CDs That Didn’t Get Reviewed This Year

You can find the best-of year-end lists in most music publications. Rather than rehashing what was already reviewed and discussed this year, Music Spectrum is going deep into the stacks of CDs received this year to take a look at some of the ones that got missed.

Hollow Horse is alone in this list in the horn pop subset of English Rock, coming in the line of XTC, Glenn Tilbrook/Squeez, Crowded House, and the Housemartins. Like Tilbrook’s ability to add charm to pop songs through jazz hooks, slight twang, or keyboard dance rhythms, Hollow Horse on Five Year Diary keep coming at their English Rock from many different directions. Never many doors down from the Beatles, yet the delivery trucks show up regularly with newly imported sounds. Standout tracks include: “Prayer to Saint Jude”—a flying, two-minute pop prayer; “Fake”—snare beat with the snare turned off gives it a tribal-like jazz beat; “Ghost”—one of those songs that begin with driving drums and build from the mists like many U2 songs; and of course, “One Day”—an opening track of horns and ballad-like vocal lines for the verses with a chorus at home with the Housemartins or even with Joe Jackson. Five Year Diary is released by Tortoise Records.

Jump down now over a few subsets to come to the quintessential English Rock subset ton find the American band, Jump turning out bright, moody, backbeat rock with symphonic overtones. Formerly known as Jump, Little Children, I first heard this band catch the attention of San Francisco radio’s KFOG for a battle of the bands segment one evening, putting new songs up against a contender, the winner to continue to be a part of the station’s playlist. I don’t remember whether Jump (Little Children) won that night, but I heard some great beauty in their string-laced rock. 2004 saw Jump shorten their name and release Between the Dim & the Dark, an aural portrait of rain, love, loss, park benches, coffee shop chance meetings, and waiting at the bus stop. “Rains in Asia” patters on the roof as you watch the story unfold. “Education” finds its way through a broken heart propelled by an acoustic guitar groove which opens up to an electric and harmonica-fueled chorus. Jump lands near Turin Brakes and Dorian Gray for tracks like “Young America,” dance-like beat blended with the symphonic strings of the quintessential English Rock sound. Between the Dim & the Dark is released by Brash Music, in cooperation with EZ Chief! Records.

Add more piano to the song structures to find Keane nearby in the quintessential English Rock sound. Ah, yes, there’s Coldplay and all of the others, but Tim Rice-Oxley’s piano and keyboards buoy Keane among this sea of English Rock bands doing the earnest, symphonic melodies. Coupled with Tom Chaplin’s vocals and Richard Hughes’ drums, Keane takes on the world with that piano-centered sound. Hopes and Fears kicks off with the piano-banging chords of “Somewhere Only We Know.” Bright twinklings come on the pulsating “Bend and Break” with a chorus big enough to fill an opera hall. “Untitled 1” works in dance club beats. Drive down the grey lane as the movie credits roll and “Your Eyes Open” is the soundtrack. Hopes and Fears is released by Interscope.

Featured Year-End English Rock List Title

The atmospheric qualities of the Autumdivers’ self-titled album recalls the Tragically Hip’s Day for Night. With the right blend of guitar wash, electronics, and symphonic hymn-like waves, though, the Autumdivers sound lobbied to be in the quintessential English Rock pack (despite being from Rochester, NY). Led by Gregory Paul, with Aaron Boucher on bass and Tony Wensel on bass, the group acts like a jazz combo, blending and bending melodies, punctuating each other’s contributions with their own additions. A track like “Amend” moves forward down a straightaway, but then “Disappearing Act” reels and spirals. “Walkaway” could be just another Coldplay-attempt if it weren’t for Aaron Boucher’s drums—tight sounding snare, the right amount of syncopated fills, and toms on the break. That drum sound captured on the album really brings the jazz combo feel forward, especially on “Turnaround.” Finally, the whole jamming, vamping feel find fertile ground on the album closer, “Star Crossed.” There’s Boucher again, setting a rhythm and pattern on the sleepy beginning, but that same pattern becomes ever more punctuated as the song crescendos, peaks, drops, and allows Paul and Wensel to pick and choose among the sonic fruits. 54*40 closed their album, Fight for Love<, with an extended track, “Journey,” that remains one of my favorite long-playing songs, but Autumdivers really sends you off on your way with “Star Crossed” to live and fight another day, to dream big dreams, and to feel your heart beat out the rich rhythm of life. Autumdivers is released by Online Rock Records.

A year ago, Wet Clay Records sent me their 2003 sampler CD. This small Irish label, I found, was creating some intensely interesting independent English Rock. From the 2003 releases, Woodstar rose most prominently in the UK with Life Sparks. Landing in the same atmospheric sonic area as Autumdivers, Woodstar paints with those broad strokes of keys and symphonics. There’s more dance beats here than the jazz combo vamping of Autumdivers, placing them more towards the Stone Roses who combine the quintessential English Rock sound with dance tracks. “Dumb Punk Song” declares, “I feel like I’m the last sad verse of a dumb punk song.” There’s little punk here, except for the way Woodstar rattles the edges of the symphonic pop song box. “Cold, Cold Heart” has a dark underbelly akin to Muse’s sound. The wall of guitars on “Can’t Let Go of Anything” speeds up the general tempo of the album, roaring to life after setting a quieter, mellower stage, like bright lights fully enveloping the once blue-dark stage.

Wet Clay Records label mate La Rocca crackles even more on their version of quintessential English Rock sound. Their 4-track CD Sing Song Sung begins with “Built a Gun,” a pop song dream, with Nick Haworth’s keys hinting at how this band goes beyond guitar strumming. Probably mainly coming to mind due to their song, “One Gun,” I also hear 54*40’s punk attitude behind a band rock base. A yelling “Ow!” kicks “Sing Song Sung” from introduction to full-speed ahead makes me hear equal parts Replacements and Athlete, Garage Rock meets English Rock. And sure enough, on “Hiding Away,” over chiming, strumming shimmer guitar, this could be Paul Westerberg holding court. Sing Song Sung was released in 2003, and I’m ready to hear more from La Rocca and Wet Clay Records.

Thanks to all of the labels for the review copies.