The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
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Another week has passed in the rock'n'roll Game Of Thrones we call Tracks Of The Week, and we're delighted to report that this week's King Of The Seven Kingdoms are Edinburgh's very own rock-funksters High Fade, whose Bone To Pick triumphed after all sorts of fierce yet funky battle shenanigans. So well done to them.
And well done to Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts, and to Taj Farrant, who were late to fall on the battlefield, but not before they smote all the other competitors asunder.
This week, it's a new battle. Ready, aim...
Jerry Cantrell - Afterglow
Offering another glimpse of his forthcoming star-studded new album, I Want Blood (set to feature appearances from members of Metallica, Guns N Roses and Faith No More), Jerry Cantrell’s latest solo single Afterglow sees the Alice In Chains founder cast sombre shadows, his vocal brooding on poetic lines such as “Where you go, ash and cinders form the afterglow”. Meanwhile, pensive melodies cascade and shimmer like flames, swirling in tandem with atmospheric guitar licks, as its accompanying music video - created by award-winning artist Matt Mahurin - drives home the pensive mood with Cantrell singing under a hazy screen of smoke and as surreal silhouettes burn into the ground, bleeding out ashes.
Richie Kotzen - Insomnia
Hand on chin, a sleep-deprived Richie Kotzen broods in a lamp-lit room, his face hued in midnight blue as his vocals, layered in different pitches, seemingly distorted, calling to mind the disquieting feeling of trying to see through the dark as eyes play their eerie tricks and the world around you is not quite as it should seem. Guitars scratch over the surface, completing the nightmarish blend, before we’re swept away from the grunge and gloom with a speedy, oh-so-proggy guitar riff, Kotzen’s nimble fingers flying over the instrument’s neck as he takes us into a tasty funk rock section that would make Prince proud. A surprising, boogie-licious zig-zagger of a song that has us hitting the repeat button just as desperately as Kotzen clearly wants to get some kip.
Joanne Shaw Taylor - Black & Gold
Joanne Shaw Taylor continues her current run of excellent singles, this time in the unlikely shape of a cover of Sam Sparro's 2008 monster hit Black & Gold. Shaw has replaced the brittle electronica of the original with a typically smooth blues'n'soul sound, making it her own without messing with the BPM. "I always loved the desperation of the lyrics and thought it could make a great blues/gospel song if performed differently," says Joanne. You'll hear no arguments from us. She's succeeded.
Dirty Honey - Don't Put Out The Fire
Coming on like a youthful Black Crowes, or a youthful Aerosmith, or a youthful... you get the idea, Don't Put Out The Fire contains enough sass and swagger to silence the 'rock is dead' naysayers for at least a decade. It comes from the fellas' upcoming album Can't Find The Brakes, which is due for release in November, and will, we suspect, propel them further down the inexorable pathway towards more sales and bigger halls.
David Gilmour - Luck And Strange
As the sun rears in the last of its heavy beams, David Gilmour’s new album Luck And Strange hits the mark between summer and autumn, that feeling of transition and a growing coolness in the air. It’s his first full project in nine years, and the Pink Floyd legend has returned with the disposition of someone wanting to let their worries dissipate into the noise of the world around them, relaxed and resolute. Its title track encapsulates this spirit, its soulful, slow-plodding blues rhythm offering a steady backbone to Gilmour’s honey-smooth vocal and quintessential euphoric prog guitar lines. Hurl yourself onto a hammock, and feel yourself melt into this one.
KK'S Priest - The Sinner Rides Again
Grand candle-strewn churches, ethereal maidens, scowling faces, horse-riding goblins - the music video for KK Priest’s new track The Sinner Rides Again is just about as metal as a leather-clad Dio wielding a sword in Holy Diver… aka very metal indeed. Former Judas Priest axe-slinger K.K. Downing serves up steaming hot riffs against regal melodies and a steady head-pounding beat that’ll in no doubt get audiences pumping their fists and chanting ‘hey’. It’s all-out-guns-blazing heavy metal - later, Downing does what he does best with a gnarly guitar solo, and there’s even a fight between the aforementioned magical maiden and some kind of ghoul.
Thundermother - So Close
Thundermother imploded last year, with founding guitarist Filippa N?ssil left on her own as the other three band members left to form The Gems. But now they're back, with N?ssil joined by two new members (frontwoman Linnea Vikstr?m Egg and drummer Joan Massing), with bassist Majsan Lindberg, who departed in 2021, returning to the Thundermother fold. The result of all this in-out-in-out-shake-it-all-about is So Close, a blues-rock colossus that sounds like it might be a hit in the kind of alternative universe where this kind of thing might be a hit.
Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour - You Can't Refuse (ft. Tim Montana)
Tumbling drums, rumbling bass and a whisky-soaked, bellowing vocal come together on this smacking toe-tapper, lifted from Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour’s newest album Friendly Town. Featuring accompaniment from country guitar legend Tim Montana, the track is a playful, noodly golden nugget of blues, with soulful backing vocals, warm organs and light brass filling out the sides. Speaking of the full project, Cropper says, “If your booty is not shaking in the first two bars of this album you’re already dead in a chair.” Consider our booties shook.
