A pretty stacked week of new music this week, featuring lots of country alongside some awesome metal and pop-rock! Let’s dive in!
Bon Jovi: Forever
I know a lot of people shit on post Crush/Have a Nice Day Bon Jovi, but I’ve gotta say I really enjoyed this album. As a soft rock/AOR album four decades into their career, it’s a fantastic release. Jon’s vocals sound better than they have in years, and the song fit pretty perfectly into his current range. And the rest of the band, while it’s relatively simple instrumentation, all hold up their ends.
Whether it’s 80s tinged rock stompers like ‘Living Proof’ and ‘Walls of Jericho’, or the softer, acoustic ballads like the opener and ‘Hollow Man’, there are plenty of highlights. Heck, another controversial opinion here, I’m sure, but a lot of this is so very close to country. You listen to ‘We Made it Look Easy’, imagine it with a southern drawl instead of a New Jersey AOR voice, and maybe a mention of a tractor or beer in there, and tell me it isn’t a country track! We even get a couple of classic Bon Jovi piano ballads sprinkled through, too!
Now, is it up there with their first four/five albums? No. But I think that’s more of a case of lacking in massive, career-defining hits than it being bad. It’s a real solid album from start to finish without a weak track on it. I’ve listened through a couple of times now and am enjoying it more and more, adding a lot to my personal playlist. It’s the best album I’ve heard them release in a while, and if you’re a fan of any era of the band, or rock in general, give this a chance, you won’t be disappointed. 8.5/10
Carly Pearce: hummingbird
The modern, neo-traditional country star returned with her first studio full-length in three years last year. A couple of points to begin with. 47-minutes is almost pushing it, length wise. Also, what’s she got against capital letters?
The music itself is fine. Honestly, it’s probably good, but there is so much of this style that I think is being done slightly better these days that it’s hard to get into this too much. Songs like ‘truck on fire’, ‘woman to woman’ and the Chris Stapleton featuring ‘we don’t fight anymore’ are good, but the album did drag on slightly for me. It’s a mixture of an Ashley McBride style with a more early 2000s country sound added in for good measure. It’s not a bad album by any stretch, but just with the amount of country that is released currently, and with how much we cover here, it doesn’t stand out, falling in amongst the backdrop of other country white-noise. The highlight for me was the strings, the fiddle player and guitarists being massively talented and adding a lot to each and every song on the album.
Overall, it’s good music that I would happily listen to again and wouldn’t turn off if it came back on. But it isn’t going to be up in our top albums of the year come December, that’s for sure. 6.5/10
Evergrey: Theories of Emptiness
The prog metallers are on album 14, and still find a way of keeping their style and sound incredibly interesting and enjoyable. The heaviness of the instrumentation contrasts perfectly with the catchy clean vocals throughout, a somehow perfect blend of Gojira and Dream Theater. And some of the soloing throughout is incredible! It’s really hard to pick out highlight tracks as they are all so good, but goddamn are ‘Misfortune’, ‘We are the North’ and ‘One Heart’ INCREDIBLE. And of course I cannot do this review without mentioning the amazing ‘Cold Dreams’ with Katatonia’s Jonas Renkse.
It does kinda have the same issue as the previous album in this list, in that it feels just a touch bloated. However, with being a massive metalhead, it’s less egregious of an issue. And, generally, I feel the songs are of higher quality than Carly’s ones. This is a very good metal album, and if you’re into the more European, proggy sound, I cannot recommend it enough. It fits together well as an album too, with a brilliant closing track. It gets an easy 8.5/10 from me!
Seasick Steve: A Trip a Stumble a Fall Down on your Knees
The blues legend is back with his 14th studio album. For fans of the man or the genre in general, it is more of the same, and exactly what you’d expect. And, for once, that isn’t a bad thing. This is a damn fun and enjoyable listen, and a very well put together album. Tracks like ‘Internet Cowboys’, ‘Backbone Slip’ and ‘Let the Music Talk’ are awesome, and honestly feel like potential career highlights. It’s not going to be for everyone, but as an old-school blues I enjoyed the lighter Billy Gibbons swagger that this album has throughout. It’s pretty similar to all of his previous stuff, but fits in pretty perfectly with the rest of his discography. And, at over 70 years old, the fact that his voice is still so awesome and powerful, and he’s still writing such great music, is a real testament to his talent. It’s an easy 7.5/10 from me!
The Omnific: The Law of Augmenting Returns
This has maybe the best album opening I’ve ever heard in my life. The ridiculous a Capella into some utterly dirty, awesome bass playing, and said bass playing continuing for a further 43-minutes, is insane awesomeness. Why don’t we get more instrumental prog metal bands that are just two bassists and a drummer? And I don’t even say that as a bassist, but some of the sounds and creativity they produce would surely be evident to anyone. Their playing ability is off the charts and mind blowing, going from Meshuggah-like death prog to essentially jazz in the same six-minute track. This band are to bass what Polyphia are to guitar. Every track is phenomenal, and they all blend together on the album so well. Even if you aren’t into instrumental stuff or proggy, djenty metal, check this out, I can guarantee you’ll at least be impressed. I’ve had my mind blown a little bit here, and I’ve already listened to it through twice, with surely many more to come. It has to get a 10/10, damn.
Jesse Daniel: Countin’ The Miles
This is neo-traditional country at its best. Whether it’s Marty Stuart, Garth Brooks or Willie Nelson, the album, and Jesse as a whole, wears his inspirations on his sleeve and pays tribute to them perfectly. So, if you’re into stuff like that, you’ll love this! while it’s not something I’d listen to hugely often, songs like the opener, ‘Restless’ and ‘Lonesome Blues’ are major highlights of the album for me. The two features, Ben Haggard and Jodi Lyford, also fit their tracks, and Jesse’s style, perfectly. It’s just a good, fun listen all round. In terms of albums like this too, it’s up there with some of my favourites, and is better than any of the legends’ that he emulates more recent albums. I’d happily listen to this again, and have added a fair bit of it to my country playlist so probably will sooner rather than later. If you’re a more traditional country fan, you’ll love this, so I’d highly recommend. It’s an easy 7.5/10 from me!
Nightmare: Encrypted
This is an awesome blend of power metal and melodeath. It had me on its hook right from the opening track, and songs like ‘Voices from the Other Side’, ‘Wake the Night’ and the title track are all massive highlights too. However, every track on the release is pretty great! The blend of styles, as well as of the powerful clean vocals with the great screams, is awesome, and keeps the album consistently interesting and entertaining. The band are all hugely talented musicians and songwriters. They’ve been around for a while too, so it’s kind of insane that I haven’t heard of them before now. This album has certainly made me want to go back and check out the rest of their discography. My only slight issue with the album was the fade in intro that felt weird, but it’s a very small gripe to have over an otherwise solid release. If you’re into either genre, I’d definitely suggest giving this a try. I’d love to see any of this live, too, I feel like it’d be amazing. It gets a solid 8.5/10 from us!
Evan Honer: Fighting For
This was like Zach Bryan meets Wyatt Flores in all of the best ways. It also came out of nowhere for me. I’d never heard of the kid before this review and he blew me away. I honestly had goosebumps for practically the whole album. The emotion and lyrics were phenomenal, as was the simple, folky instrumentation and his perfect vocals/delivery. It’s almost impossible to pick highlights as it’s all incredible, but I both love and hate how hard the lyrics to ‘Nowhere Fast’ and ‘Take me as I Come’ hit. Heck, the latter even features Wyatt, in a truly perfect pairing.
It’s such an amazing release that for once, the length isn’t an issue. It’s simple, similar music, but it’s so good that nearly an hour goes by in a flash. This is Americana-indie-pop at its very best, and it’s certainly up there with the Flores release. I imagine it’ll be up there with Zach Bryan’s too, when that releases later this year. If you are a fan of the style of the music, you will adore this as I do. And even if you aren’t, check this out; you’ll probably still fall in love. For the second time this week, it’s another 10/10
LØLØ: falling for robots & wishing i was one
So, clearly I am kinda out of touch with the pop-punk world, these days. I found this girl on TikTok, giving a rather entertaining story about one of the reviews of this album. So I figure I’d give it a go, check it out, only to find she has 1M Spotify listeners and has played some pretty big gigs. Moral of the story: I’m old (he says, being the same age as her!).
As for the album itself, it’s certainly made for the younger generation. It feels very Olivia Rodrigo or Stand Atlantic. And it’s certainly on the poppier end of pop punk these days. However, it’s a fun listen. Songs like ‘faceplant’ and the massive single ‘u turn me on’ were highlights for me. I had a good time listening to the album and full; it’s well arranged and put together, and the mixing and production is incredible. However, generally, this isn’t my thing. I don’t get the hyper-sexualised lyrics in a lot of pop these days, I feel like it takes away a lot of other potential emotion from the lyrics. If anything, it just made me cringe a bit instead of feel anything. But then again, I know I am certainly not the target audience of the music. It’s an objectively good pop-rock record that will do well with plenty of people, and as a debut album is fantastic. Her vocals, while similar to a lot of big singers these days, are good, and fit the music well. So, from all of that, I think it’s fair to give it a 6.5/10 from us.
P.S. if you end up reading this LØLØ (lol, why would you see this?) plz don’t call me out on TikTok!
Josh Meloy: Where you Came From
The modern country legend is back with his first album in over four years. It’s a fun listen, incorporating not only blues, but also just a touch of Randy Newman and even Fleetwood Mac to the sound, too. It’s a damn fine release, with tracks like the emotional ‘Killin’ Me Inside’, ‘My Last Dime’ and ‘1000 Miles’ being highlights. His vocals are also AMAZING, so raspy but powerful and fit the tracks perfectly. It’s a good album, but we’ve officially reached the point of the early summer where the country albums come thick and fast, and this was the fourth/fifth I’d check out this week; I got a touch burnt out by it. Heck, at least it’s a short album, as country is concerned, only 11 tracks and 36 minutes. Josh is an incredible vocalist and songwriter, and these songs will no doubt grow on me more and more with more listens. And even still, this album is easily an 8/10. Check this out if you like lower country/blues stuff!