The first of this week’s bangers is from Ed Harcourt. While recognisably bearing all the hallmarks that have made him such an admired and prolific songwriter – one of Britain’s most cherished yet inventive music creators – his new record, El Magnifico, also finds him striving for something new. It is an Ed Harcourt record, but one with a desire to seek fresh reward. “I think as a songwriter you do get to a point where you’re aware of your past and what you’ve done,” suggests Harcourt of El Magnifico’s mixture of assuredness and aspiration. “It’s knowing what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, but also knowing how to better yourself by doing things you haven’t done before.”
Evolution, the 11th full-length studio album from nine-time Grammy Award winner and 2023 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Sheryl Crow, comes as a welcomed surprise after Crow publicly stated that she would not release another album after 2018’s Threads. The new album kicks off with lead single ‘Alarm Clock’, which is perhaps Sheryl Crow’s most radio-friendly pop song since ‘Soak Up the Sun’.
Eros Zeta & the Perfumed Guitars, the twenty-seventh studio album from Australian rock stalwarts The Church, is billed as a sequel or companion to 2023’s The Hypnogogue, expanding the mythology established in that record. Propelled by the sparse, synth-enhanced opener and lead single ‘Realm of Minor Angels’, it speaks to an endless creativity for a band that’s been around for over forty years.
Recorded at the renowned Fame Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama during the summer of 2022, The Muscle Shoals Sessions feature twelve of Texas’ greatest hits and two covers – ‘Would I Lie to You’ by Charles and Eddie and ‘Save the Last Dance’ by The Drifters – reimagined and laid bare. Stripped back to their bare bones, guided by the soulful voice of Sharleen Spiteri and accompanied by the delicate piano lines of Spooner Oldham, the songs shine in this format and prove their worth as timeless classics. Sharleen Spiteri says of the experience; “To have the option to go to Muscle Shoals to record was like being a little kid in a sweet shop. Working with Spooner was inspiring, fun and he’s just a wonderful human being. The fact that Northern Soul music has been such a massive influence for Texas made the fit with Spooner just right.”
It’s obvious, listening to Sarah Shook & The Disarmers’ clear-eyed, biting and unafraid songs, that integrity is the most important thing to the country-punk outfit from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “A lot of artists are in this industry for fame, recognition and money, but those things don’t mean anything to me,” says bandleader River Shook. “Songwriting is it for me. It’s the only real healthy coping mechanism I’ve ever had. It’s life-saving. I don’t care about any superficial things when I’m making a record.”
Our release of the week comes from Ride. Everything feels like it has been leading to their forthcoming album, Interplay – the band’s seventh, and the third since their 2015 reunion. It’s the sound of the group connecting all the dots, taking the frenzied guitar attacks, hypnotic grooves and dreamy melodic hooks of their early work and setting it in a more expansive sonic template, one that takes in synth flourishes, psychedelic folk, electronic beats and noir-pop soundscapes. It has been a period of adversity in the world of Ride. Much of that was down to writing and recording during a pandemic – a period of adversity shared by everyone, everywhere – but there were also break-ups and a messy legal battle with an ex-manager that, singer and guitarist Mark Gardener states, “threatened our very existence.” It has instilled in the record a feeling of defiance, an album that pairs classic Ride lyrical hallmarks such as escapism, dreams, the dissatisfaction of modern life, yearning and freedom with a sense of resilience.
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