In terms of pure musical enjoyment, music that puts not just a smile to my face, but makes me laugh, rejoice and remember that actually the world isn’t quite as miserable as I thought, there really can be no better thing than a new Army of Moths release.
Of course regular readers should be aware of my love of this band, just in the last 6 months we featured them with a Video of the Week after they released their 2nd album ‘By Word of Moth’, and they slipped into my Album of the Year list too. Although a distinctly Scottish / English line-up, they have had significant Norwegian support thanks to their link with producer André Lund, and Sondre Veland has guested with them on drums - we mentioned him recently with Dobbeltgjenger. Oh and they even flew out to support Major Parkinson in Oslo, back in the happy days and years when people could actually do stuff.
So really they’re really not Non Nordic at all, if that makes any sense.
New track ‘Little Lord Anthony’ is just delightfully brilliant and slightly absurd, all delivered in unashamedly DIY style – big studio budgets are great, but I just want music that makes me grin from ear to ear. With a healthy helping of mock British eccentricity it manages to pack more ideas into 100 seconds than any track I think I’ve heard for years – jaunty melodies, a huge guitar solo, a dark section, a shouty punk section, manic laughter, slightly silly lyrics and even a French Horn. It may have been a Trombone, who knows and who cares.
This is the best musical thing that’s happened to me in 2021, not necessarily because it's the 'best' track (whatever that is), but simply because it's made me pretty much cry with happiness. All in under 2 minutes, and made by 2 people sitting in their front room with a tape recorder and an assortment of unidentified musical instruments and kitchen utensils. And offered us to us free via the internet thingy out of sheer love. That's all pretty fantastic right?