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Three-quarters of the way through 2017 and about to head up the final straight to the Festive Spill Lists BUT some disappointing new releases in the last three months that I had high hopes of are likely to make my choices that much easier.
Dave (Grohl) has done an incredibly good job of promoting the Foo Fighters‘ new album Concrete and Gold; it’s regularly been on my Facebook feed, they’ve done a BBC Live Lounge session, a tour and even Carpool karaoke but from someone who thought their last offering Sonic Highways was 8 tremendous tunes I think it falls short of the hype.
The best of the selection is (IMHO) https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/1tDM9ElAIOimEPBEnkXqe2 Sunday Rain – Spotify link.
To another band’s offering that I had looked forward to expectantly and a group that has previously had Mr. ‘Nicest man in Rock’ Grohl on drums and also used the vocal talents of Mark Lanegan – [Note to Ed – Gargoyle still remains a firm favourite this year], yes it’s QoTSA – Villains.
As I mentioned elsewhere on The Spill I felt the influence of Mark Ronson hasn’t helped.
Anyway here’s a song that is bearable Feet Don’t Fail Me.
Turning to something a little more positive and Arcade Fire‘s Everything Now – this is the Canadian group’s fifth album. Now I thought their first offering Funeral was something special and the follow-up Neon Bible was also pretty good, things started to wane for me with Suburbs and kind of skipped over Reflektor but this one has one or two worthy tracks and I’ll select the title track.
A distinctive vocal from Andy Hull this band first came to my attention in 2014 with the release of Cope so I had more than a passing interest in Manchester Orchestra’s follow-up A Black Mile to the Surface. With the exception of one song all the titles begin with The and then a single word so I’ll choose the odd one out: Lead SD.
With a little help from my friends at Wiki-lies here’s why the specific reference to Lead SD: The album’s title, as well as much of the imagery presented throughout is in reference to the town of Lead. SD, which is an old gold mining town that is now the site of The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (“DUNE”). DUNE is a leading-edge, international experiment for neutrino science and proton decay studies.
“A Black Mile to the Surface” is specifically a reference to this project taking place a mile underground.
Another band that came to my attention in 2014 was The War on Drugs the album was Lost in a Dream according to Adam Granduciel it was influenced by the likes of Springsteen and Neil Young. From this years offering A Deeper Understanding here’s Holding On.
Black Stone Cherry – Black to Blues – a mini-album of six songs, a re-working of some of the blues classics (Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King) showcasing some great vocals and guitar. Champagne & Reefer is my choice but it could have been any of them.
https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/0KebmOBpkSM12X9uKuY2kI Spotify Link.
Shania Twain – Now – only out on 29th September, yes a new album. It’s 15 years since her last one: Up!. This is similar in vocal tone and it’s definitely Shania’s sound. Not particularly country but then Up! wasn’t either but I do enjoy her mellow voice and for me the pick of the bunch is Soldier.
So what have you all been listening to during the summer?
