Weekend Music Roundup

 

It's the weekend and that can only mean one thing, time for a music roundup. There's a few new albums on here, but there's also a lot of older albums that I recently picked up. This is also an all rock list, though that wasn't planned. But the truth be told, can never have too much rock. Next week should be a bunch of new albums again, but for now, it is what it is. Enjoy.

Dead Lord - Surrender: The fourth album from the Swedish hard rock band was released early in September. This was my first introduction to the band. They are a garage based hard rock band with a bit of a punk vibe, but punk by way of 90s Bad Religion and vocals that sound like Elvis Costello. This is a pretty solid album with a few killer tracks. "Evil Always Wins" and "Genna Get Me" are standouts for me.  

Cheap Trick - Heaven Tonight: The third album by the hard rocking band from the Mid-West was released in '78, a little more than a year after their debut. This album solidified their sky-rocketing success and shows them truly on top of their game. This is classic late 70s American rock n roll, with it's the-world-might-be-falling-apart-so-let's-just-have-some-fun vibe. It was a vastly different approach than the British contemporary rock was dealing with. It feels eerily applicable to today. I've been really digging the two albums of theirs I've picked up in the as last few month. The title track and "On Top of the World" are two of my favorites. 

The Telescopes - Early Studio Recordings: This vinyl compilation was released in 2018 in Spain and I recently acquired a copy after fist discovering this 90s UK band about a month ago. The band would eventually go on to be signed by Creation Records (the premiere Britpop label) and would go on to be more shoegaze oriented. These early recordings are from '89-'90, a time when the underground was developing all kinds of genres that would explode in the years to come. This is a combination of noise rock, shoegaze, and punk that is the kind of sound that could only have come out in that period. While I loved the shoegazer stuff I encountered on their "Altered Perceptions" comp, this is even better. "7th# Disaster," "This Planet," "The Perfect Needle," "Sadness Pale," "To Kill a Slow Girl Walking," and "Forever Now" are standouts on this fantastic record.

 

Tom Waits - Bawlers: Back in 2006, the iconic gravelly voiced singer released the triple album Orphans which I have on CD. Two years ago, the label wisely re-issued the three albums individually on vinyl. I recently picked up this one, which was always my favorite of the set (though truth be told, all are brilliant). Bawlers are more ballad-y, melancholic and lo-fi, which highlight the purity of Waits in my opinion. It's like a Woody Guthrie album filtered through a Parisian gramophone circa 1921.   

 

Mark Lanegan - Straight Songs of Sorrow: Over the past decade, the former Screaming Trees frontman has been quite prolific and reinvented himself as the indie Tom Waits, producing forlorn Americana roots rock. His newest album follows that same path. This is an autobiographical album, with many highlights, but it feels flat in some areas for me. In particular the drums, and background synth are distracting and weak. "Ketamine" was my favorite song on this record.