The Italian Flag

Honestly great. Feels like 80s post punk mixed with early shoe gaze. A place could be reserved for it on Da List.

The Italian Flag was a very interesting pick. It's indie/alt and takes its sound from similar bands around the late 80s-early 90s (primarily Sonic Youth but there's Dino Jr., 10,000 Maniacs, MBV) as well as Wire, and I think this variety is the reason why it holds up so well because it's a 69 minute album.

Prolapse (why on Earth would you name your band that?) have a very contrasting sound. There's a male vocalist with a very thick and rough Glaswegian accent but also a female vocalist with a soft and sweet singing voice; there's noisy and experimental stuff but also soft pop and dreamy stuff; there's anxious lyrics and there's calming lyrics. I think this is it's strength, it never sticks on one sound too long for it to get boring while still having a decent album flow.

Probably the poppiest song on the album (Autocade) seems to be hated by the lead male vocalist, and I think this might be key to why it has the sound it has, it seems like each member brings their own interests to the album, and it makes for an enjoyable listen.

Should it be in the main list: You could make a strong case for it. I can think of many other alt rock albums I would replace this with in the main list

Top 3 songs: Deanshanger, Autocade, Flat Velocity Curve

I enjoyed this one, except for the last track.

not enough talk in the gay community about anal prolapse

With a name like that I guess they were trying to remain obscure?
This was absolutely brilliant from beginning to end.

Get a better name, and they would get more radio play - the music absolutely deserves it, but it'd be a brave dj who mentioned them on daytime mainstream radio!

Kind of music I probably would have loved at the time. Takes a lot more from bands the other side of the pond at this time (Slint, Sonic Youth) than their Britpop brethren, while also sounding a bit like Mogwai or Arab Strap. Desolate and dispondent in the best possible ways.

2.5

Never heard of these guys before and as soon as the vocals hit I knew I was going to love this. Thank you to the submitter I’m going to play this a lot this year.

This surprised me. With a name like that, I was bracing for some kind of abrasive punk, and instead it was a really cool art rock kind of sound. Making some really cool moves in the production, definitely going to be spinning this one up again.