Happy New Year! This is our first Tracks Of The Week contest since before Christmas, which is so long ago that we can't even remember who took part.
Well, we've just looked up the results, and it looks like Tremendous beat Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse who beat Ally Venable, which is all very nice, but it's so 2024. And we've already moved on.
Below you'll find our first eight contenders of 2025. Aren't they beautiful?
Thundermother - Bright Eyes
Kick off the new year with a driving, chest-thumping bang and an abundance of ‘can do’ joie de vivre, in the company of these Swedish rock’n’rollers. "This song is THE Thundermother sound and vibe that people relate to us,” the band say, seemingly in a confident headspace post-lineup overhaul. “We're super proud of the recording and the outcome of the song that we really worked on hard in the studio!” Like what you hear? There’s a full album coming in February.
Bonnie Tyler - Yes I Can
More motivational oomph, this time from the full-throated, legend-of-the-power-ballad Welsh Wonder that is Bonnie Tyler. Today she’s here to party like it’s 1983, with a side of glossy 2025-era pop production on sweet, hooky new single Yes I Can. Is it as good as Total Eclipse Of The Heart? No, but it’s much better than we have any right to expect at this autumnal stage of her career. Expect big feelings, sleek grandiosity, a searing guitar solo and, crucially, a cracking performance from Bonnie herself – parts husk, heartache and hope.
Dixie Dragster - Show And Tell
If you like Tuk Smith, The Bites and others in that sleazy yet biting, ‘young old soul’ vein, check out these new Nashville longhairs. Show And Tell is a live single and it makes a swinging, sassy introductory statement – sort of like if New York Dolls and Guns N’ Roses had a baby, all loose yet thick-set swagger, but with their own sheen of dishevelled glam roguery. Little surprise that the aforementioned Tuk is their producer.
Mary Spender - You Can Have Chicago
Nocturnal urban soundscapes and crystalline Knopfler-esque guitar flourishes abound in this slice of the Youtube megastar’s debut solo album, Super Sexy Heartbreak. On the smooth side for Classic Rock, admittedly, but with enough emotional grey areas to keep things interesting and avoid excess beigeness. And from someone in such regular, public conversation with her online followers (all 758K and counting, on Youtube alone), it’s a pleasingly pensive reflection of music’s power to tease out different sides of its creators.
Howzat - Revolution
Comin' straight atcha from the mean streets of Forest City, London, Ontario Canada, Howzat's Revolution encroaches on Ghost territory with its spooky keyboards, celestial backing vocals and church-based video, but there's a nice urgency to the song and the guitar solo rips. Canadians may already have caught them on tour with the likes of Uriah Heep, Nazareth, Anvil, The Killer Dwarfs, Honeymoon Suite and Sloan, and with a mission statement to "bring back big guitars and anthem rock", we can only assume that wild times lie ahead.
Sinner Rage - Fire's On
With a name like 'Sinner Rage' you might expect this Spanish band to sound a little bit like Judas Priest, and you'd be right. They're an unashamed throwback to the glory days of old-school metal, taking inspiration from the likes of Priest, Saxon, Queensrÿche and Crimson Glory, and smooshing it together into something that – while not the slickest of performances – climaxes with a chorus purpose-built for punching the air. It comes from the band's upcoming debut album Powerstrike, which, they say, "will send shivers of déjà vu through every soul who’s ever bled for metal."
Kelsi Mayne - All Or Nothing
Former nationally ranked Canadian sprint hurdler turned country music singer Kelsi Mayne has roots in Detroit, which might account for All Or Nothing rockin' a little harder than many Nashville types, and we're blaming the guitarist with the Love Gun t-shirt and long hair. You'll spot him in the video, which was clearly filmed by someone with an affinity for motion sickness, but hey, the song is high in spirit and energy and the chorus is bigger than a barn, so we shouldn't complain.
The Jellybricks - Devil's A Day Away
Devil's A Day Away starts off in fairly unassuming fashion but gathers momentum swiftly, and by the time the chorus rolls around we're in full Replacements' territory, and there's nothing wrong with that. Little Steven has bestowed his "Coolest Song in the World" honour upon this Harrisburg, PA. crew on multiple occasions, and you can hear why. It's power-pop with its roots in the 60s, filtered through a 90s, college-rock-shaped prism, and while it might not be as frayed as Paul Westerberg & Co., it's definitely cut from the same cloth.
