This Month

!earshot Top 200 of 2021 For January to December 2021
TW	Artist - Title - (Label)
1	TEKE::TEKE Shirushi - (Kill Rock Stars)
2	The Halluci Nation One More Saturday Night - (Radicalized)
3	Chad VanGaalen World's Most Stressed Out Gardener - (Flemish Eye)
4	The Weather Station Ignorance - (Next Door)
5	Kiwi Jr. Cooler Returns - (Kiwi Club)
6	Arlo Parks Collapsed In Sunbeams - (Transgressive)
7	Ada Lea one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden - (Next Door)
8	Sook-Yin Lee & Adam Litovitz jooj two - (Mint)
9	Suuns The Witness - (Secret City)
10	Andy Shauf Wilds - (Arts & Crafts)
*View the full !earshot Top 200*

!earshot Top 200 of 2021

For January to December 2021

The Halluci Nation - One More Saturday Night

Chad VanGaalen - World's Most Stressed Out Gardener

Artist - Title - (Label)

TEKE::TEKE

Shirushi - (Kill Rock Stars)

The Halluci Nation

One More Saturday Night - (Radicalized)

Chad VanGaalen

World's Most Stressed Out Gardener - (Flemish Eye)

The Weather Station

Ignorance - (Next Door)

Kiwi Jr.

Cooler Returns - (Kiwi Club)

Arlo Parks
Collapsed In Sunbeams - (Transgressive)

Ada Lea

one hand on the steering wheel the other sewing a garden - (Next Door)

Sook-Yin Lee & Adam Litovitz

jooj two - (Mint)

Suuns

The Witness - (Secret City)

Andy Shauf

Wilds - (Arts & Crafts)

View the full !earshot Top 200

Specialty Charts #1s

Electronic:

The Halluci Nation - One More Saturday Night - (Radicalized)

Hip Hop:

Cadence Weapon - Parallel World - (Self-Released)

International:

Lakou Mizik and Joseph Ray - Leave The Bones - (Anjunadeep)

Jazz:

Adrian Younge - The American Negro - (Jazz Is Dead)

Loud:

Tunic - Exhaling - (Artoffact)

Folk/Roots/Blues:

Allison Russell - Outside Child - (Fantasy)

Charts

This Week's Charts

For the Week Ending: Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Top 50
#1 knitting - Some Kind of Heaven - (Mint Records)
Hip Hop
#1 Planet Giza - The Sky Is Recording Me: 100 Years Later, Vol. 1 [EP] - (Quiet Note)
International
#1 Lemon Bucket Orkestra - Cuckoo - (Self-Released)
Loud
#1 Fucked Up - Another Day - (Get Better)
Folk/Roots/Blues
#1 Boy Golden - For Eden - (Six Shooter)

Airplay Basics
OK, so you got a CD. What now?

Spiral Beach ( http://www.spiralbeach.com/ )

The Only Really Thing
Sparks ( http://www.sparksmusic.com @sparkstoronto )

Like their contemporaries in Los Campesinos, one of the biggest attributes Toronto band Spiral Beach has going for it is youthfulness. Between the four members I would be surprised if their total ages eclipse 85.

It is what makes them such a great band to see live. They always seem to have too much energy for the stage, and it often spills over into the audience. The problem is, sometimes this energy cannot be channeled into record, when in the studio.

That said, Spiral Beach gives it a good shot with their third full-length, entitled The Only Real Thing. While the songs never do reach the freneticism of their live work, they are engaging and fun to listen to.

My main complaint about the record is that Spiral Beach’s sound can get to be a bit much in long doses, and the 13 tracks found on The Only Real Thing seem a few too many. None of the songs are bad, but I think this record would have been better if they took three or four of the weaker songs off, and then released a follow-up ep.

Hell, they could potentially have made more money that way too.

Aside from that minor complaint, The Only Real Thing is a valiant attempt at harnessing an untamable live show. I don’t know whether it is possible for SpiralBeach to ever record something to make me think otherwise, and this is as good an attempt as they have ever offered.

By Scott Thomson
Dec 6, 2009

Hell, they could potentially have made more money that way too.

Aside from that minor complaint, The Only Real Thing is a valiant attempt at harnessing an untamable live show. I don’t know whether it is possible for Spiral Beach to ever record something to make me think otherwise, and this is as good an attempt as they have ever offered.

By Scott Thomson
Aug 30, 2010

More Reviews By Scott Thomson