The title track – which lands at track three – crackles with emotion. 2025 is a shitshow. Proof that things can always get worse. Yet somehow, there’s always hope. “I can hear ya,” says Walter Trout. And when the almost hard-rock solo screeches out, it does so like a beacon in the darkness. Simply put: I refuse to believe the world is all bad while people are making music like this.
The irony of Trout opening the record with a song called “Artificial” isn’t lost. There’s nothing fake about the man.
The groove. The playing. The harmonica. Nobody comes close.
The blues has always lent itself to heartbreak, and “Blood On My Pillow” is love gone bad – a tale as old as time – but here the guitar truly does weep. One of the most expressive solos you’ll ever hear sits right at its heart.
The yin and yang of the album comes straight after the title track’s harshness. “Mona Lisa, Smile” is as tender and acoustic a piece of warmth as Trout has ever recorded.
The keys – played by Teddy ‘Zig Zag’ Andreadis – have always been right there alongside Trout’s guitar, and that’s true throughout Sign of the Times. Most of all on “Hurt No More,” where the piano gives everything a light, airy feel that contrasts with the heartbreaking lyrics. Trout says it was inspired by the death of his mentor John Mayall, calling it “my recovery song.”
It’s a mark of his records that the playing is so consistently good you almost take it for granted. And yet, when you mix it with the haunting harmonies of “No Strings Attached,” the effect is genuinely sensational.
One of Trout’s most impressive traits, though, is his hunger. Forget the fact he somehow squeezes out an album a year; it’s the sounds that matter. “I Remember” leans less into blues and more into singer-songwriter territory, something closer to Petty or Springsteen.
Mr. Trout – and yes, he deserves that title, given the reverence he still shows on stage to “Mr. Mayall” – is 74 years old. He’s earned the right to cut loose, and he does exactly that with the playful boogie of “Hightech Woman,” . A bunch of these tunes are co-written with his wife Marie.
The acoustic ramble of “Too Bad” recalls Rory Gallagher unplugging the amp, but the volume roars back on the record’s final and longest track, “Struggle To Believe.” Trout sings, “I’m struggling to find a way to carry on,” yet sounds like he’s never going to stop.
“I can’t tell what’s real anymore,” he declared at the start of the record. Well, how about this, right here. “Sign of the Times” feels like Trout’s state of the union address.
His third album in as many years, it extends the remarkable renaissance that began after his liver transplant. He seems incapable of making a bad record, and as he makes the most of his second chance – maybe more than anyone ever has – this stands as one of his very best.
Rating: 9.5/10
