A pretty stacked week of new music this week, featuring everything from massive country stars to smaller, heavy bands. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Willie Nelson: The Border
The country legend himself put out yet another album this last Friday, marking his first of the year and whopping seventh in this decade already. Somehow, this is the first we have managed to cover here at Overtone. I’ve always been a fan, it’s WILLIE FUCKING NELSON for Christ stakes, and honestly, this album is another pretty great entry into his extensive discography. It’s traditional country at its very best, and it’s insane that a man in his 90s still has this consistently good an output. Tracks like ‘What if I’m Out of my Mind’, ‘Many a Long and Lonesome Highway’ and ‘How Much does it Cost’ are all big highlights. However, there isn’t a bad song on the album. It’s just a fun, relaxing listen from a true idol in the industry. It doesn’t do anything daring or reinvent the wheel, but it’s a safe album from someone who could have easily hung up their boots over two decades ago. I enjoyed the hell out of it, and it gets an easy 7.5/10 from me!
Shaboozey: Where I’ve Been, Isn’t WhereI’m Going
Bad grammar in the album title aside, this is a pretty highly anticipated album with a lot of hype around it. His rendition of ‘Tipsy’ has been everywhere, and for good reason! It’s the only song I’ve heard off the album though, so I’m excited to hear if the rest is just as good!
It’s certainly a good blend of hip-hop and country, blending the styles together pretty perfectly and sounding pretty fresh and modern. It almost feels like the continuation of ‘Old Town Road’ that we sadly never got from Naz. Tracks like ‘Last of my Kind’ and ‘Highway’ have real epic sound to them, incorporating more Americana to the sound than anything else. The production also does the tracks wonders, sounding as massive (and pretty similar to) some of Imagine Dragons’ hits.
Don’t get me wrong, some of it is a bit too pop for me. It’s a good album overall and to listen through, but there are definitely some songs I wouldn’t listen to on their own. He was the perfect fit for Beyoncé’s ‘country’ album, for sure, and he and Cam were certainly the highlights of that otherwise dire release. This is better than that for sure, but I am slightly worried this is going to be what popular country is going forward. Because it’s certainly pretty loosely associated with the genre in terms of sound. Hopefully it can exist alongside the neo-traditional and more rock influenced stuff and we get it all at the top.
But yeah, overall, it’s a damn good album. It will do extremely well with mainstream audiences, and I think in that regard it lives up to the hype. He’s going to be a massive name sooner rather than later, and this third album of his will be a big factor in it! 7/10
The Hope Conspiracy: Tools of Oppression/Rule by Deception
The hardcore punk band are back with their first full-length release in 14 years. The band filled the gap with a couple of EPs in the middle, but even still, that’s one hell of a stretch between new music. The band still have it too, which makes it even crazier. The hardcore sound isn’t particularly my sort of thing, but the band do it excellently here and it’s hard not to get into some of it. Tracks like ‘The Profits and Doom’ and ‘Of a Dying Nation’ are major highlights for me. However, it’s a well put together album that flows pretty perfectly between the tracks. If you’re into the style, or just generally feel in an angry, break-stuff mood, I’d definitely recommend giving it a spin! 6.5/10
Crowded House: Gravity Stairs
This is a great blend of Bowie and Dire Straits; and the perfect album to throw on to relax to or have on in the background. The Australian pop/alt rock band have been back together since 2019, this being their second release in this stint. It’s an old-school sound that feels pretty nostalgic to the time in the 80s when they were formed. It’s hard to hate it as it’s an album that feels like it’s just written to make you smile and feel better, despite half of the lyrical content. Songs like ‘Teenage Summer’ and ‘Some Greater Plan’ showcase exactly what I’m on about. As seems to be the case this week, it’s not fully my sort of thing, but it’s a great 40-minute collection of soft-rock that doesn’t overstay its welcome and both has highlights as well as working well as a whole. The band have knocked it out of the park with this release, and it makes me just wanna get stoned to it. 7/10
Rhapsody of Fire: Challenge the Wind
The Italian melodic, symphonic metal band returned with their 14th studio album this last Friday. The follow-up to 2021’s epic Glory for Salvation, the four singles released beforehand are already excellent. Therefore, I cannot wait to check out the full release!
It’s another fantastic release from the insanely talented band. Right from the epic opener/title track, through other highlights ‘The Bloody Pariah’, ‘Vanquished by Shadows’ and ‘Black Wizard’, to the closing notes of the amazing ‘Mastered by the Dark’, this is a fantastic journey through and through. Every member of the band is so insanely talented, and have produced such a well rounded, enjoyable collection of epic tracks that there really isn’t a bad one on it. It really feels like the apex of the power/heavy metal crossover sound, and a real career highlight release for sure. Everything about this is awesome, and if you’re into metal at all I cannot recommend it enough! I’mma be jamming this a lot moving forward, and I can’t pick a single fault. I’m already had it on three times over the weekend and it just keeps getting better and better. I can’t not, it has to get a 10/10 from me. Wow!
Swamp Dogg: Bluegrass: from West Virginia to 125th St
This was just big, dumb Bluegrass/country-soul fun, and I loved it. It’s rare I get the chance to check any of the genre out here, and though I tend to prefer it a lot more live, this was a great listen. Don’t get me wrong, there is some good more serious/emotional stuff too, like ‘Have a Good Time’ or ‘Song to Sing’. But then you have stuff like the awesome, Margo Price-featuring ‘To The Other Woman’ or ‘Ugly Man’s Wife’ or ‘Your Best Friend’ are light-hearted fun, and huge highlights.
It’s easy to discount his skill and talent with it being an old-fashioned style, but Swamp Dogg is an amazing player, vocalist and writer. His lyrics are captivating, no matter the topic, his playing is amazing and his vocals still hold up five plus decades into his career. I love the 50s-doowop-style call-and-response vocals throughout too, making it even more fun. This went by in a flash and didn’t at all feel like over 40-minutes of music. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to, and will definitely be listening again in the coming weeks and months. He has such incredible talent, and for all of that, it’s an easy 7.5/10 from me!
Saving Vice: Good Days, Dead Eyes
This is very much a tale of two halves, for me. And, while it’s not a complete half-and-half split, I did find the second half of the album far superior. The band draw a lot of different sounds together, building on their baseline of metalcore with both Ice Nine Kills’ death leanings and Bad Omens’ baddiecore, with a healthy dose of Skillet and Linkin Park mixed in too. I much prefer the former. The heavier tracks like ‘Haec Est Ars Moriendi’, ‘Blood or Wine?’, ‘The Cabel’ and ‘Trauma Sousa’ are all amazing. The screams, heavy riffs and breakdowns are incredible, and they still add some catchy clean vocal hooks in too. And it’s not even just the heavy tracks I like, as the closer and title track are also great.
However, the other half of the album didn’t quite grip me as much as this. It’s not bad, don’t get me wrong, but songs like the opener and ‘Cry, Wolf’ felt decidedly meh, and like a completely different band to the other aforementioned tracks. I don’t think they ruin the other songs all that much, but damn, if they were all like ‘Trauma’ or ‘Haec’, it may have ended up with top marks. It’s a solid metalcore album that I’m sure will have massive wide-scale appeal, and deserves to push the band to massive heights. But for me personally, there are a handful of tracks that I can take or leave. Still it’s an easy 8/10
Wormwood: The Star
The Swedish black metal-ish band are back with their first album in three years. It’s got some great production on it, which is always a nice surprise with black metal. The melodic side of the band shines through heavily in the album too, making it all sound and feel even more epic. The dynamics of tracks like the opener and ‘Thousand Doorless Rooms’ are awesome too, being proggy awesomeness of both heavy and dropped-down, more atmospheric parts. They also go back to their black’n’roll roots on tracks like ‘Liminal’, which was pretty awesome. However, y’all know my feelings on black metal by now. For black metal it’s pretty great, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to it. However, if it came on again I certainly wouldn’t turn it off. If you’re into black metal, I would certainly recommend it. It gets an easy 6.5/10 from me!
East of Reno: Self-Titled
This seemed to start out its life as an EP, but the band have since changed their minds, bumped it up to eight tracks and made it a full debut album. However, regardless, the UK based Americana band have knocked it out of the park with their debut full-length release. It’s a chilled out, well written, and surprisingly heavily emotional eight tracks. And it’s also so interesting hearing a British take on the genre, it feeling like a combination of Americana with Dire Straits. Tracks like ‘Break the Pattern’ also have a certain great Bowie edge to them. Said track is a big highlight of the EP, as are ‘Brothers’ and the beautiful ‘Night of Nothing’.
The band’s PR team really put it perfectly. “It’s a record that gives a voice to the loneliness of any of us sat solo at the bar, or walking through the wilderness, not sure of what we’ll find when we get to wherever the hell it is we’re going to”. It’s a really good listen from front to back, regardless of whether it’s 100% your sort of thing or not. I really enjoyed it, and will certainly be listening to at least a couple of the tracks again a fair bit in the near future. It’s an easy 7.5/10 from us!
Kameron Marlowe: Keepin’ The Lights On
The sophomore album of the country-rock superstar picks up right where his debut left off a couple of years ago. ‘911’ is the perfect opener; a high energy, foot stomping track that’s a big highlight. Other rocking tracks include ‘Lock Me Up’. Then you have slightly slower, darker, epic songs like ‘Nothin’ Slowin’ us Down’ and ‘Tennessee Don’t Mind’ that are all also major highlights. And damn, the duet track with the amazing Ella Langley, ‘Strangers’, is phenomenal. And there’s the odd ballad track to break up all of those too. It’s a really well put together album that keeps things interesting and almost doesn’t feel nearly an hour long. In terms of country albums, it deals with its bloating a lot better than most.
Kameron has such a fantastic voice, it’s fits every style he plays and it’s easy to see why he’s gotten so big so quick. I hadn’t heard of him until I checked out the song he did with Megan Moroney on her album last year. Since then, I fell in love with his debut album, and this one is easily up there with that one, too. Sure, it gets a touch slow by the last few tracks and does drag just a little, but if you’re a country fan I’d highly recommend it! It’s an easy 8.5/10 from me!