A Second Look, A Second Listen

By Henry Lipput

Certain Memories (Subjangle) by the UK band Assistant is their first album since The World Could Be So Much Fun in 2022 (there were three albums before that one all of which are also available from Subjangle).

The band for Certain Memories is made up of three members who have been onboard for all four albums: Jonathan Shipley (vocals and guitars), Peter Simmons (vocals and guitars), and Anne Sophie-Marsh (keyboards and vocals). Together this threesome makes a lovely, delicate, jangly sound that belies the darkness of some of the lyrics. It’s best described as a small group of friends recording in a small room making sure they don’t bother the elderly couple in the bedsit next door (except for the burst of fuzz guitar at the end of “My Phone Began To Ring”).

Certain Memories isn’t really a concept album but the major themes are the illness and death of a parent (Shipley’s mother) and how one gets through it. The album begins with “My Phone Began To Ring” with the lyrics relating a diagnosis no one wants to hear: “They said you couldn’t treat it with anything/That’s just life, that’s just death.”

“Song For Jill” fits in between “My Phone Began To Ring” and the following song “Jill Is Fading.” After a stint in the hospital, Shipley tells his mother “Mum, I know you’re on the mend/I hope you’re feeling better.” But on “Jill Is Fading” the joy of Shipley's recent nuptials knocks heads with the death of his mother: “This was supposed to be our year/And she’s fading, there’s no explaining/it’s amazing, Jill is fading/And the pain is appalling/No amount of warning/Can prepare.” Helen McCookerybook, a friend of the band, provides vocals and plays melodica to, as the album notes say, “lend warmth and joy to a devastating topic.” (The mix on the Certain Memories is by McCookerybook and another mix of the song by Tom O’Leary, another friend of the band, is available on the Assistant Bandcamp page.)

Sophie-Marsh takes the lead on three songs that are dotted throughout the album: “Overwhelming,” “Before And After You,” and “Tread.” “Before And After You” has an acoustic guitar, a treated French vocal, and a beat that recalls Massive Attack. “Tread” may be about someone missing in her life, another tenant in her building, or a ghostly visitor who leaves “A print in the dust/At the edge of my mirror.”

But it’s “Overwhelming” that provides a connection to the rest of the album as it’s a different take on a partner’s loss and their attempt to get through the day, day by day. Sophie-Marsh sings most of the lyrics but Shipley joins in for “I don’t know what I’m going to do/But I’m glad I have you.”

Simmons sings “Raking Leaves” about the joys (and perhaps boredom and frustration) of gardening and seasonal duties. “I’ve been raking leaves/Ever since November/Just raking leaves/Goes on forever.” But when he sings “I don’t know what I’m doing it for/Is it just a metaphor/Or just a chore” it’s hard not to think of the line from “My Phone Began To Ring:” “You get so sick of tests and trials/When no one says anything good.”

“I’m So Much Better” is in the middle of the album but might have fit better to close it as the song provides a positive look at where Shipley might be as time goes on. Dreaming of an earlier time in his life, “at the edge of waking up/I felt the earth beneath/I had to smile and stick around a while.” Throughout the song he repeats the line “Won’t you come and hang around with me?” which can be seen as an invitation to his family but also to the listener.

Why is this post called A Second Look, A Second Listen? A few days after Certain Memories was announced back in December with a release date of January  (and as with most Subjangle releases the entire track listing was available) I wrote a short appreciation of the album (called Sadly Beautiful after the Replacements song) and said it was “an early entry for one of the best albums of 2025.” Well here it is April 2025 and as far as I’m concerned it is officially one of the best albums of 2025.