24. The 69 Eyes – “West End”

Sometimes this list swims with the rest of the herd and you will find records on here that also reside in the upper echelons of the lists that come from more cerebral publications. However, there are times we go seriously left field as this list is solely based on my own personnel tastes and what I have enjoyed listening to this year. So you won’t find the next record on any other end of year list, not even the National Finnish department of Goth and Glam’s annual round of the Finnish Goth Glam records. That is a real shame as I absolutely loved it. Not sure how I ended up listening to it and never really given The 69 Eyes much of a look in the past (even though they have been going for thirty years and have released thirteen albums). This is bubble gum Goth. The silly playfulness of Cheap Trick combined with mournful atmospherics of The Sisters Of Mercy. Jyrki 69 has the voice that Andrew Eldritch wished he still had, his deep soulful vocals mean that this essentially feels like the record that would have been created if Andrew had replaced Ian Astbury in an Electric era of The Cult. As an example, ‘Cheyanne’ is ‘Fire Woman‘ with the vocals from ‘Lucretia My Reflection’. The whole thing just sat so right with me and had me happily singing along on the ride home. It isn’t going to win nobodies album of the year but is still great great fun.