Album Of The Day

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM – Vintage Americana Folk Rock With Their New Affecting Album ‘HISTORY BOOKS’

Posted on by JL

Standout longplayers

27 October 2023


Press photo: Kelsey Hunter Ayres

New Jersey‘s rock idols THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM
 launched their 6th LP, named HISTORY BOOKS today.

Order info here.

Rough Trade: “Like so many of the most essential rock bands, The Gaslight Anthem have a rare gift for finding glory in the inescapable pain of being alive. On their new album History Books, the New Jersey-bred four-piece bring their soulful breed of punk to ten thrilling songs exploring everything from mortality to mental illness to the more precarious dimensions of human connection.”

Brian Fallon (vocalist/guitarist): “A lot of this record is questioning all the bad stuff we see in the world and the difficult things we go through in life, and asking how to deal with it. I think the answer is that we’re all in this together and that somehow makes it okay, even when it’s anything but easy. The main message of the album is empathy.”

TUTV: Vintage Americana folk-rock delivered with evocative emotions and
heart-whole ardency. Less firework than before, more reflective musings and
twilight meditations. Bruce Springsteen joined them on the anthemic title track
and left his shadow in the studio afterward, as you can hear on touching ballads
Autumn and Empires, and on aflame rocker Little Fires .

Brian Fallon‘s impassioned voice brings Bright Eyes‘ Conor Oberst
one to mind. Vocally, he’s the song’s life-experienced painter.

Overall History Books is an affecting record that will grow with every listen,
it features multiple rad tunes you want to go back to more than once.

Singles/clips: Little Fires / History Books

– LITTLE FIRES –

– HISTORY BOOKS –

ALBUM

UK/Europe Dates

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM: Instagram – Bio – Discography

ROBBIE ROBERTSON Scored Sepia-Colored Soundtrack For New Scorsese Movie ‘KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON’ Before His Passing Last Summer

Posted on by JL

22 October 2023

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, the new movie directed by the now 80 years
old filmmaker Martin Scorsese was released in American theatres last Friday.

The movie is based on author/journalist Dave Grann‘s 2017 book of the same name.
The film’s plot tells the story of Osage Indian murders in the 1920s after oil was discovered on tribal land. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro are the main actors.

The Band‘s main singer-songwriter-guitarist Robbie Robertson who worked regularly
with Scorsese orchestrated the soundtrack. An almost full instrumental one with Robertson
on guitar, playing beauties from blues, Americana and roots.

He wrote 15 of the 21 pieces.
Unfortunately shortly after, last
August, he passed away, aged 80.

The soundtrack is a n endearing and melancholic opus with
a soothing and mind-relaxing resonance. A cinematic beauty.

LISTEN

TRAILER
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(Image Robbie Robertson cover of his solo debut Lp)

It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll But THE ROLLING STONES Still Like It – New Album ‘HACKNEY DIAMONDS’ Out Now

Posted on by JL

20 October 2023

Today THE ROLLING STONES released their new longplayer HACKNEY DIAMONDS.

NME: Rejoice! The rock legends’ first album of original material in almost two decades is an absolute barnstormer. If ‘Hackney Diamonds’ does round off the most successful career in rock music ever, it wouldn’t be a bad place to leave it. A natural end, but definitely not a normal one.” Full review here. Score: 4/5.

TUTV: After more than 6 decades the immortal Stones still are hungry, still motivated and still confident to prove that they still can come up with aflame fireworks. Enter Hackney Diamonds. A record that mixes vintage Stones stuff. Riff-loaded rippers and blues ballads.

Nothing new, no masterpiece whatsoever, but still heated entertainment with ‘start me up’  thrills and impassioned musings. At 80 Mick Jagger’s voice is outstanding and tandem Ron Wood/Keith Richards take care, as usual, about rad riffs, hot hooks, and lively licks. It’s only rock ‘n’ roll but they still like it and still do it. Score: 3.5/5.

Singles/clips: Angry / Sweet Sounds Of Heaven

– ANGRY – 

– SWEET SOUNDS OF HEAVEN –
Featuring stunning vocals by Lady Gaga

ALBUM


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STONES: Instagram – All Albums
TUTV: Facebook – Instagram – Twitter

80-Year-Old ROGER WATERS Released His Reinvented 50-Year Old PINK FLOYD Classic ‘THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON’ And It Works

Posted on by JL

13 October 2023


Album artwork

Last March THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, one of the best-sold,
most famous, and praised masterpiece albums ever, turned 50.

Bassist and musical genius ROGER WATERS co-founded PINK FLOYD back in 1967,
then led for a short period of time by the late troubled musical genius Syd Barrett (replaced by Dave Gilmour). They released 15 studio LPs.

In 1984 due to the clashing personalities, mostly Waters vs Gilmour, Waters left the band thinking that Pink Floyd was finished anyway. They never worked ever again, and saying they weren’ friends whatsoever is an understatement.

For the occasion of the 50th birthday, Waters re-imagined-worked-invented all songs
of the classic. it’s now about a letter Waters wrote to the assistant to Donald Hall when the poet was in his last days. It’s a subtle change but it’s a substantial one, turning Dark Side of the Moon into a voyage inward, not outward. And it’s out now, receiving mixed reactions from the press.

MOJO: “The new focus on these songs’ lyrics proves deeply powerful, a different and profound kind of high. Consequently, The Dark Side OF The Moon Redux is wholly valid, the unnerving, stirring adjunct Waters was aiming for.” Score: 8/10.

Paste Magazine: “Fans may feel it’s more of a long slog than they remember, with the slower tempo stretching many of the songs beyond their natural length, and the spoken word passages lending a languorous quality that may induce drowsiness.” Score: 4/10.

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason about REDUX.

TUTV: I don’t really like Waters‘ pretty huge ego and his double-edged political views,
but what he did here wasn’t commercial suicide. If you listen to REDUX with open mind, you can’t but conclude that Waters comes up with a totally different angle on Pink Floyd‘s timeless masterpiece and it works, for me that is. It’s an album, with an entertaining singer-songwriter approach and a wholly different musicality. Down to earth songs instead of psychedelic symphonies in space.

Also lyrically we get a (almost totally) different story, as Waters spread his letter he wrote to the assistant to renowned American poet Donald Hall in his last days (he passed away in 2018) all over the record, in near-whispering tone. But at times the story-telling is too long and gets in the way of the music. But overall, REDUX is a bold and successful achievement.

Waters explains why he did this special project.

ALBUM


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ROGER WATERS: Instagram – Website

XUP – Manchester Singer-Songwriter And Bassist LANE Released New Bone-Chilling Album ‘SPIT & LIPSTICK’ Today

Posted on by JL

9 October 2023

Artist: XUP
Who: XUP is the musical act of Lane. It was conceived in the sunny haze of
an All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Minehead, UK. After playing bass for several bands in Manchester and London from 2000-2007, Lane began writing, recording and performing as XUP, stepping up to the mic for the first time, and taking on full artistic duties. In doing so, her own influences began to come through front and centre, and there are hints of Hole, Sonic Youth, Joy Division, The Bad Seeds, The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees in her seven-album-strong back catalogue. Check her Spotify account.

New album: SPIT & LIPSTICK

Lane: Spit & Lipstick is an album about the making of an album! My starting point was
to cover the studio in mood boards and story boards and the Spit & Lipstick album is the
colour of the sunset, seen through an old 70s TV set, spitting static!

The album is a love letter to The Peer Hat bar in Manchester, where I spent much of my downtime in between recording, propping up the bar and watching the songs come to life.
The daily anecdotes and notes about the writing process seeped into the songs. But the songs are also interwoven with a nostalgic retrospective about coming of age by the sea, with a gnarly post-punk, cherry-pop twist! And in capturing that, the album title itself is a nod to the band Hole, one of my big influences growing up.”

TUTV: Let the bass roll. The 4-string guitar is the heroine throughout this 8-track record next to Lane‘s expressive voice. All pieces are sonically related, with their darksome punky funky resonance. Songs about a broken relationship, introspection, depression, loneliness, twins, hope and The Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol electrified with indie dynamics and pithy post-rock turbulence with Goth echoes here and there.

My mind and ears tell me that Spit & Lipstick could be the bone-chilling soundtrack for
a sinister film-noir with Lane as the femme fatale operating in an enigmatic world. No,
this is not an ecstatic record, rather one with sharp edges, one about the dark side of Lane‘s moon. A compelling and arresting record.

Singles/clips: Sunday Girl / Siamese

– SUNDAY GIRL –

– SIAMESE-

STREAM/BUY ALBUM


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XUP: Facebook – Linktree

SUFJAN STEVENS Proves Once More That He Is One Of The Best Songwriters Of The 21st Century With New LP ‘JAVELIN’

Posted on by JL

8 October 2023

Much celebrated, Detroit born singer-songwriter SUFJAN STEVENS
has his new LP out, titled JAVELIN. The 10th longplayer in 24 years.

Pitchfork: “Sufjan’s masterful new album recalls his intimate singer-songwriter days. But it also draws on his entire catalog, his dazzling musicality, and his lifelong inquiries about love and devotion… Throughout his career, Stevens has used the language of love songs to express religious devotion, and vice versa. Across Javelin, he seems intent on understanding and being understood, with the purpose of exposing the common thread between his pet subjects: raising the endless questions that lead us to seek meaning in one another, and rejoicing in the euphoria of sometimes finding it. And if it sounds like he is occasionally singing to us from rock bottom, it’s only so we can witness the steady ascent onward.” Full review here. Score: 8.5/10.

TUTV: Sufjan Stevens is unquestionably one of the greatest songwriters of
the 21st Century, proving it once more on this new wistful record. Acoustic
guitars, banjo, piano, choir chants and his near whispering voice combine
for heart-and-soul contemplations, emotive reveries and moody musings.

Now and then orchestral magnificence add a warm bliss bringing Sigur Rós
to mind, but overall the music is intimate, gentle and humane. Beguiling.

Singles/clips: Will Anybody Ever Love Me / A Running Start

ALBUM


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SS: Instagram – Linktree

JEFF TWEEDY And WILCO Take It Easy On New Emotive Album ‘COUSIN’

Posted on by JL

1 October 2023

Crooner, balladeer, countryman, poet, and seasoned songsmith JEFF TWEEDY
 and his band WILCO released their 13th LP, named COUSIN, in their 31-year career

PITCHFORK: “With help from producer Cate Le Bon, the Chicago band’s 13th album
flickers to life on several songs that hint at the controlled chaos of their bygone experimental era. It’s the first Wilco album in years to activate, in fits and starts, the band’s long-dormant experimental gene; the first one in years where the songwriting feels as guided by the production as vice versa. It’s a reminder that, as much as Wilco have become known for longevity and sturdy perseverance, the group’s creative restlessness remains their calling card.” Score: 7/10.


Press photo

TUTV: Except for upbeat rockers Cousin and Meant To Be songsmith Tweedy
and Wilco take it easy on this new record with laid-back country-pop tunes
and introspective and life-inspired musings.

“It’s pretty sculpted art pop. It’s alien. The songs are alien shapes,” he says. To be
honest, I have no idea what he’s talking about. Anyway, Tweedy and Wilco know
their craft for years now and used it again for this longplayer.

SINGLE

ALBUM


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WILCO: Instagram – Facebook

THE NATIONAL Release New Album ‘LAUGH TRACK’ Only 5 Months After Their Grand Previous One

Posted on by JL

19 September 2023

Last weekend, THE NATIONAL played at their own Homecoming Fest in
their hometown of Cincinnati. At one point, frontman/crooner Matt Berninger
announced a new LP, only 5 months after their grand LP First Two Pages Of Frankenstein.

It’s titled LAUGH TRACK and was already on sale, on a limited edition,
at the festival, with no front cover. Now the longplayer is available
worldwide.

Order info here.

Pitchfork says: “The National extends its predecessor’s subdued mood and
reclusive purview. This band still has a fierce rock record in them. Maybe
next time they’ll make it.”

TUTV: Laugh Track is The National by numbers. Not great, not bad. No idea
why they didn’t release it with First Two Pages Of Frankenstein as a double LP.
Commercial reasons, I guess.

STREAM


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THE NATIONAL: Instagram

CHRISSIE HYNDE Opens Heart And Soul On THE PRETENDERS’ 12th LP ‘RELENTLESS’

Posted on by JL

Standout longplayers

15 September 2023

Today, everlasting cool rock chick CHRISSIE HYNDE and her line-up changing PRETENDERS released LP #12. It’s titled RELENTLESS . You can buy it here.

HYNDE about the album’s title: “I enjoy seeing the various meanings and
origins of a word. And I liked the definition: ‘showing no abatement of intensity.’
So when it came to an album title, it seemed fitting. You know… to keep doing it.
I think anyone in a band is constantly questioning if they should keep going.

It starts as a youthful pursuit and eventually, it makes you wonder, why am
I doing this? It’s the life of the artist. You never retire. You become relentless.”

HYNDE – a year ago – about touring and the new album.

UNCUT Magazine says: “She has crooned before, but the freight of intimate emotion
here, letting low notes waver within the ferally alive arrangement, is masterful. Ending
an album of looking back, this is the new prime of Chrissie Hynde.” Score: 4/5.


Pretenders in Belgium last May – pic by TUTV

TUTV: When I saw Hynde – the only original Pretender left – rockin’ out for a full 75 minutes, with old and new songs, in Belgium last May (review here) I thought the new album (at that point only the first single, smooth rocker Let The Sun Come In was out) would be pretty hot-blooded too. Now I know it’s the opposite.

Except for Losing My Sense Of Taste, Let The Sun Come In and Vainglorious, Hynde chooses
to sit down, relax and reflect on her past, her present and her future, with tender ballads, co-written with guitarist James Walbourne. And as she proved several times before, she’s a most affecting crooner. Relentless gets more heartwarming with every spin. Pretenders are the talk of the town again.

SINGLES: A Love / Let The Sun Come In

ALBUM


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PRETENDERS: Instagram – Facebook
TUTV: Facebook – Instagram – Twitter

CINDY WILSON – Dance This Mess Around With The Former B-52s Star And Her New Solo Album ‘REALMS’

Posted on by JL

Standout longplayers

9 September 2023

The former B-52s voice/percussionist/wig/star
CINDY WILSON has her second solo album,
baptized REALMS out.

It’s the follow-up to her 2017 debut Change

Press info: “Wilson invites her audience on an immersive, enchanting ten-track journey that peels back the layers of our common humanity. Realms demands our undivided attention as Wilson takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey through our own minds and souls. Through a series of colorful, dramatic outpourings and dynamic, finessed upheavals, it’s a carefully crafted record proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Cindy Wilson continues to have her fingers on the pulse of modern music. Pop in style and indie at heart, Realms is the next new wave of Wilson’s already storied legacy.”


Artwork by Suny Lyons

TUTV: It’s the perfect dance this mess around record for all goodbye-summer-2023
parties, indoors and outdoors. It echoes Madonna, Depeche Mode, Lana Del Rey, and
Alice Glass all-in-one in Wilson‘s mood swings realms.

It combines Saturday night fever disco (Midnight / Overboard), synth-pop glamour (Daydreamer / Blossom and the fantastic single Delirious), and some gripping moonlight reveries as if she wants to remind us, both of the fact we live in a not-so-bright-looking reality (Hold On / Within / Not Goodbye) but also that we need to look hopefully, with
fingers crossed, to the future.

It’s not alone about the great tunes at play here, oh no, Wilson‘s outstanding vocality injects Realms with emotive energy and vivid verve on the let’s pirouette ourselves dizzy ones and with starry-eyed sensitivity for the moody ones. A five-star score.

SINGLE


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Stream REALMS


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Buy REALMS


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CINDY WILSON: Instagram – Facebook