This week, we congratulate the Philadelphia Eagles, who won the Super Bowl, and we congratulate The Wildhearts, who won rock'n'roll's equivalent, our Tracks Of The Week contest. And while Ginger & Co.'s victory might not have been as comprehensive as that achieved by Nick Sirianni and his team of 53, it was no less deserved.
This week's beaten foe included Fortune Teller Blues by Joe Bonamassa and Sammy Hagar and Master by The Last Internationale, as well as five other songs we're not going to mention because we don't like to dwell on such ignominy.
So here are the magnificent Wildhearts once more, and then it's on with a new battle.
Don't forget to vote for your contest VIP, via the handy form at the foot of the page.
Mother Vulture - Slow Down
Imploring these fiery Bristol rockers to ‘slow down’ is a bit like telling AC/DC to write a prog epic: it just won’t happen. And yet there is a sonorous, almost stoner weight to this new single, which finds them marrying white-hot rage with thunderous, bass-heavy beats and hypnotic guitar judders. “I wanted to use the lyrics to shine a light on the darker side of emotion,” singer Georgi says, “the way we sometimes want to flirt with self-destruction and that temptation to fall from grace. Because the world gets too much sometimes, and you think something has to break.”
Bob Mould - Neanderthal
A short but sweet ripper from Mould’s excellent new solo album, Here We Go Crazy – smart, spikily lustful and set to a barrelling blast of punkoid rock’n’roll fizz. Over in about two minutes and not wasting a second of it, Neanderthal packs the sort of moody, fast-paced intensity and eloquence that plenty of other songs don’t manage in twice (or even thrice) the airtime. One veteran clearly not content to rest on his laurels, and all the more compelling for it.
The Zac Schulze Gang - I Won’t Do This Anymore
Armed with upbeat, 70s-ified blues rock with a few enticing twists and a roughened Rory Gallagher-esque edge – inspired by days of menial, nocturnal graft in supermarket aisles – Zac Schulze and chums stick it to The Man with a spring in their step on I Won't Do This Anymore. “I Won’t Do This Anymore is a song of rebellion against the big bad bosses of today’s world,” explains Zac. “The lyrics relate back to our old lives where we used to mop McDonald’s kitchens and stack shelves during the night shift at Iceland.”
Sparks - Gonna Do Things My Own Way
Perennially young and excitable at heart, the Mael brothers press on with their roaring latter-day renaissance (oldest brother Ron will be 80 this year, lest we forget) on this brilliantly head-swirling, singular maelstrom (sorry…) of acerbic art rock. By way of sombre commentary on the wittily surreal video, they had this to say: “We hope this video, even in a very small way, finally starts a meaningful dialogue about the dangers of pianos falling out of tall buildings.” Well, don’t we all?
Luke Spiller - Love Will Probably Kill Me Before Cigarettes And Wine
The Struts’ debonair frontman marks the start of a new, deeply personal chapter with this grandiose but emotionally intimate debut solo statement – all lush theatre and old Hollywood vibes with a cabaret twist. If Jim Steinman and Lana Del Rey clubbed together to write a Bond theme, this would have been it. “I’ve never been this honest in my music before, and it’s definitely been a rollercoaster of emotions,” Spiller says. “I hope people will find their own stories they have experienced within my songs, and in some cases, even find peace in doing so.” More to come…
Sludge Mother - Pig
Marrying thick, gnarly grunge swagger with a generous dash of contemporary hard rock/metal glamour (think The Pretty Reckless, if Taylor Momsen and co spent more time trading tones, smoking joints and growing beards with Zakk Wylde), Sludge Mother’s latest single is a plaid-shirted, black-eyelinered groover. Yes it’s all verrry familiar territory for anyone with anything even vaguely Chris Cornell-adjacent in their music collection, but slick, spirited and catchy enough to press a lot of the right buttons here.
Robert Jon & The Wreck - Sittin' Pretty
The Dave Cobb-produced Sittin' Pretty is one of those songs inevitably described using the words "high" and "octane", and it's little wonder, for this taste of Robert Jon & The Wreck's upcoming album rattles along like a jet-powered armadillo, with a riff like a striking sidewinder and a solo that whips like a scorpion's tail. And if you're where we're going with all this talk of desert critters, it's prompted by the video, which finds RJ&TC performing a solar-powered show in California's High Desert. Lovely.
Bobbie Dazzle - Lady On Fire
Lady On Fire is the third single to be plucked from Fandabidozi, the debut album by Siân Greenway, a.k.a. excellent West Midlands glam-prog siren Bobbie Dazzle. The glam bit covers the first two minutes and twenty seconds or thereabouts, with a thumping riff and a chorus that soars into the ziggy-o-sphere, before the prog bit arrives as the tempo slows and a fluttering flute whisks the unwary listener off towards transcendence. And then it goes glam again.
