The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
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Our latest Tracks Of The Week contest features eight artists chomping at the very bit of superstardom. And you know what? So did last week’s, where The Virginmarys beat out Bywater Call who beat out Beth Hart in a battle that was as long as it was winding. So congratulations to all of them, and we look forward to their platinum sales awards.
Here’s your winner again, so that you may reacquaint yourself with their majesty. And then it’s on with the next lot.
Don’t forget to vote. The ballot is down there ⬇️.
Larkin Poe – Bluephoria
Lately Larkin Poe just seem to get better and better, and Bluephoria – perhaps their most classic rock-y number yet – reaffirms that. Both Lovell siblings are on flying form on this rich, ultra-hooky new track, mixing Led Zeppelin-via-70s Heart heavy blues with sunny Americana, a winning chorus and one hell of a screaming slide solo from older sister Meghan. The sound of people who’ve played together for a lifetime, and are still completely addicted to it.
Blues Pills – Piggyback Ride
The heaviest, riffiest and weirdest track on the Swedes’ album, Birthday, Piggyback Ride is not the metaphorical title you’d title – oh no, it was literally inspired by a bunch of notorious porcine troublemakers in singer Elin Larsson’s village. Piggy gangsters, if you will, are vilified by many in the area, though the vegetarian Larsson has a more compassionate take. “I was just thinking about these pigs and wanted to write a song about them,” she reasons, “like what would it be like to hang out with them, and ride around on their pig backs, causing mayhem!”
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Le Risque
The Melbourne psych-rock sextet have made 26 albums in the last 14 years. We’ve had trippy art rock, synth-pop, heavy fucking metal and now – in this first taste from upcoming LP FLIGHT b741 – we’ve got a stompy, fuzzy, 70s glam-tastic hybrid of gang vocals, Top Gun visuals, Frank Zappa-esque missives about adrenaline rushes, recreational grave-digging, Evil Knieval… “Lyrically, it’s all pretty introspective,” the band insist, “we’re having a lot of fun, but we’re often singing about some pretty heavy shit. It’s not a sci-fi record, it’s about life and stuff.” King Gizzard: keeping rock’n’roll weird since 2010.
L.A. Edwards – El Camino
Take a load off and relax with this warm, dreamy dose of introspective 80s heartland – destined for summer car journeys, moodily staring through rain-soaked windows, or just chilling out after a stressful time. “I just wanted to encapsulate that feeling you get when you’re fully present in whatever moment you happen to be in,” states frontman, Luke Edwards. “Maybe you’re driving with the windows down, it’s warm, your phone’s not ringing, you’re just watching the world roll by. Something like peace.”
IDestroy – 100 Sounds
“I started to write 100 Sounds a couple of years ago in a toilet at Glastonbury Festival,” says IDestroy singer/guitarist Bec Jevons, of this fizzing, punky pop rock caffeine bomb. “There was just so much going on, I was in-between several stages that were blasting out a mix of genres. It was pure chaos and I just thought to myself ‘urghh there’s a hundred sounds in my head’. This quickly became a metaphor for my day to day life, my chaotic mind and how I can never shut off.”
A’priori – Voodoo Love
Blackpool hard rock trio A’priori (the name loosely translates from Latin as ‘knowledge independent of experience’) embrace the dark side here – teaming dirty, punchy riffage, synths and languid vocals with a load of candles, skulls, red roses and, yes, a voodoo doll brandished to the refrain ‘she treats me like a voodoo doll’. Not exactly masked messages, then, but it’s a fun rocker with a gothic edge. Look out for an album of the same name this autumn.
World Of Chaos – Tax Evasion
We know nothing about World Of Chaos apart from the fact that they’re a crossover thrash band from Delaware, and that they’re probably the youngest musicians we’ve ever featured: frontman Gabe is 12, drummer Jayden 14, and bassist Clara just 13. We also know that Gabe, in a move generally more popular with middle-aged men, has his own podcast, Kids In The Pit, in which he interviews musicians from the world of punk and metal. Gabe, we salute you. The future is in good hands.
Joanne Shaw Taylor – Wishing Well
Released a month on from her Heavy Soul album, Joanne Shaw Taylor’s standalone cover of Free’s Wishing Well might not add a great deal to the original, but there’s no doubt that the smokiness of Shaw’s voice and the fluidity of her playing suit the song. “I’ve been a massive Free fan since I was a teenager,” she says. “It’s a very hard band to cover because it doesn’t really need covering; it was already perfect in the first place.” Shaw’s summer run of US festival dates began this week, and she’ll be back there in October for another tour.
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