Deep Purple - InFinite
“InFinite, like its predecessor, was tracked in a studio in Nashville, Tennessee and helmed by Bob Ezrin, one of the few producers whose work with Lou Reed, Alice Cooper and Pink Floyd genuinely merits the epithet ‘legendary’. The results have been mooted as possibly the most ‘70s’ of any Deep Purple album since 1984’s reunion album, Perfect Strangers.”
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Mike + The Mechanics - Let Me Fly
“After a six-year hiatus, the songwriting zeal is just as strong in Mike Rutherford’s antidote to life in Genesis. Title track Let Me Fly is a soaring message of hope (‘If I don’t try, I will never know’) with a choir reminiscent of The Living Years. Wonder could be a Don Henley song, while Are You Ready? sounds like an updated Pet Shop Boys track with an 80s-flavoured introduction from keyboardist Luke Juby.”
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The Band Of Heathens - Duende
“Every now and then, a band come along who so palpably love what they’re doing, it makes you wonder why anyone who isn’t getting this level of joy out of their work bothers to get out of bed. As All I’m Asking kicks off Duende with a soulful swing that has such a pep in its step it’ll brighten any day, it’s infectiously clear that the Band Of Heathens absolutely live for this.”
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Various - Running The Voodoo Down
“The music on this long-overdue collection highlights black artists who threw away their stage uniforms, cranked up the decibels and sang about grim social conditions. Inevitably starting with influential funk firebrand James Brown, the set includes Hendrix on spellbinding form, joined by Buddy Miles’s drums and organ on Lightnin’ Rod’s Doriella du Fontaine – rare evidence of his association with activist proto-rappers the Last Poets (on CD for the first time since being released as a single in 1984).”
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Backyard Babies - Live At Cirkus DVD
“Swedish punk’n’rollers Backyard Babies were specialising in nordic noir as long ago as the debut Diesel & Power in 1994. However, the five-year hiatus prior to 2015’s Four-By-Four did them a world of good if this ferocious live DVD is anything to go by.”
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The best new rock albums you can buy this week
