I had zero intention of doing a monthly, my main focus for December has been the 30 Day Song Challenge. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been listening to different stuff as of late, and frankly it’s stuff that I can’t pass up talking about.

Getting Killed, Geese

Remember when I promised to do weekly entries talking about what have been ranked some of the best albums of 2025? Yup, that went out the f*cking window. It was a little overly ambitious from me to say I’d be listening to about thirty odd albums across the month on top of doing the daily challenge, going abroad for a few days, and prepping for Christmas all the while. Still, at least I got to listen to this album before I canned the whole thing.

I was actually going to listen to Getting Killed for the November monthly before I pushed it back to now. Since then it’s ended up on even more end-of-year best of lists and recent reports suggest multiple record labels are bidding for Geese. Best to catch them now before they go full-blown mainstream, aye?

Instantly, I can see why this group have earned Thom Yorke’s seal of approval; there’s a hint of his voice in Cameron Winter’s singing style in opener “Trinidad”, whose unhinged chorus also takes me back to “The National Anthem”, and the In Rainbows-esque “Getting Killed”. That’s not to say that Cameron is straight up ripping him and Radiohead at large off though, as hard as it is to shake those parallels off though. When he slips into a croonier mode we get a compelling and unique approach to songs like the easier-sounding but still nervy “Cobra”, and the thumping “Islands of Men” sounds like a song where you feel you need permission to sway to it. Best end coda on the album too by the way, those drums get faster and faster and just before it feels like it’s about to reach a grandiose climax? Stop. Cut off. End of. Done and dusted. On we go.

Let’s talk about lyrics for a sec because “100 Horses” especially has some cutters. ‘For all people stop smiling/Once they get what they’ve been begging for’. Goddamn, if there was ever a song to sum up modern day America…And then the follow up in “Half Real”: ‘I’ve got half a mind…to just pay for the lobotomy…I’ve got no more thinking to do’. It’s a pun, and it’s depressing, beautiful!

There’s a little bit of everything to be found in Getting Killed, different styles all come into play throughout the album but nothing takes centre stage over Geese’s rock backbone. Funk, RnB, jazz, noise, the list goes on. The artistic and experimental style means I don’t think I’ll come back to this one in a hurry. But when I do it will be because I’m in the mood for a band who know exactly what they want, and are comfortable and precise when it comes to choosing and pursuing their sound.

For now, at least. Choose your next label wisely, lads.

Scott Walker, Scott 4

Until this month, the only thing I really knew about Scott Walker was the fact that he produced Pulp’s 2001 album We Love Life, and Jarvis unwittingly took the piss out of him in “Bad Cover Version”. Always double check your lyrics once your producer signs up.

When I hear the term baroque pop, I imagine grandiose affairs with plenty of bells and whistles dominated by strings. And there is some lovely stringwork to be found here but it is a much more stripped back affair that allows me to focus on Mr Walker himself. And what a beautiful singer that man was. Instantly, I can hear the roots of other people’s voices in his own – Nick Cave, Neil Hannon, Jarvis Cocker, David Bowie, all can credit their styles to Scott in some way.

I’ve already sung the praises of “The Old Man’s Back Again” (see here: https://asideglance.com/2025/12/23/thirty-days-of-music-day-twenty-three/) but Scott 4 is the first time he turns in an LP full of originals, and not one of them is a stinker. “The Seventh Seal” and “Angels of Ashes” spring to mind as the best of the bunch along with “…Old Man’s…”. You’d better believe I’ll be talking about the three predecessors down the line but I am also very curious about the avant-garde era Scott was in from the 90s onwards. Which will get my attention first I wonder?

The Kinks, Something Else by the Kinks

Been in a Kinks mood as of late. I got Face to Face for Christmas and followed it up by streaming the followup. It’s the one with “Waterloo Sunset” on it so it’s automatically guaranteed to be a classic, but special mention must go to the middle portion of the LP, from “Harry Rag” to “Love Me Till the Sun Shines”.

Hot take though. I prefer the Jam’s version of “David Watts” over the original as found here.

Kraftwerk, Radio-Activity

We’ve always seemed to have a recurring interest in nuclear stuff and all the dangers it threatens. The Cold War has repeatedly led us to look at the horrors of radioactivity as if it were a knife of Damacles twirling high above our heads, and we stare in amazement. It’s the kind of thing that gave birth to films like The War Game and Threads, TV series like Netflix’s Chernobyl, and to this album from Kraftwerk.

There’s something robotically joyous in the sound of the title track, almost as if the song itself is basking in the radioactive glow. Possibly the most ironic summer track I’ve ever heard. However, that’s not all this album is about as the ‘radio’ part of Radio-Activity comes into play in the middle. If ever there was a subject to me complemented by the genre of electronic music, it would be radios and walkie-talkies and what have you.

Compared to the more jaunty Autobahn, there are many more eerie moments throughout – “Geiger Counter”, “Radioland”, “The Voice of Energy”, Radio Stars” to name a few. At times you feel trapped in a malfunctioning reactor or a glitchy radio, depending on which track you’re listening to. And yet you can’t help but at the very least bop your head to these sounds. How the hell did these guys twist their melons in such a way to realise such musique concrète like using a Geiger counter as an introductory beat into “Radioactivity”?!

It’s a pretty unsettling album overall, but again you can’t bring yourself to look away no matter how much Kraftwerk try to creep you out.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Council Skies

Right now in a post-Live 25 environment, we sit in a sort of limbo. Is there more to come from Oasis or is that it? Will Liam and Noel just pick up where they left off with regards to their solo careers? After all, the latter did apparently have a follow up to Council Skies in the works.

Strangely though, I’ve never truly given Noel the time of day as a solo artist. I’ve always been drawn to Liam’s more aggressive sound, even though the subject matter can tend to be rather try-hard stuff that you’d expect indie wrestlers to walk to the ring to. Noel’s is undoubtedly more refined and rewarding but there’s nothing much that has ever stood out for me, except “Ballad of the Mighty I” and “Holy Mountain”.

But for whatever reason, I remembered “Dead to the World” existed one night and good lord what a beautiful song. One of Noel’s best and most emotional vocal performances by a country mile, and to think it’s a song that includes French accordion! After listening to it on and off on repeat for a few days, I figured I better check out the rest of Council Skies. It had gone in one ear and out the other when I heard it during release but now, I felt compelled to sit back and let it settle.

Unfortunately though, I still don’t have much of an opinion on Council Skies, except that the second half is much better than the first. We have since had it confirmed that it was more or less a breakup album but there’s not much spice on offer from that fact. Actually no, that’s not quite true. There is spice, the context does bolster tracks like “Love Is A Rich Man” (which gets bonus points for its twanginess) and “Think Of A Number”, but it gets spread thin elsewhere. Plus, to my absolute frustration there were a couple of songs which were almost right, but there were choices made with their production that dragged them down – The cheap-sounding synth drums in “Pretty Boy”, the needless effects applied to Noel’s voice in “Open The Door, See What You Find”. Unexpected highlight though? “There She Blows!”. Genuinely did not think I’d be enjoying a tune with a title like that, reference to La’s deep cut “Liberty Ship” aside.

If consumed individually, each song sounds much better, as “Dead to the World” did on the night I chose to listen to it, as would “Easy Now” and “Council Skies”. I guess that’s why half of the tracklist was released as singles.

Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures

For the trip to Amsterdam in December, I did take a book with me and that was a birthday present in the form of 24 Hour Party People: What The Sleeve Notes Never Tell You, written by Tony Wilson. I was under the impression it might be an autobiography of some sort. Instead, it was a novelisation of the 24 Hour Party People film that started Steve Coogan as Wilson. All well and good, the film’s great but it does take some liberties for comedic purposes, and the book does much the same.

Anyway, it put me in the mood to hear some of the Factory workers, first and foremost Joy Division. And do you know, I’ve always felt a bit of discomfort and unease when listening to their songs. Not because of the musicianship, quite the contrary as you would struggle to find a more tight-knit sound on a debut record than on Unknown Pleasures. No, it’s the lyrics. Hindsight is fifty-fifty as Barney, Hooky and co. will tell you when you look back at what Ian Curtis penned in his short career as a singer-songwriter. He was struggling with himself big time and hiding it in plain sight in front of us all. “She’s Lost Control”, “Disorder”, “Day of the Lords”…God, so dystopian yet so inviting. And I’m going to talk about him more in a moment, but credit to Martin Hannett for lending Joy Division their distinctive sound. Not sure I’d have said the same if I’d been born 30-odd years earlier and seen them live, but what the hell.

Oh and if you’re wondering where I sit on the Joy Division vs New Order business. Joy Division. Every time. I know they didn’t get a chance to be wank, but their records are pretty much spotless compared to New Order.  

The Durutti Column, The Return of the Durutti Column

When I read Peter Hook’s books on Joy Division and the Hacienda, one band from the Factory era that I don’t believe was mentioned was the Durutti Column. That changed when I read the 24 Hour Party People book and Vini Rielly’s project got itself a fair bit of coverage, to the point where I felt like a bit of a fake fan having never heard of it before.

The book also gave fair warning that Vini couldn’t sing for shit so that set me up nicely for the fact that all songs but one on this here album are instrumentals. But that actually works in its favour because Manchester’s favourite madman Martin Hannett was on hand to helm the production and you can just tell he was having a blast making this. Just him and Vini having a grand old time moulding those guitar riffs like clay and taking them far and wide through the music desk. Once again, proving he’s a genius and we’re all f*cking wankers. Shame we’ll never see any of his like again.

Every track is worth the price of admission, except maybe “First Aspect of the Same Thing” which is a bit too left-field and avant-garde for this album. But the rest are smashing, especially the two seasonal “Sketch” tunes. It’s only half an hour, you can spare that time for the strangest yet most endearing post-punk album you’ll ever hear, can’t you?

Pastel, Souls in Motion

There’s a bit of a burgeoning shoegaze scene in the UK right now; Yndling, Marseille and these guys who are tipped to be Mancunian royalty and yet are Cool Cymru. Ah, you’ve gotta love the broad spectrums of Britpop.

My introduction to them was when I was waiting to go on the air with my radio show one Saturday morning and discovered we had their single “Dancing On A Pin” in our database. Gave it a listen. Three minutes later, it was in the playlist and ready for broadcast. After that I knew I had to check out the album at some point, doubly so because Britpop Memories on Twitter (one of the few reasons left to visit that godforsaken website) called it their album of the year. High praise, but worthy of it?

A storm in heaven most certainly brews in “Your Day”, a threeway lovechild between Verve, Oasis, and the Roses, allowing it to team with “Dancing On A Pin” for a brilliant one-two punch. Indeed, the vocals toe the line between Richard Ashcroft and Tim Burgess and that’s most apparent on cuts like “Deeper Than Holy”. And being a shoegaze album there’s always room for a trippy guitar riff or five like on “Gone Too Fast”. Best song though would have to be what is the outlier on the album, the one where the guitars take a backseat to piano and allow the talents of the band to truly shine through: “Leave a Light On (Velvet Storm)”. It even has some birdsong on it. It’s also one of the rare times where I don’t think that I’m listening to an unearthed 90s b-side. It feels like I’m listening to a Pastel track.

Noel Gallagher once went on record that Oasis was designed to pick up where the La’s left off. I feel like Pastel are on a mission to pick up where the Verve left off. Does it work? Well the only way to truly confirm that would be to draft in Nick McCabe and get his thoughts on it. I personally think they do a grand job. There’s passion and poise on full display from Pastel across the album, they know full well what they’re doing and they’re doing it well. I just feel guilty for constantly drawing parallels and comparisons to the 90s sound, their influences who they so obviously invoke. I truly hope they go far, hell I want to see these lads live. If this is what they sound like on a record, hearing them live must be mesmerising.

And so concludes 2025. Thanks for reading.

Happy New Year!