Last week our Tracks Of Week competition saw eight soldiers of rock do monstrous battle, and once the dust had settled and the broadswords were sheathed, Wytch Hazel limped from the carnage, bloodied but unbowed, and very much victorious. So huge congratulations to them, and to their winning entry, Ride On.
And congratulations to our runners-up, shiny New York rockers Tempt and spooky Russian singer-songwriter Marjana Semkina. You are all magnificent.
Below you'll find this week's candidates. Aren't they lovely?
Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse - Oh Yeah!
Oh YEAH! Happily, this is as fun as you’d hope with such a title. Piano-thumping, floor-filling, bluesy rock’n’roll with a sense of humour and style, it’s like hearing The Time Warp with fuzzier guitars and a southern rodeo twist – filmed at what appears to be Liberace’s secret second home. Indeed, if Greta Valenti’s glam-outlaw storytelling, Robin Davey’s ZZ Top-edged guitar solo and the driving, bop-along energy of the whole thing aren’t enough to sustain your attention, just look at that video: gold drapes! Chandeliers! Flying banknotes! A giant panda! An illicit day-drinking binge for the ears and the eyes.
The Warning - Automatic Sun
The Mexican sister trio are going from strength to strength, as evidenced by this tight, groovy fuzz-fest – all punchy, deep-set shades of Royal Blood and Muse, framed in smouldering shadows. Further proof, if it was needed, that young people haven’t stopped getting together behind mics, drum kits and guitars just yet (if anything, it’s on the rise). More where this came from on their next album, Keep Me Fed, which is out in June.
The Cold Stares - Horse To Water
The Indiana trio marry classic flavours of Free and ZZ Top on this rich, part-blues part-southern rock banger – interpreting that ‘southern’ side in their own riffy, smoke-wreathed way. “Being 'southern' was never something we intentionally did or tried to interject,” singer/guitarist Chris Tapp says, “but since we had been labelled as such, I decided to write a series of songs that exemplified what that term meant to me. Horse to Water is a tip of the hat to southern leaning blues rock bands like Bad Company and Skynyrd in the voice of who and where we are today as The Cold Stares."
Rosalie Cunningham - Return Of The Ellington
The Purson mastermind-turned-enigmatic solo artist is back, armed with the third portion of ‘The Donny Trilogy’ – picked from the last instalment on her 2022 album Two-Piece Puzzle. As ever with Cunningham’s work, it’s a lavish, riffy spread of classic rock and prog sensibilities, spanning Tull-esque flutes, Terry Gilliam-esque animations and early 70s guitars that call to mind woodland scenes with gatherings of minstrels, magicians and other hatted folk. Need a break from ‘the modern age’? Dive in here for a bit.
Automatic Shoes - Legend
Pop rock maverick Matthew Joseph Hughes (also frontman of Spokane, Washington glamsters Atari Ferrari) returns to these parts with this delicate, prettily psychedelic dreamscape – like T.Rex floating through a dark forest. Gentle yet earthy, it lulls you into a hazy space with a minor-key aftertaste. Word on the street (well, Facebook) is that he’s coming to the UK for shows in September, so keep your eyes peeled.
Walter Trout - I’ve Had Enough (feat Dee Snider)
The enduring, bright-eyed bluesman (all the more remarkable on a man who’s been through a liver transplant and a lifetime of demons) is on rocky form for this duet with Twisted Sister-in-chief Dee Snider. Rocking, rolling and sticking it to the man with the defiance and gusto of a guy half his age, Trout says: “Dee Snider put up a live cut of me on his Twitter and said: ‘Listen to this fucking guitar hero’. We started talking and became friends; he came into the studio, and I knew I had to write him a song. So I’m thinking, ‘Well, he did We’re Not Gonna Take It’. So I wrote I’ve Had Enough. And it’s rockin’.”
Orange Goblin - (Not) Rocket Science
You won't hear better news this week than that which tells of the return of Orange Goblin. (Not) Rocket Science is from the band's upcoming 10th studio album Science, Not Fiction – their first since 2018's The Wolf Bites Back – and if the rest of the album is as good as this then we'll be very happy indeed. (Not) Rocket Science operates somewhere south of Mötorhead and north-east of The Hives, and it thumps along like a very good thing all indeed, leaking diesel all over the place and belching out black smoke. Truly heroic stuff.
Black Country Communion - Red Sun
Black Country Communion have unveiled the second single from their upcoming album V, Red Sin is its name, and it's a real live actual doozy. Messers Hughes, Bonamassa, Bonham and Sherinan have conjured up something of an epic – it's the best part of seven minutes long – and wrapped it around a thumping riff, with Glenn Hughes and Joe Bonamassa sending the VU meters into the red willy-nilly. "We make music for the five of us," says Hughes, presumably including producer Kevin Shirley in the head count. "We make music that we love and like, hoping it registers with everyone else. We don’t make it for record companies, or this guy or that guy."
