Envy Of None - Envy Of None (Album Review)

April 06, 2022 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Alternative Rock, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Melodic Rock, Progressive Rock, Rock

As a founding member of legendary Canadian rockers Rush, Alex Lifeson sold millions of records and embarked on numerous world tours with bandmates Geddy Lee and Neil Peart. The trio played huge venues to a level of fan adoration that many of their contemporaries could only imagine. The only time I was lucky enough to catch the band was on their ‘Roll The Bones’ tour at London’s Wembley Arena. That night convinced me how special they could be, even if I wasn’t always totally convinced by their varied musical output. Rush played their last shows as a band in 2015, and with the sad passing of Neil Peart in 2020, the Rush story came to an understandable, albeit sad conclusion. This brings us to the question of what do you do when you have been there, done it and bought the t-shirt (and probably a very nice house)?

Emily Wolfe - Outlier (Album Review)

August 02, 2021 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Alternative Rock, Blues, Pop

Imagine for a moment you have your career path mapped out. You can see the road ahead; you know where you’re going, or at least where people expect you to go. Do you drop into cruise control and take the highway or throw a hard left and take that unpaved back road? It will be an adventure, and you might initially lose a few followers along the way, but the rewards could well be worth the risk.

Lucero - When You Found Me (Album Review)

January 29, 2021 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Alt-Country, Alternative Rock, Americana, Classic Rock

My belated introduction to Lucero was via their 2018 release ‘Among The Ghosts’ which proved to be one of the very best releases of that year. The tone was dark, the sound widescreen and the songs dragged you in and held on tight. I was lucky enough to catch Lucero at the Black Deer Festival in 2019 where on a bright sunny afternoon deep in the English countryside their songs proved equally effective as they would in a sweaty club. It was a powerful, gritty performance that reinforced my opinion that Lucero is at the top of their game. For the follow up to ‘Ghosts’ frontman Ben Nichols has expanded on the third-person, character-driven approach that had crept into his writing for ‘Ghosts’. Nichols mixes up family-driven tales of love and redemption firmly rooted in reality with interesting diversions into campfire tales and folklore. The other innovation to the Lucero sound finds Rick Steff employing a host of vintage synth sounds to bolster his usual organ/piano armoury. The resulting album could well turn out to be one of the best records of their career.

Robert Francis + The End Times - Vol.1 (Album Review)

June 19, 2020 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Alternative Rock, Americana, Classic Rock, Singer-Songwriter

Unbound by genre, Robert Francis’ latest record is the unlikely betrothal of Tom Pettyish classic rock to 90s Radioheadia. Dalliances with Americana, Jazz and 60s psych leave their mark on this otherwise most stable of marriages within which Francis dissects - often ambivalently - the regret and restlessness of human relationships. There are those that are destructive, those that are desperate and those that have long since disintegrated and alongside, of course, there is the ever-changing relationship with the self.

The Flesh Eaters - I Used To Be Pretty (Album Review)

February 11, 2019 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Alternative Rock, Rock, Punk

One of the great things about RGM is that on occasion something will turn up that’ll drag you kicking and screaming outside your musical comfort zone. Nothing has reinforced this theory more in recent times than the unexpected arrival of the latest CD by The Flesh Eaters. A band that the press release readily admits to being one of Los Angeles most admired but little-heard bands. I’m pretty sure that situation is about to change as The Flesh Eaters are definitely deserving of that widely admired tag but I’m also sure more people will sit up and take notice as ‘I Used To Be Pretty’ kicks…

Deer Tick - Mayonnaise (Album Review)

January 28, 2019 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Alternative Rock, Americana

When Rhode Island’s Deer Tick returned after a four-year gap they were obviously intent on making up for lost time and released two albums of new material which showcased their ability to switch from punky alt-rock to melancholy Americana without missing a beat. The ‘Twice Is Nice’ tour followed and the artistic rejuvenation of the band continued at a pace. This rush of activity finds a logical conclusion with ‘Mayonnaise’ which acts as both a companion piece to the recent albums and a nice memory jog if you were lucky enough to catch the guys on tour. ‘Mayonnaise’ is a pretty cool release and should prove essential to fans who will find plenty of interesting stuff to get their teeth into. A mix of new material, alternate versions of recent tracks and cover tunes performed on the tour ‘Mayonnaise’ is more a rich hearty stew than a mere condiment.

Major Love - Self Titled (Album Review)

October 08, 2018 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Alternative Rock, Pop, Singer-Songwriter

Canadian singer-songwriter Colleen Brown first came to our attention here at RGM back in 2015 with the single ‘Soap & Denim’ which was followed by some low-key UK live dates. Brown was, by then, already a seasoned solo artist with a few albums under her belt but for us - here on this side of the water - it felt like the discovery of a new and rare talent. We’ve kept up with Brown ever since and now that she has a new full-length LP out (her first fronting five-piece Major Love) we feel the strong urge to let as many people as possible know about it.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Live In Atlantic City (Album Review)

September 20, 2018 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Alternative Rock, Classic Rock, Country Rock, Hard Rock, Southern Rock, DVD, Blu-ray

Legendary Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd are currently playing shows on their ‘Last of the Street Survivors-Farewell Tour’ with dates booked into late October of 2018. The band has toured heavily since their 1987 reformation, but with sole surviving founding member Gary Rossington enduring his own health problems in recent times maybe it really is the end of the road for Skynyrd but who’d bet against the band coming around again? Skynyrd released their last studio album ‘Last of a Dyin’ Breed’ back in 2012 and any further studio records look increasingly unlikely but the void has been filled to some degree by a slew of interesting live archival releases to keep hard-core fans busy which brings us to ‘Live In Atlantic City’ released on the German earMUSIC label.

Lucero - Among The Ghosts (Album Review)

August 01, 2018 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Alt-Country, Alternative Rock, Americana

For the ninth studio album of their twenty-year career, Lucero were seemingly keen to switch things up a little. After a run of albums with producer Ted Hutt that utilised horns and more complex arrangements to fashion a Memphis soul-influenced sound (they even found room to slip in a tune by Memphis’ favourite sons Big Star) frontman/songwriter Ben Nichols and the band went in search of inspiration. They found it in the rear view mirror as ‘Among The Ghosts’ strips the arrangements back to their very foundations and reveals a darker sound more in keeping with their roots. When coupled with a change in Nichols’ approach to his writing, bought on by a settled family life and the birth of his daughter, the results are impressive. The horns may have gone but the soul remains.

Cowboy Junkies - All That Reckoning (Album Review)

July 12, 2018 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Alt-Country, Alternative Rock, Americana

Formed way back in 1985, Cowboy Junkies have become something of a Canadian institution over the decades with a run of albums released to both critical and fan praise. Things started off on a slightly unusual note with a covers album ‘Whites off Earth now!!’ before their sophomore release ‘The Trinity Sessions’ would put them on the world map selling over a million copies. Thirty years on from that particular landmark Cowboy Junkies return with their first album since 2012’s ‘The Wilderness’. This new release has been referred to by songwriter-guitarist Michael Timmins (one of the three Timmins siblings that form 3/4 of the band) as “These songs are about reckoning on a personal level and reckoning on a social level”. With this in mind, and as few bands do reflective melancholia better than Cowboy Junkies, this should be good.

Canadian Double Feature: Dom Fricot + Oh Geronimo (Album Reviews)

March 20, 2018 by Rich Barnard in Singer-Songwriter, Album Reviews, Alternative Rock, Pop

The RGM inbox is visited daily by up-and-coming Canadian acts trying to spread the word about their new records here on this side of the water. We love nothing more than to hear all this fantastic new music but, unfortunately, we can’t possibly cover it all. However, two recent (and very different) releases that mustn’t pass without a mention have come in from Vancouver-based singer-songwriter Dom Fricot and the artful five-piece Oh Geronimo.

Roddy Hart & The Lonesome Fire - Swithering (Album Review)

December 13, 2016 by Rich Barnard in Album Reviews, Alternative Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Folk

If you were a successful BBC radio DJ with not one but two regular shows; if you assembled international tributes to Bob Dylan; if you worked as a musical director for film and you curated annual festival events like the Roaming Roots Revue then I'd have thought you might want a little rest from music on your days off. This is certainly not true of Roddy Hart who, on top of all of the above, has been touring and making music of his own since 2007.

Blue October - Home (Album Review)

June 29, 2016 by Rich Barnard in Alternative Rock, Album Reviews

The last time I saw Blue October was at a packed-out London show in support of their 2011 album Any Man In America. To describe their live show as intense would be a serious understatement. Ferocious would be more appropriate. Petrifying would be accurate. The band’s sound was immense and frontman Justin Furstenfeld’s performance dripped with barely contained visceral rage as the album’s songs played out the bitter tales of broken family life and all its attendant carnage. It comes as something of a shock then that ‘Home,’ their new single from the release of the same name, paints a picture of total domestic bliss.

Andy Shauf - The Party (Album Review).

May 16, 2016 by Rich Barnard in Alternative Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Folk, Album Reviews

With 2015’s self-recorded and highly acclaimed The Bearer of Bad News, Andy Shauf put himself firmly on the musical map, playing all the instruments and recording the album single-handedly. Barely more than a year later, here he is with The Party, his debut release for ANTI- and it’s a very impressive thing. As I write, Shauf is quite deservedly being exposed to a wider audience, supporting The Lumineers on their current European tour.

Ocean Carolina - Maudlin Days (Album Review)

September 30, 2015 by David Vousden in Americana, Alternative Rock

If you call your album ‘Maudlin Days’ a dictionary would tell us to expect an overly sentimental piece which, if filmed, would result in the cast going through all manner of emotional hell while the dog….well you know what happens to the dog. Luckily ‘Maudlin Days’ doesn’t get too morose and the end result is an album that is emotional and reflective without getting too sentimental as singer-songwriter Michael Simone delves into the reality of relationships in a way that will strike a chord with many listeners.

The Naked Sun -Pickled Hearts EP (Album Review)

September 22, 2015 by David Vousden in Alt-Country, Americana, Alternative Rock

The Naked Sun hail from Philadelphia, PA and deliver a brand of Indie roots rock they have tagged ‘Honest Rock’ which should appeal to fans of the genre that like their music to be heartfelt, real and raw. The band took their name from the Isaac Asimov novel that deals with the weighty issues of how we look at the environment we live in and how we interact with our neighbours, government and society in general. The Naked Sun live up to the Asimov connection with music that is always interesting, challenging and lyrically open to interpretation.

The Wooden Sky - Let's Be Ready (Album Review)

September 14, 2015 by Rich Barnard in Alternative Rock

There’s so much good music coming out of Canada at the moment I’m starting to think there’s something in the maple syrup and the latest release from The Wooden Sky adds considerable weight to this waffle-based theory. Let’s Be Ready is the fourth album from the Toronto-based group and it signals a shift: it’s goodbye acoustic control and hello electric chaos. The band wear this more raucous sound well and existing fans shouldn’t be too thrown, as in all other respects they are still recognisable.

Koria Kitten Riot - Rich Men Poor Men Good Men (Review)

September 19, 2014 by David Vousden in Indie Pop, Alternative Rock, Album Reviews

Working on the editorial theory that Red Guitar Music covers a wide range of music or, in other words, things we like. Welcome Finnish Indie-Pop act, the oddly named, Koria Kitten Riot fronted by singer-songwriter Antti Reikko. The band have sited The Flaming Lips, Elliott Smith, Wilco and early Weezer amongst their influences and recorded the album in Berlin with Doug Van Sloan (Bright Eyes, She & Him) handling the mastering . The first thing that strikes you about the album is how beautifully it is constructed. The marriage of the lyrics of Reikko and the inventive musicianship of the band members is exceptional.