Real Gone – A Decade of Deep Cuts

In November 2019, Real Gone reached its ten year anniversary of being online. To celebrate, we shared thoughts on ten albums we loved from that decade. That list came with two strict rules beyond becoming favourites: each year had to be represented by one album and each album had to in some way have helped our site to become more established.

As we reach the end of the year, it’s time to look back more broadly on some of our favourite albums of the ’10s; albums that have kept us listening for pleasure long after the reviews and coverage have been completed. If you’re a regular visitor to Real Gone, lots of these names will be familiar by now, but we hope this time for looking back helps to reconnect with a couple of old favourites, or find you a new one somewhere along the way. [Full reviews & streams can be found by clicking on the individual titles.]

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MONO IN STEREO – Can’t Stop The Bleeding EP

Formed from the ashes of pop punk band Mulligan Stu, Mono In Stereo really mixed things up on their debut LP, 2015’s ‘Long For Yesterday’. On numbers like ‘Start Again’ and the title track, their punky roots were more than obvious, but other material suggested the combined band members had an equal love of trashy rock ‘n’ roll like The Replacements. The album highlights ‘Woke Up In Haight’ and ‘Never Coming Down’ even showed off a big love for Soul Asylum and the noisier end of the Americana spectrum.

It took the band four years to craft a follow up…and while that turned out to be an EP rather than a full album, ‘Can’t Stop The Bleeding’ proves yet again that quality will always trump quantity – and a couple of the songs are actually better than anything from the older full length.

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VARIOUS ARTISTS – A Prog Rock Christmas

Billy Sherwood is no stranger to an all star compilation. Over the years, he’s helped mastermind tributes to all manner of artists, often with mixed results. His 2019 project ‘A Prog Rock Christmas’ can seem as scattershot as many of those previous all star affairs, but by bringing together various prog legends to put their own stamp on a few familiar yuletide ditties, there are a several things to enjoy along the way, ranging from the traditional to the bespoke.

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Prog rock legends Pallas offer free festive download

Hot on the heels of the Bad Elephant Music 2019 sampler, here’s some more prog rock goodness for you!

For the Christmas period, the legendary band are offering their fans (and potential new listeners) a Christmas themed download. Joining a few reworkings of familiar songs, the download also includes some cracking live material, which is reason enough to add this to your collections even if you’re not festively minded.

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