Piquing our interest as he retools and rebuilds his sound, Sob Rock is Mayer’s faithful return to the tail-end of tween soft rock and delightful pop. Known for his eloquent voice, soulful bops and jazz-inspired chords, he is best known for antiques of Your Body is a Wonderland, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room and now, New Light. The next tale in straight-edged music writing. In what others may seem as boring and easy to listen to, John Mayer’s songwriting is simplistic, elegant and perfectly suited to his approach to music. And funnily enough, we listen to easy music for easy listening. It is no wonder Mayer has racked up such a loved and compelling audience, what’s not to love?
Sultry enough for 2am elegance but chill enough for a casual night-in, John Mayer joins in on the fun and shares what he’s been getting up to during the pandemic lockdown. No doubt having your own recording studio helps.
As another day passes, another album project involves the punk icon of Travis Barker. It almost goes without saying that Barker will be involved in some punk cross-collaboration with any artist who seems to afford him. There is certainly clique of quality that resonates with him and I’m fairly confident that certain people may only listen to new punk decorum if Barker is on the throne.
_____
WILLOW’s ‘lately I feel everything‘ is no exception. Shedding away her bubble-gum pout, and flashbacking to her involvements with her mother’s nu-metal band Wicked Wisdom when she younger, she brings along a colossal tarnishing of pop-punk and emo of fistfuls as transparent soul, GROW and Lipstick awaken this punk beauty out from her childhood and into mature musicality and and an ever-growing stage presence.
It’s worth mentioning that the album is not all fast and blurry. don’t SAVE ME and 4everbring tasteful breaks in the incessant album that add depth and further introspective thoughts to the world of Willow. The transcendent of pop-punk are ever-present too with the dark, drull tones from the likes of The Cranberries and Nirvana crawl through, which is even better for me. ____
She also brings childhood heroes of Avril Lavigne and of course, Barker along for the ride.
Although somewhat cringey at times, that somewhat fall flat in places, its pop-punk. Through and through. There’s no disputing that and if you like a bit of pop-punk easy on the ears musically, then look no further.
And it’s another Travis Barker project to add to the roster. Score.
Another Friday rolls around, and more yearning continues for new music.
It’s been a fair while since we’ve delved down the rabbit hold of new music in the industry. Let’s have a look, shall we?
Nothing But Thieves are back with their profound, raucous rock under, Moral Panic II. The smaller second act of Moral Panic is here with more disaster-abound music with 5 more instalments with the likes of Futureproof and Miracle, Baby.
WILLOW removes her attachments to the old life of hers, and goes full steaming punk with the help of punk icon and esteemed benefactor, Travis Barker. lately i feel EVERYTHING is another trend-setting punk album that is firmly placed in its genre. WILLOW screeches and screams her away to the pursuit of answers she’s been looking for.
Although not as remotely emphatic and europhic as their debut, The Hunna are added to Travis’s roster, as he inputs his name into another rock album with I’d Rather Die Than Let You In. Their third studio album comes with more darker undertones and a serious mentality to approaching metal music full pace. Hopefully, I will get around to a full album review soon.
The splashy ’70s alter-ego of Grohl enters the scene with Dee Gees. Hail Satin. It seems that the Foos have stripped away their hard-edged rock, and flaunted on stage with disco alternatives. Embracing the sheer fun and boredom of industry lockdown, they just play music because they love it. And that’s why we love them.
Hailing from Dublin, Inhaler made their presence known among the spheres of indie-rock with their new debut album of It Won’t Always Be Like This. With My Honest Face charting pretty much every ad sponsor and TV endorsement that headed the bands’ way, the album allowed the Dublin boys to achieve a heroic position in the charts, and an even more commendable fanbase as them and their music, explode. Shifting from the likes of classics, Radicals from the early 2010s, they’ve brought an adapted, fresh new sound to the world of rock.
Brash and brazen English-quartet, YONAKA have returned with their second album release, Seize Your Power. With no attempts to slow down after their triumphant debut of Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow back in 2019, the rife punk-ists return with a vengence for heavy riffs and hard punches as Call Me A Saint and self-titled, Seize Your Power takes the band down a path of eclectic electronica, which ultimately shapeshifts into some of their most powerful songwriting they’ve done so far.
Aired with a mist of maturity within its run-through, Seize Your Power demonstrates the bands’ ability to bend their sounds to the current, but still keeping it fresh within their own sound.
Although not as boomy and nowhere near as rocket-fueled as their debut – and no where near the same running time – it still holds its head high however, with a sense of satisfaction of finally finishing. It may be a far cry from the frenzy mish-mash of Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow, but this does come with its own advantages … With the band beginning to gain traction through staying prominent, maintaining track records and creating euphoric music, it seems that they are starting to get it.
So, I finally managed to get around to tallying up the votes from my blog post about finding the best British artist (according to my amazing readers world-abound) – and you can have a look at the numbers below. Out of 50 comments received, these were the results!
<Also have a gander at my favourite bloggers’ playlist, which denotes all her favourite British artists in one handy collection. Thanks Catnip!>
THE RESULTS
DISCLOSURE: the results of this voting may bear down to listener preference, taste, demographic and influences.
Elton John, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Dire Straits and Pet Shop Boys all gathered in FOUR votes apiece, resulting in 18 votes overall for this as the TOP FIVE BEST BRITISH ACTS/ARTISTS. There’s some artists that are simply expected to top the lost, but it was surprising for me to see Elton John top the list too, but I’ve never been one to dabble into his music, so there you are.
These pioneers are shortly followed up with Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Queen and The Rolling Stones with THREE votes apiece, resulting in a total of 12 votes for the second list of artists who made the cut. With me being a massive Queen fan, it was disappointing not to see them earn more votes in the long run, but I’m pleased all the same that they were mentioned ample times.
Entering the territory of those artist underdogs or under-appreciated artists, we have: The Who, The Cranberries, The Smiths, U2, Kate Bush, The Kinks, Massive Attack and Duran Duran and rather surprisingly, Fine Young Cannibals. These artists clocked up TWO votes apiece, with resulting in 16 votes in total. WhileThe Smiths somehow outmanoeuvre their Manchester counterparts of Blur and Oasis to earn more votes, the overwhelming appearance of Fine Young Cannibals solidifies my need to have a listen to their music catalogue as I am not aware of them as an artists, as much as I’d like to be.
The final recommendations come with earning ONE vote apiece, resulting in 17 votes in total. Bearing in no particular order: The Cure, Blur, Simply Red, Ed Sheeran, Amy Winehouse, Jess Glynne, Adele, John Newman, Rudimental, Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, Tears For Fears, PJ Harvey, Joy Division, New Order, Duran Duran, Electric Light Orchestra, Judas Priest and Def Leppard.
What’s missing?
While this is a highly commendable line-up with some fantastic music artists involved, many aren’t mentioned at all. Britpop giants, Oasis, Leicester local-lads Kasabian and fanatic funks of The Police were all missed out. But this is the use of saying such a thing like the Bestof something, which usually refers to us thinking about the classic artists from back in the day, rather than the present ones we see and hear today in “popular”music.
