It has been a long seven-year wait for Pearl Jam fans. Their last outing, Lightning Bolt was probably one of their weakest albums as well. Being a huge fan of Backspacer I was fairly disappointed with Lightning Bolt. 

But once I heard there would be a new album this year I was super excited.

They teased us with two new songs. Dance Of The Clairvoyants and Superblood Wolfmoon. Both a bit of a step away from the older style rock numbers. Dance particularly had some interesting sounds. The more I listened to it the better it got. But that being said I was wondering what direction they were going with this album. 

From the opening riff of Who Ever Said I was hooked. What a lovely grungy sounding palm-muted old school pearl jam noise. Already this was better than their last album. 

Musically the album will keep Pearl Jam fans happy. It sounds more like their 90s material than anything they have put out in a long time. Even the more experimental songs slip in nicely. Buckle Up is a great example of this. The album goes from heavy rock songs to slower tempo tracks as the album progresses, then ending with a beautiful sounding pump organ song, River Cross. The guitar work is wonderful, this can be really seen with the solo in Take The Long Way. They also have a great acoustic ballad in the mix, Comes Then Goes, which I was delighted with as their slower acoustic sounding album Riot Act is my favourite. 

Eddie has never been shy to mention politics in his music. The already mentioned Riot Act is a perfect example of this. As this is their first album in Trump Era America, he doesn’t get left alone. Eddie takes some clear shots at him, like in the rocking number Quick Escape. Here Eddie tells us of his voyages “to find a place Trump hadn’t fucked up yet”. He then calls Trump “sitting bullshit” on the track Seven O’Clock as he tells of America being forged by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. 

As any fan of Pearl Jam will tell their live shows are second to none. Gigaton has some fantastic songs on it, which will make amazing additions to their already huge backlog of hits. Personally, I can’t wait to see what they decided to play. I found myself dancing along to Dance Of The Clairvoyants in the shower (yeap I dance in the shower) so I can’t wait to hear that live and dance along with thousands of others. 

This album is one that I can’t wait to pick up on vinyl and give a spin through my stereo. I’d even say it gives my favourite Riot Act a run for its money. 

–Darryn

Ozzy has not been a well man recently. Given everything he has shared about himself this is no real surprise (his book I am Ozzy is a delight and well worth a read). So he cancels a string of tour dates and then what? Never to be stuck sitting in, Ozzy recorded a new album. 

It has been 10 years since Ozzy dropped any solo material. His last outing Scream was perfectly fine in my opinion, but nothing too memorable. In fact the last album I truly enjoyed from Oz would have been 2001s Down To Earth. So when I first heard about this I was skeptical. Happy though that Ozzy was well enough to still be releasing new tunes.

I loved the initial single, it didn’t hurt having Elton John singing back up and playing piano. The song is a sad ballad with Ozzy nearly begging to be remembered as anything more than Ordinary. It is almost like a Beatles track, this is no surprise given Ozzy is a GIANT Beatles fan. With his current age (71) and health problems, the song really hits home and pulls the listener in. Also having the rhythm section of Chad Smith on drums (of Red Hot Chili Pepper fame), and Duff (legendary bassist and songwriter with Guns N’ Roses) really added to the song. This really whet my appetite for the full album.

From the opening tracks almost angelic intro straight into a powerful riff……Ozzy is BACK. This album had me head banging away like a mad man when I stuck it on first. Exactly what I wanted from the prince of darkness.

The album has been cowritten with Andrew Watt, who also produces it. It seems it all came from Ozzy working with Watt on Post Malones last album (so thank you Posty). The music on the record is brilliant, the guitar tracks and solos are a delight (especially having Slash guest on a few tracks). As mentioned above Chad and Duff as a rhythm section is a seriously solid supergroup. You get the sense that everyone on the album is such a fan of Ozzy that they poured everything into helping create an amazing heavy Ozzy sound.

Tracks like Goodbye, Ordinary Man and All My Life seem to show Ozzy talking about his long life, possible past regrets and how he views his current situation. Lyrics like “No future, no no no future, Replace me, now I’m gone,” on Goodbye seem to be Ozzy staring death in the face and saying he’s ready. Even asking at the end, “Do they serve tea in heaven?”. 

Not all is doom and gloom however with tracks like, Scary Little Green Men and Eat Me. Here we can see Ozzy just having fun, singing about aliens and serving himself up as dinner (it reminded me of Alice Coopers Feed My Frankenstein). The final song is a banger which features Post Malone. Lovely heavy track which I am sure they had serious fun recording. 

Overall I loved this album. I will totally be picking it up on vinyl. It is certainly a return to form for Ozzy. Hopefully he gets well enough to tour again so I can see some of these tunes live. But in the mean time there is talk of another album, I am all in for that. For a man of his age he sounds amazing and seems to be having a great time still making music, long life Ozzy. 

This interview with Chad Smith is worth a look as well. It’s nice to see Chad fanboy over working with an obvious hero of his, and gives some insight into the fun everyone seemed to have making this record. 

–Darryn

It’s been a while since I enjoyed a green day album fully. I think the last album I loved was American Idiot, some 16 years ago. The next outing 21st Century Breakdown wasn’t bad I just got bored with it quickly. After that we had three albums all in one year. I think it was a fun idea but they had so much filler it put me off. I think maybe one album with the best tracks of each would have been a winner. Then came Revolution Radio which I remember enjoying at the time, but off the top of my head I can’t name one song. Clearly it didn’t hook me enough to keep listening.

So I went into this album not expecting much.

First thing of note is the length. It clocks in at a short 26 minutes. This makes it their shortest album. Also the album artwork was a nice throw back for me. It is the same cover as American Idiot but zoomed in more on the arm, with a unicorn vomiting on the word “motherfucker”.

I loved the first song. I was out walking when I stuck the album on, gave me a proper bouncy pop punky vibe, which I LOVE from Green Day. Musically the album is punky in parts but also very old school rock and roll. There are some tracks where it almost sounds like they are channeling Elvis.  Stab You In The Heart is a perfect example of this. The sound is perfect rock and roll even down to the solo. I have seen green day live a few times and they tend to through in a few rock n roll covers. I think as a sound for them it works really well. Fun music you can dance along to.

Something I always loved from Green Day was Mike Dirnt’s bass lines. On this album he does not disappoint. I Was a Teenage Teenager is a prime example of this. A simple but effective bass line that scratches at Green Days punk roots. Nice simple song where the bass does the heavy lifting during the verses thus allowing the guitars to smash out the chorus.

I grew up with Green Day writing songs about being a stoned bored despondent teenager. Billie Joe has written some classic teenage tunes, and even some great political songs. I have found on their last few albums he’s been trying to recapture that. There are some examples of him trying to recapture his youth dotted around this album, Teenage Teenager being the most obvious. The last track Graffitia is quite a politically driven song. I liked it lyrically as it is nearly a modern answer to their classic Welcome To Paradise. 

I think lyrically the album falls down a bit especially when Billie is singing about being a kid again. Maybe more politically charged songs and less songs about heartbreak and being a teenager would save them.

Overall I enjoyed this album quite a lot more than I was expecting. It hooked me more than any of their more recent albums. I am not sure I’d be rushing out to pick it up on vinyl. Though there are enough fun new songs on it to keep my interest in the band alive all these years later. They are still a power house live so I am excited to catch the Hella Mega Tour later this year.

— Darryn

It’s been 14 years since I first saw the Who live. It was Oxegen Festival 2006. I had only really started listening to them when they released their 2004 greatest hits compilation called Then and Now. That included a couple of new songs, so there was hope of new material and a tour. I was delighted to get the chance to see them.

Obviously being a fan of rock music, I had heard some of the more famous Who tracks. So seeing them live playing what was basically a greatest hits show blew me away. The memory of the crowd screaming along to Baba O’Reilly will stay with me forever. I was totally sold on the band that day and I became a much bigger fan, rooting out albums and digging into their back catalogue a bit more.

They had released an album just after I saw them at Oxegen, and honestly it didn’t really do anything for me. Even if I did rush out to buy it. But at the time that was grand, I had a lovely back catalogue to jump into.

It’s been a long 13 year wait for new material.

Originally when I heard of it I was skeptical. Their last album wasn’t brilliant and it had been forever since they recorded anything. I had seen them live a few times since that first show and they are always a treat, but could they still crack out an album?

Thanks to the magic of Spotify I was able to listen to the new single, Ball and Chain, when it came out. I was left anxiously wanting more. The effect of hearing that song made me rush home to my guitar to try and learn that riff. The Who were back with a bang. But what would the album hold?

Thanks yet again to the magic of Spotify, I was able to find out. I do still pick up albums, I love the sound of vinyl, but I use Spotify to help me decide which albums I want.

I think the album is a brilliant return to form. The fun thing is they don’t care what you think anyway as the opening track says, “I don’t care, I know you’re gonna hate this song”.

The overall sound is quite Who-like. They have Pete’s lovely twangy guitar and his love for beautiful synthesizer sounds. Roger’s voice has obviously changed over the years, he can’t hit all those notes like he used to, but it works so well on this. When he wants to be powerful you can hear it on tracks like Street Song.

I noticed a lot of past reflection on this album. There are very obvious past nods like the intro riff to Won’t Get Fooled Again used as the ending on the track Detour. The lyrics show an almost analytic view of their past careers. For example, the song I Don’t Wanna Get Wise. This song is almost an answer to the band’s probably most famous hit, My Generation. Instead of “I wanna die before I get old” it nearly says I did get old, but I would do it all again.

Even the intro song calls out their early career. But it’s almost a passive, sneering look at the music industry. Pete says the music is all going to fade anyway, so he doesn’t mind other guys ripping off his songs.

There is also an air of the political on this album. Songs like Ball and Chain, Beads On One String and Street Song are clearly still pushing for an anti war peace loving world. This is very apparent on Beads On One String. Lyrics like “I don’t care how you name Him, He is always the same, I just know that we shame Him, When we kill in His name”. This is almost a religious reference. Careful not to mention any one deity, even this implies a world unity.

The band they have pulled together to record are brilliant. When they hit their mark they sound perfect. The drums for example are held together nicely by Zak Starkey (yes, Ringo’s son). You can really hear him wail on the drum heavy track Detour.

Not every song is a hit, personally I thought the Pete-only outing I’ll Be Back was a bit too folky. It’s not a bad song, but I don’t think it fits the album, it is definitely just a Pete solo track that seemed to be out on to boost the album tracks. She Rocked My World strayed a bit too far from the Who magic for me as well. It is almost a jazz song, I am not sure it works for the Who. It does suit Roger’s deeper older voice however.

There are few songs that use an orchestra, my favourite of which is Hero Ground Zero. The band is currently touring with an orchestra, so I would imagine they will sound lovely live.

Overall I really enjoyed this album, it is very much a return to form for a great band. They are touring this year, and I am very much looking forward to catching them again and hearing some of these tracks live.

I would recommend giving it a spin (yeah man, I will be picking this up on vinyl). And if you can go see these guys live, it has always been a treat. To quote Del Boy, ”I don’t care what they say, you can’t whack The Who”.

— Darryn