The new album, Solstice, from the amazing A.A. Williams is with us.

The first blindingly obvious difference is the album cover – Previous covers have been deliberately blurred or just glimpses of a face hiding beneath a Claudia Winkleman style fringe but here we have a full-frontal face shot. A sign of confidence or an attempt to be more open?   

If it’s confidence, then it’s well founded. Another glorious album of languid melancholy showing absolute mastery of the quiet-loud song style. Musically it doesn’t diverge too far from the previous As The Moon Rests album with a polished post rock feel. 

Poison is a powerful and melodic opener setting the tone while later on The Veil is an achingly beautiful piano only ballad.

My favourite track is the 6-minute Hold It Together. For half the song it’s a gentle tale of piano led despondency which suddenly erupts into a febrile wall of tremulous guitars and choirs. The comedown at the end is stunning.

Lyrically it’s still dense and at times difficult to hear but that voice is so fabulous….

Another A.A. Williams album destined to make the album of the year list.

 Don’t normally do singles reviews but I chose these from opposite ends of my musical taste.

First up are Black Metal legends, Enslaved, who have decided to sing some sea shanties with the Storm Weather Shanty Choir. An odd choice but fisherman also tend to be hulking men in beards so maybe not that different.

The A side is Fire Marengo which appears to be a very popular shanty (Longest Johns and Bellowhead are just two examples of other versions I’ve seen).

Vocally it’s very standard apart from one section about 2 mins 30 in where they let the vocalist from Enslaved indulge in some very metal growling. Apart from that there’s a short fun guitar solo and an anvil being hammered just to confirm the involvement of the rest of the Viking horde.

The B side is a beautiful Norwegian shanty Anna Lovinda and a lot more traditional. Apart some huge doomy guitar chords this could easily be played in a folk club without offending those in attendance.

There is a stunning black and white splatter 7” which I couldn’t resist.

For something completely different, Vanessa Funke makes gorgeous post punk/New Order inspired rock under the name of The Occasion. However, she also has a side project called Movement for some very retro synth pop.

So Far Away is very 80’s with waves of synths over some amazing drum machine programming. It pulses along topped off by Vanessa singing where she absolutely nails the almost uninterested, jaded vocals that the Human League did so perfectly.   

The B side is an instrumental called Game of Chance. A slightly faster track making more use of stabs of keyboard – You can almost see someone stood next to a vintage synthesizer, tapping out the notes one handed. 

So far, I’ve loved everything I’ve heard from her, so I need to investigate more 

 So, we have a new album from JJ Lovegrove called History Is The Struggle of Becoming and is a loose concept on the life and works of D.H. Lawrence.

Confession time – I’m know nothing about D.H. Lawrence, so I’ll not comment about how that and the concept (I also have no idea who the apparently renowned producer Ed Harcourt is. That could just be my age or my musical preferences but I apologise for my ignorance.

 The last album from Judi, (Unravelled: The Elegies) was brilliant but so raw and personal, it was hard to listen to at times. This time it’s still lyrically vulnerable and intimate but with more than just voice and piano it feels more of a comfortable share.

Lament is an opening instrumental full of brass before we hit the single Celandine which is one of the album highlights. A slow burn, opening up with piano but with a menacing guitar lurking at the back. Slowly drums are added to the mix and then Judi’s vocals go stratospheric with a succession of astonishing high notes.

The Rainbow is more downbeat, featuring snippets of a home recording while detailing a difficult home life.

Lyrically Lost Girl is gut wrenching in its depiction of a sexual assault before depressingly listing ‘rules’ for young women – “Don’t smile too much, or wear the wrong dress. Cover your glass with your hand, don’t walk home alone.” 

The title track features big booming piano chords while the guitar weaves some glorious noise around them.

Hunger Codes is about sex and throbs with sensuous desire, the vocals a lusty purr. The low deliberate piano notes reminiscent of Talk Talk’s seminal Life’s What You Make It. Another album highlight.

Throughout, the song writing is exceptional, and Judi’s voice is stunning, full of emotion, yet never forced.

Yet another artist who should be applauded from the rafters, rather than being cherished by those of us lucky enough to have discovered her.

 Looks like end of May / start of June is going to be an amazing month for new releases.

First up is the debut album from Abrasive Trees called Light Remaining. This is a band I’ve been following since hearing the debut single in 2020. From those early days only Matthew Rochford on guitar and vocals remains and I have been really looking forward to this.

No Solace opens with a solemn spoken word section before exploding around 90 seconds in a wall of drums and guitar.

There is a slow, glacial tempo to a lot of the tracks with a dense almost claustrophobic atmosphere which the spoken vocals accentuate.

However, the first of two instrumentals, Star Sapphire, positively bounces along on a pulsing bass line before slowing down for some monolithic riffing and then picking up the tempo again.

The first single, Carved Skull, welcomes back former band member Ben Roberts and his electric cello to stunning effect. “Are we divided?” asks the band as the music fades out before the voices. The backing vocals of Yunala Songweaver are a great addition to both this track and Flickering Flame.

The final album track I Didn’t Mean to Hurt You is an 11-minute instrumental epic in three parts. It starts at a stately pace with mournful cello to the fore. A staggering change of pace takes the track into an absolute post-rock maelstrom sweeping you up in a clattering crescendo with thunderous drumming. Pausing to take breath, the final third  tempo allows Matthew to weave some extraordinary guitar virtuosity. 

There is a bonus track, Megadrone, but I’m not sure there is a need for another largely spoken word track, and I would have left I Didn’t Mean to Hurt You to end the album.

Just to say the artwork for the album and the two singles from Grebo Gray is also perfect, giving the band a strong visual identity. 

A brilliant album to start a run of new releases this month.

 I found it strangely difficult to get into Eurovision this year. Maybe it was the boycotts, Israel’s continued attempts to gerrymander the voting or just not having the whole family around to watch it with. However, there was still plenty to enjoy, and I even predicted two of the top three!

Let start with the UK entry – Not our worst effort and the staging was fun. I thought his call and response audience participation was very good. Deserved a lot more than a single point which suggests we are still not that loved on the continent.

Part of the problem is that not once did I hear the song played on the radio or TV before the contest and if the UK media don’t think it’s worth playing then that has to influence other countries. Some songs are huge hits in their own countries beforehand and so popularity breeds popularity. We tend to think only in terms of whether our song is ‘good enough for Eurovision’ rather than thinking bigger and choosing something the average Brit would like to hear on the radio.

Anyway, some observations on a few of the other entries:

Serbia went the furthest into metal territory with swords, black leather and a rather guttural scream. 

Weirdest act of the night was Greece. A man partially dressed as a cat, riding a scooter to a song made up of computer games noises was very Eurovision (even though the song was awful). He then danced with a statue and slid down a fireman’s pole.

In terms of vocals, the 28 second note held by the Ukrainian singer was very impressive and the best of the ballads.

Malta hadn’t appeared to notice that it was no longer the 1950’s but maybe it was a deliberate nod to the competition being 70 years old.

Bulgaria won and I rather enjoyed it. The premise appeared to be a zombie version of AA – “Hi, it’s been three weeks since my last brains”. A twitchy dance tune full of tempo changes as it slowed and sped up at various points. A deserved winner.

I was absolutely knackered watching Moldova. They just bounced incessantly for three minutes shouting “Viva Moldova”.

Finally, Romania went big guitar riffs, a singer who clearly enjoys Wednesday Addams fashion sense and a controversy courting title of ‘Choke Me’. A nice blend of Evanescence and Lady Gaga meant it did very well.  

Highlight of the night though? Had to be Lordi covering Brotherhood of Man’s Save All Your Kisses For Me in the interval!

 This is a piece I’ve wanted to write about for a long time and its about the great lost Hair Metal album. If you enjoyed the late 80’s of Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Poison, Motley Crue etc. then this should be essential listening.

The self-titled (and only) album from No Sweat is a true Hair Metal classic and a victim of purely being in the wrong band, at the wrong time. Even now you will struggle to find the album on streaming services. 

I saw them play live once in Sheffield in possibly 1990, supporting Roadhouse which was a band put together by ex Def Leppard guitarist Pete Willis. Little did I know that was probably the career highpoint as Seattle was about to wipe out the whole genre 

No Sweat did have some chart success in their native Ireland, but nothing cracked the top 40 in the UK which is surprising.

The first single Heart And Soul was produced by Joe Elliott (Def Leppard) should have been a hit with its massive AOR radio friendly chorus and strong melodic/bluesy vocals from Paul Quinn.

However, it’s when you get to the credits of that debut album that its staggering they didn’t succeed.

Firstly, they didn’t have a full-time drummer at the time of recording, so James Kottak (Kingdom Come) helps out behind the kit. The producer is Keith Olsen (Whitesnake, Night Ranger, Pat Benetar), Michael Sadler and Jim Crichton of Saga help out with backing vocals and keyboards.

Bizarrely even Pol Brennan (Clannad) produces vocals on one of the tracks.

With that sort of backing, you wonder why no one has heard of them.

Musically the songs are catchy hard rock with the occasional twists – There is some stunning slide guitar on the intro to Mover and Stay is a high-level blues ballad.

Lyrically they may not have been the best. The line “Rock is rock and I’m rocking you” from Tear Down The Walls is unintentionally one of my favourite silly lyrics ever.

Over the last few years, I’ve been able to pick up both a vinyl copy of the album and a few of singles, while single handedly boring anyone that will listen as to what a great band this was.

If you can have a listen and enjoy. 

 All been a bit quiet recently for the blog and I was beginning to worry this year would be a write off for new music but in the last few weeks things are looking much, much brighter

Albums expected from all these great people

JJ Lovegrove – May 29

Abrasive Trees – May

A.A. Williams – June 6

Blueneck – Summer

Marillion – Autumn?