This week is for the country fans! Sure, there is some power metal and NWOCR sprinkled in for good measure, but at least four of the albums this week are considered country. Not that I’m complaining at all, in fact I’m excited. Let’s dive in!
Kenny Chesney: Born
The country legend is back with his whopping 20th studio release. It’s somehow the biggest gap in albums in his 30+ year career, too, with Here and Now being released back in 2020. It’s also rare to see someone have such a long, prolific career in the genre, with almost every album from 1997 through to 2020 producing one of his biggest hits. It’s honestly insane.
Shockingly, this album is no different, either. A couple of the singles have already received huge country-radio airplay globally, and it’s easy to see why! ‘Take her Home’ channels very ‘Get Along’ vibes and feelings, but a love song version. Meanwhile ‘Just Say We Did’ is a typical modern era Kenny banger. The album is pretty front loaded though, as the opener is one of my favourite tracks on the album, and songs like ‘Few Good Stories’ and ‘Guilty Pleasure’ are good, with the latter also being a single.
However, it was at that point that I started to feel the length of the album. There are certainly still good songs after this point, don’t get me wrong. But there are eight more songs, and a lot of them all have a similar feel and tempos. I can complain all day about the too-long length of modern country albums, but I’ll leave it at: this definitely suffers with that issue. Still, it’s a good album with some great songs on it. And regardless, it’ll still be massive just like Kenny’s other releases. I’ll be listening to plenty of this a lot moving forward, so it’s an easy 8/10
Chris Young: Young Love & Saturday Nights
A modern country megastar, Chris returned on Friday with his ninth studio album, and first since the dreaded Covid times. I feel like I’ll never see him at this point after he dropped out of his UK tour and The Long Road 2022 headline slot, so at least new music’s something, right?
It helps that said new music is really quite good. The opener is classic Chris Young stadium-country goodness, while the ‘Rebel Rebel’ homage of a title track is incredible. Other big highlights include ‘Country Boy’s Prayer’, the almost TC3-like ‘Double Down’, the beautiful ‘Gettin’ Older’, ‘Knee Deep in Neon’ and ‘Right Now’. Don’t get me wrong, it very much has the same issue as the previous album in that it is so long. 18 songs and nearly an hour is a lot, especially when the vast majority of it sounds pretty similar. The album definitely hits a slump between ‘Double Down’ and ‘Gettin’ Older’, even if all five of the tracks between them are great. I also love the final three tracks a hell of a lot. That’s 12 incredible tracks that I am in love with, and six that are really rather easily cuttable.
Because of this, it makes it very hard to come up with a ranking for this. On the one hand, at least half of this album is up there with some of his best work, in my opinion. The seven tracks I’ve mentioned I will be listening to a hell of a lot, and have made me want to see him live somehow even more badly. And as I’ve said, none of the other tracks are especially bad. They’re just slow-ish and samey and one after another. Still though, it’s a truly fantastic country album, and will most likely not get the love it definitely deserves, given how many other major players there are in the genre these days. I’ll be playing this a lot moving forward, and would recommend it to anyone. 9.5/10
Hammer King: KÖNIG UND KAISER
We’ve already checked out this awesome album! Read the full review here!
Gossip: Real Power
The US indie band are back with their first album since 2012, and a whopping two reunions later. I was a fan of their stuff back in the day, with Standing in the Way of Control and Music for Men being awesome albums. However, I didn’t even know they’d broken up, let alone gotten back together. Sadly, this album doesn’t quite do it for me. The title track is fun, as is ‘Turn the Card Slowly’. However, in general, it feels like the band are simply trying to recapture an old magic that died long ago. It’s less Brave New World and more Chinese Democracy. It all kinda blended together into a blur of meh, sadly. It’s not bad, but the genre and music industry as a whole has evolved so far past this in the last 12+ years that this feels pretty stale. I know I’m certainly not the biggest indie fan so I’m sure there will be some out there whole like this. I’m not one of them, though. 3/10
Sierra Ferrell: Trail of Flowers
Owen: The follow up to a strong debut in 2021, it’s hard to believe ‘Trail Of Flowers’ is only the second release from Sierra Ferrell. The success she’s seen in the time between these two albums (a myriad of featuring spots with artists big and small, as well as involvement with major film and tv productions) seems only to have empowered the blend of styles unique to Ferrell’s solo work. The
12 tracks presented are expertly paced; winding paths from upbeat galloping beats such as 2023 single ‘Fox Hunt’, through to the slow wrenching ballad of ‘Wish You Well’.
In the latter stages of the album, we are given two songs that have suffered the same fate. Fans that discovered Ferrell through YouTube will be familiar with both ‘Why Haven’t You Loved Me Yet’ and ‘Rosemary’. Both songs have been circulating the platform with various performances over recent years, each rightly celebrated by the fanbase. As a long-time fan, I’m sure I’m not the only one happy to see both of these stand proud on a full-length release. In future releases, it would be great to see Ferrell push the limits of her vocal range and natural talent a little further. Having witnessed the power of her voice live I wish this came across more in the album recordings. 8.5/10
Borris & Coaltar of the Deepers: “Hello There”
The odd Japanese band are back, this time experimenting with a 90s alt rock band. The third helping of the band on this series, and sadly I think it’s the one I enjoyed the least out of them. It had more of the band’s psychadellic inspiration to it, adding it to Coaltar’s alt rock in a very weird way. I feel like live some of the stuff wouldn’t be too bad, especially with a good stageshow, but on track it did nothing for me. I honestly can’t even pick out a highlight track; it’s all one big blend of weird noise.
Don’t get me wrong, I have massive admiration for Boris. Being able to collaborate with so many different artists for full albums and adapt their sound accordingly takes insane amounts of talent. There are certainly going to be fans of this music out there too, as Coaltar have tens of thousands of monthly streamers. But yeah, this is not for me at all. A couple of nice riffs but that’s sadly it. 3/10
Cody Jinks: Change the Game
We’ve checked out this album already too! Read our review of it here!
Stone Angels: Up in Smoke
An interesting release up next, as the NWOCR band have decided to release solely physical copies of the album currently, releasing each track as a single on streaming in the coming months before putting out the full album on them after. It’s a bold strategy for sure, and one I haven’t seen before, so I’m curious to see how it plays out!
As for the actual music, it’s pretty good! There’s a grungy/alt metal edge to their brand of hard rock which keeps things interesting and made it a fun listen. The riffing throughout is amazing and there are plenty of catchy vocal hooks and melodies to appease more radio listeners. Tracks like ‘Gambler’, ‘Western Dreams’ and the more ballad-like title track are all personal highlights.
I’ve already seen a lot of fans of this album, and I did really enjoy it myself, though it does feel like it’s missing something that puts it on the upper level of albums in the genre. I have no idea what that something is, but it does feel just a small step below the likes of Bed of Nails or Inhale/Exhale. It’s still good, don’t get me wrong, and I’ll be listening to it a bunch after this review still. But at the time of writing, I’mma give it a 7.5/10
Gary Clark Jr.: JPEG RAW
The blues master returned with his sixth album last week. It immediately gives off an old-school, more raw sounding Lenny Kravitz style. Between the obviously awesome, grungy guitar work and great vocals, the album had me hooked right from the opener, ‘Maktub’. There’s also some clear jazz/soul influence on songs like ‘Alone Together’. Meanwhile, tracks like the title one and ‘This Who We Are’ incorporate more of Gary’s hip hop influences, which I LOVE. The latter is a huge highlight of the album and one of my favourite tracks Gary has put out. Other highlights include ‘Hearts in Retrograde’ and the almost proggy ‘Habits’.
The talent and variety on display throughout the album is incredible and I was never once bored. The nearly-hour went by in a flash. It’s certainly not going to be for everyone but damn, I really enjoyed the album! It’s an easy 8/10 from me!
Hideous Divinity: Unextinct
The tech/brutal death metal band are back with album number five and damn, it’s a good one! I usually don’t get a huge amount out of stuff quite this straight-forward heavy, but the band had me hooked on this album from ‘The Numinous One’. It was a big highlight track of the album, as is the epic, Zach Jeter featuring ‘Atto Quarto’. However, the whole album is pretty great, and if you’re into the heavy stuff you’ll love this! There isn’t too much more I can say about it, if you’re familiar with the genre you know exactly what to expect, and it delivers in spades! 7.5/10
Leaves’ Eyes: Myths of Fate
The German symphonic metal band’s first album in nearly four years is fucking awesome. Of course, it’s easy to draw comparisons to genre giants like Nightwish and Within Temptation, but from the soaring, powerful operatic vocals to the awesome growls and screams and the overall epic feel, I’d say this is definitely up there with those two. Right from the excellent opener to the massive closer, this album had me hooked throughout. There isn’t a bad track on the album but songs like ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’, ‘Fear the Serpent’ and the beautifully folky ‘Godess of the Night’ are definite highlights for me.
My only ever so slight issue with this album is that it doesn’t really do anything different. All are great songs, but there is so much amazing power/symphonic metal coming out these days that it may just fall into the sea of white noise. Still though, that shouldn’t dissuade anyone from listening to it. If you’re a fan of any of the bands or genres I’ve previously mentioned, you’ll love this. 8/10, it’s a great album!
The Staves: All Now
The folk duo of sisters have grown pretty darn popular over the last decade or so thanks to a rabid fanbase and some consistently high-quality releases. It’s an incredibly chilled-out album filled with big, open choruses and almost hypnotic vocal harmonies from Jessica and Camilla. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not especially my sort of thing, but I can appreciate how well written and performed it is. It doesn’t have as much of a folk sound as it does electro/synth pop with Fleetwood Mac-style vocals over the top. The highlight for me was probably ‘Make a Decision’, but honestly I wouldn’t turn any of it off if it came on again. If you’re into more chilled out music, check this album out! 7/10