RANDALL KING – INTO THE NEON (2024)
“Mama always said you can’t find love in a bar”. That’s the very first line on “Into The Neon”. And yet, these country stars always do, don’t they?
Randall King has a phenomenal voice. Like he was born to play Country music. The songs are exactly what you want they want them to be too. “Somewhere Over Us” drives to forget her, others like the beautiful “One You’re Waiting On” has driven to a bar to find her, and the title track is looking to escape something, anything. But mostly this is just fun. And lots of it.
“Baby’s In Boots” mentions “King George Jones” but settles in for a good time, and the glorious two-stepping “Tonk Till I Die” makes its views plain as can be.
This is country that loves being country. “Hard To Be Humble” knows she’s out of his league, “Right Things Right” is as working class as it gets, and a bit of a tear-jerker too, and “I Don’t Whiskey Anymore” realises the consequences of the partying.
And as he’s co-written this one, you imagine that it’s coming from a proper place of experience.
This second record sees King pour himself into it headlong: “We’re moving into the neon era of country music. The pendulum is swinging, and you’re watching it happen” he said. “Now I just hope people get their mind blown.”
He’s as well placed as anyone to make it happen.
Rating 8.5/10
THE SURVIVAL CODE – WHISPERS OF WOE (2024)
There is no preamble to “Whispers Of Woe”. Instead “The Heart Will Bleed” is straight into it. And “it” is the sort of huge-sounding rock that Biffy thought they’d got cornered. All angular rhythms, interesting leads, and Gary McGuinness’ voice. High pitched and unlike everyone else.
There’s something else about McGuinness. He is (in the studio at least) The Survival Code. This means that the soundscape of “Never You Existed” and the likes are his vision.
Work like “For Right, Or Wrong, For Better, Or Worse” crackles with ideas, bristles with creativity, and for all that “We’re Just Fooling Ourselves” has touches of Feeder about it, it seems to have a world-weariness at its heart: “I’m struggling to relate to myself” sings McGuinness here.
The chopping riff of “Sum Of All Our Parts” might have Therapy? glancing across. And this can get heavy when it wants to, listen to “Built To Break”.
A lengthy record too – the CD version – stretches to 16 tracks. The likes of “Choreography And Chaos” exist in the margins, while the energy and pulse of “Digging Your Own Grave” has more than a touch of the Foo Fighters.
“Random Faces” is as riff-filled as this gets, and if the last one “There Has To Be Another Way” is firmly rooted in a late 90s sound, then it is in keeping with the album.
“Whispers Of Woe” navigates the modern world – which let’s be fair is never much fun – with aplomb.
A record that needs listening to. Give it time and it really compels.
Rating 7.5/10
LUCIFER – V (2024)
Lucifer have been doing this for a decade. This fifth album is the latest in a long line of top-class occult stuff.
The band’s main selling point is their superb singer Johanna Platow Andersson, who you can’t help feeling would have been brilliant in any era, but must be upset that it is not the late 70s anymore when the band would surely have been massive.
This record is one of their best. “Fallen Angel”, the dark riffing of “At The Mortuary” – all Sabbath-ish doom with Platlow Andersson’s sweet vocals providing the contrast – or the ominous brilliance of “A Coffin Has No Silver Lining” are all from the very top drawer.
Guitarists Linus Björklund and Martin Nordin cannot be overlooked as their playing is damn near perfect for the vibe of the band, and of course, Lucifer is a vehicle for Nicke Andersson Platow to show everyone just what a wonderful drummer he is for the first time, really, since his days in Entombed.
“Strange Sister” brings with it a real kind of sleaze, and by the time the unsettling “There Is Nothing To Lose But My Life” has left us – it’s the ninth song like all the metal albums used to have – then it does with the thought that if only they had masks and a gimmick like other bands doing this far less well, Lucifer would be an arena band.
Rating 8/10
THE GEMS – PHOENIX (2024)
“Queens stick together” sing The Gems on the first proper song on their debut album. It might have a little more meaning here than normal, given that The Gems formed from the ashes of the superb Thundermother.
“Pheonix” sees three of them, vocalist Guernica Mancini, drummer Emlee Johansson and guitarist/bassist Mona “Demona” Lindgren, well…rise, if you will and my, they are doing it with some aplomb!
It’s far from being Thundermother MK II either. This is a much blusier mix. “Domino” is what blues would sound like if it was played in the Rainbow in 1987 and “Silver Tongue” is a beauty. That it sounds filthy is to its credit.
They can change the pace a little. There’s more of pop rock thing going on with the harmonies of “Undiscovered Paths” and “Ease Your Pain” is a real 80s rock ballad. It does remind everyone what a wonderful voice Mancini has too.
Mostly, though it’s about F.U.N as “P.S.Y.C.H.O” proves. A more metal edge, maybe too as “Like A Phoenix” underlines.
There’s a fantastic amount of skill about work like “Fruits Of My Labour” and there’s a real suspicion that when they do the “watch me now” hook it possesses, they’re announcing themselves.
On “Pheonix”, The Gems really shine bright.
Rating 8.5/10
CHARLES ESTEN – LOVE AIN’T PRETTY (2024)
It’s probably time for a game of “When is a debut album not a debut album, not really” and Exhibit A is this from Charles Esten.
It’s been ten years in the making this thing and he’s been in the Guinness Book Of Records since 2018 for “Most consecutive weeks to release an original digital single by a music act” after delivering 54 original songs once a week for 54 straight weeks. Ad in his 160 appearances at the Grand Ole Opry, and you might catch my drift?
Esten is in two massive TV shows. Nashville, and Outer Banks, but it sounds like country is his first love. “Love Ain’t Pretty” or “A Little Right Now” prove it. Glorious stuff, and clearly money was no object in terms of personnel. His voice, though, is quite something.
What is impressive is that unlike many of his peers he’s co-written all of these 14 songs. “In A Bar Somewhere” has got “massive hit” written all the way through it, “Candlelight” is a lovely ballad, “Back In My Life Again” is made for line-dancing, and when Eric Pasley turns up for a co-write and a duet on “Down The Road” modern E.St Band are looking on seeing if Bruce can cover it.
Indeed, all of it is so classy that its not a debut record at all. “Somewhere In The Sunshine” is the classic “its her loss anyway” tune, and it ends a record that is an already established artist making a hell of a statement.
Rating 8.5/10
RILEY’S L.A GUNS – THE DARK HORSE (2024)
We sadly lost Steve Riley in October 2023. As such its hard to listen to “The Dark Horse” without thinking about that and viewing it through that lens.
But like their first album, this second one is a sleazy dive into what made LA Guns (of all its varieties) so beloved.
They were the second band I ever saw live. Riley was the drummer the night they were the direct support to Skid Row on a three-band bill including Love/Hate in 1991.
His drums anchor down the opener “Overdrive” too, and the riffing. My goodness. But the real skill of “The Dark Horse” is that it is not some trad, dated nonsense. Instead, “Rewind” has a darker more modern feel.
The title track goes racing off in search of trouble, and finds it too, and right in the middle is the type of ballad you imagine almost has to be there. “Sweet Summer Girl (Florida)” has Enuff Z Nuff trippy vibes, and it’s a slice of summer cool.
Mostly it finds a glam groove, as on “It’s the World” while “Down Day Drag” was surely designed to play live with denim-clad fists in the air thing, while there’s an added poignancy to the Black Crowes-ish “While I’m Away” which has them on the road missing home.
Hopefully everyone involved finds some comfort in the legacy Steve Riley leaves behind. “The Dark Horse” is a thoroughbred, that’s for sure.
Rating 8/10
