Many bands have blown me away this year, and it’s a tough call to pick just one gem from the treasure chest on offer.
It was particularly hard to look past Bugs and Tired Lion, for instance, who both put out some magnificent music to light up a dismal year.
However, for their songs, for their humour, for being a shining light in a miserable bloody 2020, and for their sheer unadulterated creativity, Cry Club truly nudged ahead of a crowded pack.
Their album God I’m Such A Mess was a triumph, packed to bursting with absolute hammer blows of song – Nine Of Swords, DFTM, One Step, Robert Smith, Obvious… a wave of glittering wonders to swish you away out to sea.
But it’s not just about the music, man. Under the wonderful, demented-fairytale creative direction of Giulia Giannini McGauran, that bonkers French-Revolution-meets-Alice-In-Wonderland design aesthetic jumped, screaming, off every surface it appeared on.
There was no other band this year who not only produced fabulous songs, but who so comprehensively and deeply committed to a visual aesthetic, who wove it so deeply into the way they acted as a band, and who so clearly loved every bloody minute of it.
Their constant presence on the internet has been a joy this year too, lightly doo-lally and full of wit and warmth. Some days, they were exactly the vaccine I needed.
For all these reasons – and for the little it’s worth – Cry Club are my artist of the year.
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