Steve Earle is one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of his generation, a worthy heir to Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, his two musical mentors. Earle has distinguished himself as a master storyteller, and his songs have been recorded by a vast array of artists, including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, the Pretenders, and more. This is the best I’ve heard from Steve Earle in a long while. It’s a tragedy that Justin Townes Earle is gone and such a terrible loss for his family. You sense the loss but even more so love from father to son. The songs have an earthier tone and a softer touch with an appealing palette of country, blues and bluegrass. It all seems to work and IMO presents Steve at his best. It reminds me of some favourite earlier records, “I Feel Alright” & “Train a Comin”.
Steve Earle – Guitar, Mandolin, Octave Mandolin, Harmonica and Vocal Chris Masterson – Guitar, Mandolin, 1 Finger Piano and Vocal Eleanor Whitmore – Fiddle, Mandolin, Organ and Vocal Ricky Ray Jackson – Pedal Steel Guitar, Dobro and Vocal Jeff Hill – Acoustic and Electric Bass, Cello and Vocal Brad Pemberton – Drums, Percussion, and Vocal
Arny Margret prepares for the release of her debut album, ‘they only talk about the weather’, with her beautiful new single of the same name. With poetic proficiency and a knack for composing melodies that bury themselves deep into the subconscious, Arny writes of loneliness and existentialism with stark relatability.
Taken from new album ‘they only talk about the weather’ out on October 21st
Babehoven have shared the final single from “Light Moving Time”. “Often” is a stunning and reflective tune on grief. If you’ve seen the band live, you know the sheer power of this song. Watch the video by Kevin Prince and read a statement from songwriter Maya Bon below.
“‘Often’ is a song about grief, about holding love for a person I’ve lost, about trying to let go and find new paths for myself. This song changed my life when I wrote it and has provided clarity for me in times of chaos. I hope that, through sharing it, others will find in it comfort and clarity, too.”
Each single showcases Maya Bon’s multi-faceted song writing and her lush instrumentals along with producer/bandmate Kevin Albert. “Often” is a salve for sour times, something that Bon and Albert created a lot of on last year’s “Nastavi, Calliope” EP.”
“a spacious acoustic ballad veering from the woozy alt-country and upbeat folk-rock previewed on ‘I’m on Your Team’ and ‘Stand It.'” —FLOOD Magazine
“There are often just muted guitar strings and a singular high synth to guide you through the sorrow of this song. The resolution it reaches is half-hearted, the kind of forgiveness where you have to make peace with it because you know it will happen again, with Bon singing, “Now this isn’t so bad / I’m not hurting like I was hurting for some years.” —Paste Magazine
Babehoven’s debut album ‘Light Moving Time’ available everywhere on October 28th, 2022 on Double Double Whammy
In 2019, Big Scary‘s Tom Iansek and Jo Syme asked themselves one big question. It had been a few years since their last album. Both had busied themselves with new projects and record labels. “It is the music made by me and you,” Lansek reportedly said.
As a band Big Scary has looked and sounded like many different things over the years. “Me and You”, their second album in 18 months, affirms the strength of its core. This dynamic collaboration between two friends, collaborators, and expert songwriters. Melbourne’s Tom Iansek and Joanna Syme have released multiple EPs and five studio albums as Big Scary since forming in 2006. They’ve accrued a number of awards as well as winning the Australian Music Prize in 2014 for their second album, “Not Art”. Tom and Joanna hosted Australian Music Is Bloody Great this week to reflect upon their artistic contemporaries and their work as well as share a slice of their fifth studio album “Me and You”.
Unlike last year’s Daisy, Big Scary’s fifth record feels gentle. The guitars are largely acoustic, a lot of the synths from last year’s album are traded for grand piano, and the melodies are a little less direct and somewhat more ethereal.
It’s in this setting that Iansek and Syme’s songwriting nous is laid bare. With no big guitars or sonic sidesteps to hide behind, the songs must be strong. And they are, without exception.
The comparatively upbeat ‘Goodbye Earle Street’ is lovely, but no more so than the hypnotic ‘Firefly’. Vaguely jazzy ballad ‘Real Love’ might sound sunnier, but is no less emotionally affecting than beautiful, somewhat brusque closer ‘You Won’t Always’.
This is to say, Big Scary’s new album has no real lowlights. Its ten tracks are somewhat varied in their tone, but consistent in their quality. It’s one thing to show the breadth of your musical proclivities, as Big Scary have across their five albums thus far. It’s another thing altogether to illustrate the depth with which they can interrogate them.
If Big Scary is “the music made by me and you”, then “Me and You”is proof that Big Scary have a lot to offer. To music, to us, and to themselves.
To tie in with the 40th anniversary of the multi-platinum selling album, we present ‘Too-Rye-Ay, as it should have sounded’.
Kevin Rowland was never happy with the final mix of the album, despite its huge commercial success. So with Helen O’Hara, and Pete Schwier they decided to mix it again.
In recent interviews Kevin has stated…“The songs and performances are great, but I always felt the mixes could be better. It’s my most successful album, but it doesn’t sound as good as the others”
“This is the director’s cut and it’s how it should have sounded…”
The album’s cover has also been re-modelled, using the preferred image from the “Come OnEileen” single sleeve.
There are two retail versions of this reissue. A 3CD edition is housed in an A5 hardcover book set with a 12-page booklet including new interviews and liner notes, rare archive photos and memorabilia. CD 1 is the ‘as it should have sounded’ version of the album, CD 2 features B-sides, rarities and three previously unreleased outtakes, while the final disc offers 16 tracks from the live shows at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre, in October 1982. Other tracks include the signature single, “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile),” as well as fan favourites such as “Let’s Make This Precious,” “Plan B,” and “Liars A to E.”
The black vinyl edition offers just the album (‘as it should have sounded’). There is a 4LP version that is D2C only but it costs £140 (along with a coloured vinyl pressing).
“Too-Rye-Ay as it should have sounded” is released on 14th October 2022.
Formed by Parker Forbes and Cole Shugart, Nashville based rock band, The Criticals, bust out rock songs as tight as the crack of a whip. Their EPs ‘Mimosa Hygiene’ & ‘Sour Grapes’ set The Criticals apart from other traditional rock outfits with a seamless and deliberate sound listeners can’t help but tap their feet to. Check out The Criticals on Audiotree Live!
Alvvays return with a classic and charming indie-pop song that explodes into life with perfect timing. The Toronto band’s new album “Blue Rev” arrives on October 7th. The Canadians’ third album is still identifiably Alvvays, but the hooks here are sweeter, the instrumentation brighter, the energy more palpable, Since releasing their self-titled debut album eight years ago, Toronto’s Alvvays have been tweaking and perfecting their formula of sweet, delectable indie-pop through second album ‘Antisocialites’ (2017) and countless lauded live shows.
‘Blue Rev’ is still identifiably Alvvays, but the hooks here are sweeter, the instrumentation brighter, the energy more palpable. Opening track ‘Pharmacist’ serves as the first – and most perfectly formed – example of this. While the track comes in a distinctly Alvvays-shaped package, Alec O’Hanley’s guitars swirl with more vengeance and energy than before, while Molly Rankin’s vocals have a newfound clarity as she sings of “getting out of neutral” and being on a “new track.” As if to emphasise these exciting new beginnings, the track then closes with an extravagant, ripping guitar solo.
Here’s a second early taste of Alvvays’ long-awaited third album, “Blue Rev”. “Easy on Your Own?” is a post-breakup anthem, with a soaring chorus and roaring guitars.
Rankin frequently stretches herself lyrically and vocally across ‘Blue Rev’, finding new energies and themes to welcome into the Alvvays universe. On the romantically confused highlight ‘Velveteen’, she ends the track with a stunning, piercing vocal turn that bursts out emphatically. As well as ‘Blue Rev’ being more musically confident, Rankin’s lyrics also prove funnier and more witty than ever before. On standout ‘Very Online Guy’, she takes shots at an unnamed subject who “types his cool replies” and is “only one filter away” over the album’s most lo-fi production.
Without digging deeper though, ‘Blue Rev’ is 14 songs of what Alvvays do so very well: layers of jangly guitars hit all the right notes and are backed up by the band’s metronomic rhythm section, featuring new members – drummer Sheridan Riley and bassist Abbey Blackwell – for this album. ‘After The Earthquake’ is a delectable, melodic indie-pop gem, with another highlight, ‘Pomeranian Spinster’, a scuzzy punk gem.
The writing and recording of ‘Blue Rev’ was disrupted and delayed when Rankin’s demos were burgled from her house and the band’s gear nearly flooded inside two days, but – as has become the norm with this band – patience proved a virtue and ‘Blue Rev’ stands as an ode to continuing to evolve despite obstacles, slowly honing and tweaking your craft, and keeping on moving. It’s another total delight from the Canadians.
The label accidentally let slip about this a while back, but now it’s official. Paul Weller’s ‘Will of the People’ is a 3CD or 3LP rarities collection spanning the years 2002-2021. The collection follows up his 2003 “Fly On The Wall” rarities collection with “Will of the People”, a similar mix of non-album rarities which takes in an array of B-sides, tracks from singles, remixes and live recordings. From covers to remixes, “Will Of The People” crosses genres. Featuring tracks such as Paul’s cover of The Beatles‘‘Birthday’, released to celebrate Macca’s 70th, and the disco-ball banger remix of ‘Cosmic Fringes’ by the Pet Shop Boys.
Also now available: The “Whoosh” EP is available to stream across all digital platforms. This features four unreleased tracks including a demo of a track Paul wrote with Noel Gallagher for The Monkees last album.
The period for this set spans 2002-2021 and was compiled by Weller himself. Paul also contributes track-by-track sleeve notes and there’s additional commentary by broadcaster John Wilson.
Will of the People” will be released on 28th October 2022, via UMC.
New music from H.C. McEntire Today, hear the new single “Soft Crook,” accompanied by a DIY music video McEntire filmed herself.
“‘Soft Crook’ was an exercise in vulnerability and trust,” says McEntire. “At its narrative core, the lyrics expose my struggle with depression through an unfiltered lens—calling it what it is, shaking hands with it, unapologetically honouring the power of its grip. It’s a mysterious and unpredictable companion that can make walking this world feel like slogging through unforgiving fields of mud.”
The Flaming Lips have now announced the 20th anniversary box set editions of their great 2002 album, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”. The 100-track 6-CD set is out November 25th and the 56-track 5-LP vinyl set will be out spring 2023. The American band’s 10th studio outing, “Yoshimi Battles the PinkRobots” was their first since 1999’s breakthrough album “The Soft Bulletin” and reached number 13 in the UK album chart. It earned widespread critical acclaim for its electronic creativity and meshing of ideas and styles.
Additionally, The Flaming Lips have announced two special “Yoshimi” shows where they’ll play the album in full at London’s Eventim Apollo on April 28th and Washington, DC’s The Anthem on May 25th.
Both the vinyl and CD box sets include the original album remastered plus rare b-sides and other non-LP songs (including Japan-only bonus tracks), and radio sessions. Those include a long-requested instrumental version of “Do You Realize?,” B-side “Thank You Jack White (For the Fiber-Optic Jesus YouGave Me),” covers of Radiohead’s “Knives Out” and Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” and lots more.
The CD box also includes the “Fight Test” and “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell” EPs as well as two live albums: Paradise Lounge, Boston, October 27th 2002 and The Forum, London, UK, January 22nd, 2003.
The Flaming Lips say that everything that’s on the CD set will also make its way to vinyl, separately, in 2023. “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” will be released as a 6CD set on 25 November 2022, via Warner Records. The vinyl follows on 14th April 2023.
