After spending a couple of years perfecting their riffs and honing a heavy, retro sound, Norwegian stoner rockers White Tundra unveiled their debut EP ‘Graveyard Blues’ in the middle of the 2020 global pandemic. Their weighty Monster Magnet/COC influenced sounds were a perfect compliment to a troubled time, and proved yet again that a tried and tested heavy psych/stoner sound could still impress when delivered with a lot of confidence and a few massive hooks. The title cut, in particular, with its chugging riff, gravelly vocals and rattling bassline – at times sounding as if a direct descendant of ‘Children of The Grave’ – set White Tundra on the road to stoner greatness, but ‘Freedom Fighter’ with its heavy and lurching anger suggested they’d have more to give than your bog standard stoner copyists.
THE RADIO BUZZKILLS – Get Even
After a couple of rough but very cool demo recordings, The Radio Buzzkills crashed their way onto the punk scene in 2018 with ‘Get Fired!’, a full length debut that melded the heart of classic 90s pop punk with a tougher edge, some killer choruses and a whole world of confidence. Despite a few teething troubles during the album’s creation, it ended up being one of the year’s best releases – of any style or genre. The band later took their undying love of Screeching Weasel, Ramones and a truckload of Lookout! Records artists and created the tougher sounding – but no less great – ‘Get Lost’, which gained them further enthusiastic press.
Watch the new video from Yes
The twenty second studio album from Yes, ‘The Quest’ demonstrated how the ever evolving and legendary prog band were still capable of making great music. With a delicate balance between soaring melodies and complex structures, the album harked back to classic Yes in many ways, but also showed how they refused to become stagnant.
SUMMER YEARS – You Can’t Live There Forever EP
San Diego’s Summer Years first appeared on the collective radar of pop punk fans in the summer of 2021 when the video for their debut single ‘This Light’ premiered on YouTube. In barely three minutes, that track – and its accompanying visuals – presented the young band, not only as great players, but also one keen to share an important message.
CAT DOWLING – Animals
The former vocalist with Irish electronica/alt-pop band Alphastates, Cat Dowling strikes gold on her 2021 release ‘Animals’. With its mix of jangling guitars, occasional dreampop-ish haze and a few busy rhythms, the core of the album’s best material shifts restlessly, but never in a way that seems showy, or ever feels directionless. Most importantly, Cat’s desire to constantly move between moods never detracts from some deftly written songs. Whether at the helm of loud-ish rocky numbers, or lending a sultry vocal to an ambling 90s influenced tune, or even tackling jazzy pop, the performer shines throughout, and her unshakable presence is vital in taking a genuinely mixed bag of tunes and turning that into something that sounds like a complete and coherent listening experience. The vocals are recognisable as being those from the Alphastates singer, but musically, so much of ‘Animals’ is a different beast; if you were feeling flippant, you might consider it a “grown up pop record”, but it’s so much more than that.