Tracks of the Week: new music from Alice Cooper, Steven Wilson and more...

Last week’s winners were Jorn, followed by Shaman’s Harvest in second place and Joe Bonamassa in third. Well done to them. But who’s driving you wild with desire this week? Or at least making you nod earnestly and think ‘f**k, that’s actually really good…’? Use your power wisely, peoples: listen to our tasty selection below, then vote for your favourite at the foot of this page.

But first, how about another spin of last week’s champion?

Alice Cooper – Paranoiac Personality

Whoopee! It’s new music from Alice Cooper, and it’s good! Taken from forthcoming album Paranormal, Paranoiac Personality twists classic Cooper allure, classy modern rock production (thank you Bob Ezrin) and shots of flashy guitar work into one satisfying whole.

Blackberry Smoke – Like An Arrow

The lovely boys from Blackberry Smoke go a bit gangster for this new video, where dark deeds unfold in Mexico and everyone wears shades. It’s a slightly different look for them, but the steely-eyed (yet utterly melodious) dynamics of Like An Arrow suit it rather well. Nice.

GUN – Favourite Pleasures

We’re thoroughly enjoying this new one from Scottish rockers (and late 80s/early 90s heroes) GUN. A strutting cocktail of riffy rock and hip-swinging sass, it’s deliciously easy on the ear, in a very good way.

Steven Wilson – Song Of I

Britain’s overlord of cerebral progressive rock takes another leap down the ‘modernist pop’ route with this new, quietly haunting cut from To The Bone. Longtime director/collaborator Lasse Hoile swaps enigmatic cloaked figures in woods and barren fields for performance artist Maya Petrovna and, slightly unusually, Steven himself – in a minimal studio set-up.

Jared James Nichols – Last Chance

The shaggy-haired American gunslinger veers away from the bluesiness that infused much of his debut in favour of a faster, rockier stance – plus a couple of virtuosic guitar flourishes for good measure. Check out his new album Black Magic when it’s released in September.

SKAM – Fading Before The Sun

UK hard rock trio SKAM return with this machine gun dose of heavy-hitting gusto. Lyrically it’s all guns, horses, vultures and other Southern cowboy/deserty images, but sonically it’s no-nonsense, chord-crunching rock meat. Watch out for the full new album, due in November.

Charly Bliss – Westermarck

Cute as a button and extremely American, but ballsy with it, this is 90s-pop-tastic rock at its best – with a pensive, heartstring-tugging twist. Guaranteed to give you ALL the warm n’ fuzzies.

Amplifier – Rainbow Machine

This highlight from the brilliantly titled Trippin’ With Dr Faustus, Rainbow Machine follows in the heavy, progressive but hooky footsteps of Amplifier’s previous album Mystoria, with an extra layer of literate psychedelic intrigue. We like it a lot.

Polly is deputy editor at Classic Rock magazine, where she writes and commissions regular pieces and longer reads (including new band coverage), and has interviewed rock's biggest and newest names. She also contributes to Louder, Prog and Metal Hammer and talks about songs on the 20 Minute Club podcast. Elsewhere she's had work published in The Musician, delicious. magazine and others, and written biographies for various album campaigns. In a previous life as a women's magazine junior she interviewed Tracey Emin and Lily James – and wangled Rival Sons into the arts pages. In her spare time she writes fiction and cooks.