Artist: THE WAR ON DRUGS (Philadelphia) Adam Granduciel‘s highly successful band.
Active: Since 2005 / 4 studio albums (so far) with A Deeper Understanding as the most recent one,
already 4 years ago.
New album: I DON’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE Info: “An uncommon rock album about one
of our most common but daunting processes,
resilience in the face of despair.”
Although it sounds to my ears as if this could have been a characteristic Crosby record from the 70s, 80s, 90s, etc… the press is pretty euphoric.
NME gives it a 5/5 score: “If ‘For Free’ does prove a parting gift, it’s as fitting as
any, an album that can only be made after a life lived. And it’s another glimmering
triumph from the counterculture great.”
And American Songwriter rewards the 79-year-old troubadour (turning 80
next month) with a 4/5: “Clearly, Crosby’s content with where he still resides, an
artist whose drive and determination remain as emphatic as ever. With For Free,
David Crosby soars on his own satisfaction.”
Anyway, it’s a fine album for lazy Sundays like this one…
Note 1: The album is dedicated to the late Eddie Van Halen Note 2: Recordings started in 2019 and a release was planned
for a 15 May 2020 release, but postponed for a year, until next
month.
Release: 7 May 2021 – only 4 1/2 months after
their previous excellent album OK Human.
Singles:Hero / The End Of The Game / Beginning Of The End
TUTV said: Manimal and Samara are a poetallica sensation. A new laser light at the end of
a mythical tunnel where anything can happen. Imagine Sylvia Plath fronting a theatrical and mind-challenging psychedelic noise band. Their debut album is a multi-faceted opus in sound and vision. Compelling poetry exploring life, death, birth, past, present, and future embedded
in a titanic thunder and lighting symphony going from perplexing metal to chill-out ambient. The final result is at times jaw-dropping, at times weirdly confusing, at times dumbfounding
but always flabbergasting and fascinating. When surreality becomes reality you know something is about to happen.
TUTV wrote: Gusto, high-spiritedness and anxiety are the keywords here.
This warm-blooded record is a heart-rending reflection of the group’s state of
2021 mind. A galvanizing collection of cohesive poignant emo songs influenced by
the disturbing way our troubled world is handling human issues, once-in-a-lifetime
dramas, and the personal turmoil of frontwoman Chavez. Her soul-stirring and
powerful (Aretha Franklin / young Tina Turner) voice, weeping guitars, and the
electrical intensity are at times overwhelming and heartbreaking. Impressive!
Released: 12 March 2021 – second LP TUTV wrote: “The essential message of this new powerhouse album is loud and clear:
noise-challenging turbo Pink Room is here to stay! Their tsunami energy is beyond any
decibel regulation. Again, loudmouth Bart Cocquyt leads the rip-roaring troops. As I said
before his vocal range is out-of-this-world. He easily could front a death metal band (Stay Black/Stay White) or a Nirvana reunion (Losing/Skin) or kick Ozzy Osbourne‘s ass (Hail Satan). Expect ear-shattering jackhammers, over-the-top frenzy, and an overall sonic lockdown paranoia.”
TUTV wrote: “The masters of drone rock are back, and they’re getting better over the years. Gigantic fuzz and buzz jackhammers but also some softer – yes, since they became fathers they let their heart & soul speak/play more – stuff. This stunning work will end up on many end-of-the-year lists.”
tutv wrote: “i’m damn sure this incredible punch-powered-punk-passion turbo was here before, about 40 years ago, inspiring bored kids like black flag , shellac, melvins, jello biafra, and other anarchist snotnoses, to leave home, steal guitars and drums in order to have some wild fun while scaring bad people with their deafening racket that’ll teach those old-fashioned adults watching fox.news all day long. so here they are back again, inspiring young social media junkies to steal guitars and drums instead of watching their phones all day long. home is where it all starts when you have no money to rent a smelly rehearsal room to rock your heads off. so you move into your own smelly basement and scream your poor lungs to pieces. listen up all you lost teenagers out there, play i became birds over and over again ’cause these hungry florida misfits can and will save your lives.”
Key track: sewn together from the membrane of the great sea cucumber
TUTV wrote: “A mix of the romantic crooner and the haunting crooner. Growing with every spin. Compelling orchestrations, classical arrangements, with Ellis showing his musical skills once more. Can’t remember when Cave made an average album. Did he, actually? Okay, Carnage once again on my headphones.”
TUTV wrote: “The rap and roll venom of Rage Against The Machine, the fuck-you-hypocrites grimness of Black Flag, the punky saxophone of X-Ray-Spex, the sharp poetic spit and sneer anarchy of Mark. E. Smith, the challenging spirit of an open-minded-plainspoken-asskicking-anti-establishement-and-other-scumbags force of doom and gloom. Sounds exactly like 2020/2021, like the end of the world as we know it, but also like an album that’s going
to be on my earphones for a long time.”
Living legend NEIL YOUNG released another live album and concert film, titled WAY DOWN IN THE RUST BUCKET a few weeks ago. From a 1990 concert with Crazy Horse in Santa Cruz, California after his 18th LP Ragged Glory appeared.
Who needs another Neil Young live longplayer? Well nobody, but as he is one of
my all-time favorite singer/songwriters/rockers in the free world, it’s fun to hear
a set of great songs played live – at a high-quality level – for the first time.
Pitchfork says: “This joyous live document flips the energy of 1991’s Weld on its head, swapping out incendiary arena rockers for oddball picks and warm, woolly vibes… For a
dirty, grungy rock’n’roll band, there’s no better place to hold communion than the local
pub, where the separation between artist and audience can be so thin, it may as well be nonexistent. Maybe that’s why Way Down in the Rust Bucket feels so transcendent:
It captures the world’s greatest bar band in their spiritual home.”
Full review here. Score: 8/10.
The special issue contains a 4xLP box set, a 2xCD set and a deluxe edition
box set, with the latter format including a DVD, four LPs, and two CDS.
A digital release is also coming via the official Neil Young Archives site.
Info: “The band’s standard ‘prolific-and-terrific’ approach, culminating in no less than 18 releases since 2010, has been put to one side, with their latest being written and recorded over two years. The resultant LP takes a substantive shift from the garage-pop of previous records and leaps double-footed into a charmingly wonky, indie-dance parallel universe where almost anything seems possible.”
Lead-single: FOR LOVE
Imagine Talking Heads going dance with Nile ‘Chic’ Rodgers on guitar. Only one eye wink
and this crazily funky earworm makes your head rotate like a glimmering disco ball. This
is an incredibly vitalizing injection of addictive rapture. Shake your booty here…
Last December, beetle Paul McCartney released his acclaimed McCartney III LP, a follow-up to his 1970 solo debut McCartney
and 1980’s McCartney II.
He now broke the news that McCartney III Imaged is on its way.
An album of covers and remixes by an impressive cast of artists such as Damon Albarn, Blood Orange, Phoebe Bridgers, St. Vincent, Beck, Anderson,
Paak, Idris Elba, Khruangbin, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, Josh Homme & more.
A new live THE FALL album will see the day of light next month. The Fall: Live at St. Helens Technical College ’81’ was rediscovered by radio presenter and former Fall
bassist Marc Riley and will be released via Castle Records.
Album: NATURE ALWAYS WIN – their 7th album Release: 26th February 2021 – Pre-order facilities here.
Frontman PAUL SMITH: “I’ve always wanted to reflect the time that each record is made in, and not hark back to anything. Whilst it paints a bit of a sorry picture of Britain in terms of more obvious things in the lyrics like ‘the libraries are closing down‘ and ‘the island’s revolted‘, there is this yearning for a simpler time. Those places are still out there, you’re able to access them and you don’t necessarily need to be nostalgic. There’s enough hope all around us.”
The topnotch singles: Child Of The Flatlands / I Don’t Know What I’m Doing / Baby, Sleep
