It's time to announce the #AlbumWritingClub winners!!
Best Album
First up we're really excited to announce the winner of Best Album. This is my personal choice, my favourite of all of the amazing submissions!
Congratulations Beth Sarah! Fractured is an incredible album exploring a variety of musical styles and yet somehow coming together brilliantly as one complete piece. There's an air of 90s nostalgia that runs through the album mixed with Beth's incredibly powerful vocals and intricate composition. It really is an amazing achievement to have pulled this off in a month and we can't wait to share it with the world!
If you want a glimpse into the amazing world of Beth Sarah sounds like do check out her debut album Let Her Go on Bandcamp here:
Best EP
We've also added a Best EP category again this year..
Huge congratulations to Susy Wall who we're delighted to say will be continuing work on her incredible sounding EP Black Is The Country, Blue Is The Colour to make it a full album that will be released on the label!
The EP was created by taking inspiration from work by local Black Country poets and artists such as Liz Berry, Black Country Type and Pete Donnelly (Black Country Nostalgia). If brilliant storytelling and amazing vocal harmonies are your thing this is going to be right up your street!
Listen to Susy's lates single Running To Stand Still here:
Best Single - Public Vote
The 2023 'Best Single - Public Vote' winner received an amazing 15% of the vote (out of over 650 votes!)...
Please join us in congratulating Time Space Repeat with Bossa Never!
Bossa Never is a strong, atmospheric, proggy tune with indie rock vibes and a super catchy refrain! Here's what Time Space Repeat had to say about the full album, consequence.
Mostly half-improvised due to the time constraints, it’s a mix of post-rock guitars, shoegaze swoon and whatever mad ideas for synth instruments popped into my head...
Pretty much a perfect description - more to come on the album in the future! Bossa Never will be released on the label as part of this years #LALSummerSingles series.
Check out Time Space Repeat's last album Oneironaut here:
One To Watch
I've also awarded all of the people who made my personal shortlist with a One To Watch Award. Congratulations The Quivering Palm, Big Greyman, Voodoo Rays, Stenpils, Hellwaddler, The MAW Experiment, J Peck and Carola Baer - you now officially have an Award Winning album or EP!
We're really looking forward to following the journey of these amazing pieces of work and wish you all every success!
Judges Choice
Finally, once again this year we invited a small select group of people who work within and support the independent music industry to listen to all of the albums and pick their favourites!
Congratulations to James Kevin Plant, Marzihu, Holman Tait, Aye Nevo and Paper Cowboys who all win our Judges Choice Award. You all now have Award Winning Albums and EPs!
All 36 entries were excellent, it's been amazing fun listening to the Albums and EPs and I can't wait to see what everyone does next! With so many entries not everyone can win, but trust me when I say there wasn't a bad album out there - it all comes down to personal taste.
#AlbumWritingClub will be back next year... we'd be mad not to keep doing it! The community aspect is fantastic and the quality of music is outstanding. Well done and thank you to EVERYONE who took on the challenge. You ROCK!