ROAD SOUNDS Greg Bush As well as being involved in road transport media for the past 20 years, GREG BUSH has strong links to the music industry. A former Golden Guitar judge for the Country Music Awards of Australia, Greg also had a three-year stint as an ARIA Awards judge in the late 1990s and wrote for and edited several music magazines. Down to the nitty gritty Down-to-earth sounds for a changing world SHAPESHIFTING Joe Satriani Sony/Legacy www.satriani.com As well as being an integral member of supergroup Chickenfoot, Joe Satriani is the most successful solo rock guitarist of all time. Shapeshifting is album number 17 for Satriani since making his solo debut in 1986. As per his previous releases, Shapeshifting is all quality. And there’s plenty of variety too. There’s an ever-so-slight trace of country on ‘Perfect Dust’, while ‘All For Love’ is melodic, dramatic and would be well suited as a movie soundtrack. ‘Big Distortion’ is chock full of big power chords, and ‘Nineteen Eighty’ is a fast-paced hard rocker. Satriani is at his most sedate for the semi-acoustic track ‘Yesterdays Yesterday’ with regular keyboard player and percussionist Eric Caudieux whistling away on the intro. Other notable musicians include bassist Chris Chaney, drummer Kenny Aronoff and pianist Lisa Coleman. SNAPSHOT OF A BEGINNER Nap Eyes Jagjaguwar/Inertia Music www.napeyes.com There are plenty of good sounds coming out of Canada nowadays, and you can add four-piece indie rockers Nap Eyes to that list. Snapshot Of A Beginner is the band’s fourth album, based around the songwriting skills of frontman Nigel Chapman. Nap Eyes enjoys the minimalist approach, notably on ‘Primordial Soup’, a “what’s life about” type of song where Chapman’s vocals meander along until the guitar heavy finale. The band takes an abstract view of ‘Mark Zuckerberg’, the co-founder of Facebook, and switch to ambient mode on ‘Mystery Calling’. They rock on ‘If You Were In Prison’, a post-punk track where they ponder life behind bars, while Chapman undergoes self-analysis on ‘So Tired’, a track notably for the band’s trademark jangling guitar sound. For those into US bands The War On Drugs or The National, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy Nap Eyes. DETACHMENT Magnus Independent www.entermagnus.com The title of Sydney rock trio Magnus’s second album Detachment is timely, considering the current Covid- 19 crisis. However, the band views the album’s release as a cure for the isolation blues. Led by Dutch-born Arne Heeres, Magnus pumps out seriously hardgrinding original music. ‘Humbugger’ is full of advice along the lines of “keep your eyes on the wheel”, and Magnus raises the pace and volume for the thrash guitar-based ‘Saints Sedated’. The title track ‘Detachment’ is another pounding piece of hard rock, the relentless guitar power chords laying the platform behind Heeres’ ominous vocals. The band takes somewhat of a breather on ‘Camel’, but quickly return to normal transmission on ‘Forever & Never’. And there’s more solitude in ‘Lone Motel’. Detachment is a refreshing and inventive rock album. GOOD SOULS BETTER ANGELS Lucinda Williams Highway 20/Thirty Tigers www.lucindawilliams.com Lucinda Williams has embraced the genres of folk, country, blues and rock during her long career, although Good Souls Better Angels is clearly a blues-rock record. Williams’ deep-pitched vocals have never been grittier, helped by the album being recorded at producer Ray Kennedy’s vintage-styled studio. Williams is defiant as she proclaims ‘You Can’t Rule Me’, featuring grungy guitar work from regular band member Stuart Mathis. She recognises her Louisiana upbringing on ‘Pray The Devil Back To Hell’, and sings of depression on ‘Big Black Train’. Mathis delivers the licks again as Williams unleashes on society’s losers with ‘Bad News Blues’. Williams takes aim, supposedly at Donald Trump, on ‘Man Without A Soul’ and, despite the title, ‘Down Past The Bottom’ is a lively bluesrock track. All ends well however on the album’s final track ‘Good Souls’, a laid-back spiritual song. THE NEW ABNORMAL The Strokes Sony/RCA www.thestrokes.com The New Abnormal is the first new album in seven years from New York rock band The Strokes due to the members’ various side projects. These included lead singer Julian Casablancas releasing a couple of albums with his “other band” The Voidz, while guitarist Albert Hammond Jr has enjoyed a reasonably successful solo career. ‘At The Door’, the first single released from The New Abnormal, is a song about a disturbed childhood, while The Strokes borrow a few bars from Billy Idol’s ‘Dancing With Myself’ for ‘Bad Decisions’. Crisp, simplistic guitar riffs (as per The Cure) are the highlight of ‘The Adults Are Talking’ and, despite its title, ‘Why Are Sundays So Depressing’ is more uplifting than not. Apart from ‘Not The Same Anymore’, lively rock rhythms are constant throughout The New Abnormal, an album that won’t disappoint. ECHO OF YOUTH (ACOUSTIC) Winterbourne Island/Universal www.winterbournemusic.com It was just last year when NSW Central Coast indie duo Winterbourne released its debut album Echo Of Youth. During the recording process, Jordan Brady and James Draper put down a few acoustic versions, ultimately giving all 12 tracks a pared-back makeover, and then re-releasing the album as Echo Of Youth (Acoustic). These “unplugged” versions strip the songs back to their true essence – ‘Colourblind’ with acoustic guitar, piano and minimal percussion reveals the duo’s fine song-writing craft. Winterbourne adds mandolin to the perky ‘Milkshakes & Denial’, although ‘Take The Golden’ is not too far removed from the original with handclaps replacing drums. ‘Sunday Night’, with solo piano accompaniment and violin, is a slow and emotive song, and opening track ‘Revolutionary Man’ comes across as a Crosby, Stills & Nash type number. Echo of Youth’s second life could end up outshining the original. Country Corner GHOSTS OF WEST VIRGINIA Steve Earle & The Dukes New West Records www.steveearle.com Steve Earle delves deep into traditional folk-country on his 20th studio album Ghosts Of West Virginia with the latest incarnation of his band The Dukes. The banjo is prominent on ‘Devil Put The Coal In The Ground’ as Earle sings of black lung disease among other negatives. He revisits the topic again on ‘Black Lung’, and sings of a folk hero on ‘John Henry Was A Steel Drivin Man’. Amid bluesy slide guitar, Earle describes the downhill slide of the working man in the US today on ‘It’s About Blood’ and, in a surprise, The Dukes’ fiddle player Eleanor Whitmore takes the lead vocal on ‘If I Could See Your Face Again’. Ghosts of West Virginia is released on May 22. FALLOW Fanny Lumsden Red Dirt Road/Cooking Vinyl www.fannylumsden.net Like most music artists around the world today, Australia’s Fanny Lumsden has been forced to reschedule her tour dates until later in the year due to Covid-19. However, the hiatus will give the music buying public listeners more opportunity to check out Fallow, the Golden Guitar winner’s third studio album. And it’s a classy, smartlyproduced 12-track collection. ‘These Days’ is a well-written feel-good song with tight harmonies, ‘This Too Shall Pass’ has a Celtic flavour, and the tempo quickens on ‘Fierce’ and again on ‘Tidy Town’. Lumsden reveals her honesty in more ways than one on ‘Peed In The Pool’, while ‘Mountain Song’ is featured twice, bookending the album, first with Enyalike multi-tracked vocals and again as an instrumental, atmospheric “reprise”. 46 MAY 2020 ownerdriver.com.au
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