Another week has come and gone in Tracks Of The Week Land, and another act has triumphed in truly spectacular fashion. This time it's Las Vegas-based modern rockers Crashing Wayward, whose Holding For Dear Life single received more than 50% of the votes, ahead of When Rivers Meet and Dan Byrne. So congratulations to them.
Like every other week, this week's contest contains eight songs, and it's up to you to decide which one is the greatest. We hope you enjoy the responsibility.
Crobot - Foot Off
Dayyum this one’s funky… A big sassy groovefest, doubling down with dirty, juicy riffs that stomp and shimmy like dinosaurs at a disco. Crobot do spacey, psychedelic textures extremely well too, but it sure is fun to hear ‘em in full rock’n’roll party mode like this. “It’s somewhere between ZZ Top, Aerosmith, and Clutch,” guitarist Chris Bishop accurately observes. “Right where I like to be, baby. I’m happy we are back to funkin’.” Watch out for more of the good stuff on their new album Supermoon.
Muse - Be With You
If you look up the term ‘expansive’ in the rock dictionary, Muse would be one of the first examples. Across ten studio albums – the latest of which, The Wow! Signal, was literally launched from space – they’ve set the standard for big-scale performance through their light shows, willingness to veer between genres and stratosphere-soaring sounds. Accordingly, The Wow! Signal’s intergalactic launch was hinged on Be With You, a gloriously cinematic first taste, moving through dreamy melody, pulsating electronics, huge driving guitars and more.
Zach Person - Blow
Texan singer/guitar-slinger Zach Person returns to our radar, marrying the soulful intensity of Lenny Kravitz with the grungy swagger of Soundgarden. Blow unfurls in dirty, smoke-wreathed layers of rhythm guitar, stylish bluesy lead lines and a generous touch of tripped-out mystique – climaxing with some tasty wah-wah hints and a punchy finish. Cool mixed-media music video, too. Nice.
Crown Lands - Through The Looking Glass
“Is there anything cooler than heavy rock ballads about dragons?” Crown Lands guitarist Kevin Comeau asks, regarding this far-out yet hooky highlight from their lavishly prog-tastic new album Apocalypse. “I think not.” Well, quite. Expect sparkling 12-string guitar, mellotron lines and a big fuck-off chorus with grandstanding, dreamlike shades of Stairway To Heaven. It suddenly makes them feel much less niched than those clever chops and the fantastical, in-depth worlds they create through their lyrics suggest.
Hollie Rogers - Everything’s Fine (with Elles Bailey and Beth Nielsen-Chapman)
Soulful, piano-laced shades of Carole King weave into this toe-tapping number, co-written by Rogers with Elles Bailey and Beth Nielsen-Chapman at an invite-only retreat hosted by Squeeze man Chris Difford. By turns funny, slinky and soothing, with luscious harmonies purring all the way through, Everything’s Fine is a relatable ode to spinning a gazillion plates as everything around you bursts into flames, acting like you know exactly what you’re doing… even if you really don’t. True story: I’d just tipped an almost full mug of coffee down myself before I listened to this, and it definitely took the edge off it. Thanks Hollie.
Tigercub - A Black Moon
Brighton’s rising, buzzy answer to Queens Of The Stone Age mix jagged guitar chops with smouldering vocals on this latest taste of their next album Nets To Catch The Wind, its melancholy verses evolving into strapping, meaty choruses. Not hard to see why they’ve made an impression on Stone Gossard, Pearl Jam guitarist and founder of Tigercub’s label Loosegrove. “I’d put Jamie Hall’s winding mega riffs up against anyone in rock,” Stone says. “And he can fricking sing like a bad ass at the same time. Wow.”
The Meffs - Business
We'll forgive spiky duo The Meffs for rhyming "mind your language" with "feedback sandwich" as the other 99.3% of the song is great, with a fat, thumping riff and a half-spoken, half-sung delivery that's got more attitude than the stroppiest of teens. "In life you're told to be your 'authentic self', but only if your 'authentic self' fits a mould, only if you 'authentic self' is on brand," say the band. "We're not hard enough but we're not soft enough, we're not queer enough but we're too queer, etc. We're okay with that; we know who we are and we know what we stand for." This is the title track of their second album, out in September.
The Black Keys - Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire
Following last month's version of You Got to Lose – originally made famous by George Thorogood and the Destroyers – The Black Keys return to crate-digging action to cover the genuinely obscure Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire, originally a 7" single for Dallas soul man Willie Griffin back in 1984. The original is most notable for a supremely out-of-tune guitar part, but the Black Keys have somehow retained the song's otherworldly weirdness on their own, fully in-tune take. Strangely, Paul Weller covered the same song on his Find El Dorado album last year, which, like The Black Keys' new album Peaches!, was also an exercise in musical archaeology.
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