Bobby Would "Baby" (Low Company)

Yesterday's more-exhaustive-than-normal favourite records of the year post is effectively rendered null and void because I forgot about one of the real heart-stealers of 2019: Bobby Would's "Baby" lp (Low Company). I know it's pathetic since not many folks read blogs by spirited amateurs like Not Unloved anymore but I do feel a sense of guilt over its omission so this post should be seen as an attempt to make amends. Bobby Would's deceptively urgent home-brewed exotica really gets under the skin the more you listen. Lying zonked-out somewhere in the overlap between the likes of Dirty Beaches, Ela Orleans, Index/The Bachs reverb-heavy garage pysch and the skewed end of 80s New Zealand pop, "Baby" has the makings of a true cult classic, ripe for being cyclically lost then found every few years. It's exactly the kind of record that was made to be happened upon by the inquisitive when rifling through a raft of mysterious-looking discs in some off-the-beaten-path second-hand record shop. Listening to it as I type, "Vicious" may be the only song I bought in 2019 to which one could conceivably jive - sweet! Bobby Would is Robert P. from weirdo punk group Heavy Metal. I like Heavy Metal but I love Bobby Would...you will, too, if you don't already!