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.

Sadly Beautiful

By Henry Lipput

I usually don’t write about albums that have been made available for pre-order because there are always a bunch of other releases waiting for me to listen to and write about. But I feel it’s a special case with the brilliant new collection Certain Memories (Subjangle) by the UK band Assistant. So I’ve decided to do a quick take on the album with a full review next year after it’s been officially released.

According to the album's Bandcamp page there’s going to be a very limited run of lathe-cut vinyl (50 but as of yesterday morning a quarter had already been purchased) and 125 CDs (Subjangle occasionally does a second run based on demand but I wouldn’t wait for that).

One of my favorite Replacement songs is “Sadly Beautiful” from the All Shook Down album. The song sounds just as you think it would be based on the title. It’s also the feel you get listening to Certain Memories with its songs full of sadness and loneliness. Certain Memories is the first new album by Assistant since their fourth album 2022’s This World Could Be So Much Fun (all four albums have been reissued by Subjangle in double CD sets and you can check them out here). And if you’re asking what the band has been doing since This World Could Be So Much Fun? It’s obvious they’ve been living and dealing with everything that came their way to produce what very much looks like an early entry for one of the best albums of 2025.

The Radio Field is now transmitting at full strength

By Henry Lipput

Back in late 2020 during the second pandemic lockdown in Germany, Lars Schmidt of the band Subertuge began a home recording project that would become The Radio Field. With a little help from his friend Josephine De Mogan on backing vocals and his son Gustav – before his voice changed – adding some high notes, Schmidt had 2022’s The Simple EP (Subjangle). In my review I called the EP a mix of half joyful jangle and half melancholy melodies.

The response for the EP was extremely positive and several of Schmidt’s friends asked if they could become members of a Radio Field band. The result is an all-star lineup that in addition to Schmidt includes Mark Specht (drums and a founding member of Subterfuge), Christoph Scheider (bass and a former member of Klee, Clayton Farlow, Soap, and Soccer), and Philipp Breuer (lead guitar and Pale fame).

The Radio Field’s new single, “The Version feat. Robert Stadlober” (Bandcamp) has actor Stadlober on backing vocals as well as Max von Einem on trombone and trumpet. It’s a horn-driven burst of summer sunshine with the new band sounding as if they’ve been playing together for years.

The Radio Field’s first full-length album Don’ts and Dos will be released on August 25^th on Subjangle/Less Records.

Here's the video for "The Version":

Peter Hall and the meaning of awe

By Henry Lipput

Recently I read an article in the New York Times with the headline “How a Bit of Awe Can Improve Your Health.” In the article writer Hope Reese explains “While many of us associate awe with dynamic, life-changing events, the truth is that awe can be a part of everyday life.”

I know what she’s talking about. Each morning I stop on my walk to work to look at the sunrise and, even with clouds, it's a sight that leaves me awestruck. And I stopped and listened with awe to “Waiting for Nothing” on Peter Hall’s brilliant new mini-album/extended EP About Last Night (Subjangle).

I don’t remember why or how I got to this song, the fifth track on the album, perhaps I didn’t start at the beginning. But I was immediately struck by its gorgeous sound, how the vocal, lyrics, and soaring arrangement came together and how it affected me.

“Waiting for Nothing” is just one of the wonderful songs on About Last Night. For example, “In Plain Sight” was released as a single last September. I wrote about it in this blog at the time and also included it as one of my favorite singles of last year calling it “pop of the highest quality.”

Peter Hall has been releasing music as a solo artist since his There’s Something Wrong with Everyone EP in 2020 and his Light the Stars album was the top of my list in my 2021 year-end review. Each collection is a musical step forward and About Last Night is just another amazing and yes, awesome, gift for us.

Catch the signal The Radio Field is sending

 By Henry Lipput

The Radio Field is the latest project from Lars Schmidt of Subterfuge and “Clover” is the taster single from Simple, a 4-song EP out this Friday (September 30^th) on the Subjangle label.

What does a musician do when he lives in a country that’s experiencing its second lockdown at the end of 2020? Schmidt has said it only takes enough boredom and a musical instrument to create something good. So with the shops closed, he mail ordered a Rickenbacker 12-string and in a couple of days three songs were written. And later, when it was possible, he went to the studio with some friends to record the guitar, drums, and backing vocals.

The result of Schmidt’s back-to-the-roots bedroom band’s efforts is the Simple EP with half of it the joyful jangle of “Clover” and “Years Ago” and another half the melancholy melodies of “The Wait” and “Congratulations” (a cover of a song from Strange Magic, a one-man band from New Mexico).

A word to the wise: Subjangle only manufactures about 125 CDs of any given release and these have been known to sell out within 48 hours (some have already been sold through a pre-order campaign.)