Single Review: Essenger – “Silence” (feat. The Midnight)

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Essenger

photo courtesy of BJF Media

Single Review of Essenger: “Silence” feat. The Midnight (FiXT)

EDM/rock fusion artist Essenger tackles synthwave, with the help of synthwave duo The Midnight (songwriter Tyler Lyle and producer Tim McEwan), on the 2024 single “Silence.”

Essenger – "Silence" (feat. The Midnight) cover photo

image courtesy of BJF Media

“Silence” is a pop-friendly, engaging, synth-driven track. The soundbed is lush with a rhythmic beat, supporting vocals that soar when the instrumentation is sparse while hewing to the rhythm without losing their emotion when aligning with the beat. Indeed, whenever the music slows down, the reengagement of the rhythm is like an energetic catharsis. In all, “Silence” is a fun listening experience.

Says Essenger of the single, “‘Silence’ was an unfinished track off After Dark that Tim and Tyler from The Midnight helped me finish and release as a bonus track for the album’s 4 year anniversary.” One listen, and you’ll be glad the collaboration happened.

More Recently

You’ll find a few slightly more recent releases on Essenger’s bandcamp page – a couple remixes of “Sanctum Eternal,” a collaboration with Skybreak entitled “Mothman,” and the nifty, energetic Spanish-language single “Aniquilación.”

Album Review: Lori Triplett – When the Morning Comes

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Lori Triplett standing in a clearing in the woods with the sun shining through the trees behind her

photo by Taylor Christian Jones; photo courtesy of Skye Media

Album Review: Lori Triplett – When the Morning Comes

When the Morning Comes is a collection of well-written, lyrically interesting, catchy songs at the country-folk singer-songwriter end of the Americana genre. Lori Triplett‘s songwriting is compelling, and her delivery is envelopingly engaging on so many of this album’s tracks that you’ve gotta give this a listen.

While there’s a lot of introspection and profound thinking to unpack in this release, there’s also plenty of hope and whimsy. Triplett’s voice is sweet but powerful and emotionally adept at navigating such a heavy yet pleasant collection of songs.

Lori Triplett – When the Morning Comes album cover

image courtesy of Skye Media

Album opener “The Wishing Star” kicks things off with whimsy, with clever lyrics from the point of view of your favorite star light, star bright.

“The Good in Us,” next, is more of a weighty-seeming, shuffling-along song with a tone that’s consistently slightly foreboding and a delivery that keeps you a little off-balance while still being pleasant and cautiously hopeful, as voiced by the final phrase of the chorus, “We gotta find it – the good in us.” It’s songs like this, with its not-so-straightforward style and emotion, that help make Triplett such an intriguing artist, ensuring When the Morning Comes remains an interesting listen, even after it appears nearly daily on your – well, let’s say your (my) “review queue” – for weeks and months. Or your “playlist,” if you prefer.

“Sanctuary” is a darkly soaring, introspective number with a full sound bed. It’s followed by the more sparsely instrumented “All I’m Letting Go Of,” a song that asks questions you never thought to ask, with a chorus that starts with “I want to know where it goes when you let it go. Does it just take a lap and come right back around?” and leads to the payoff “I want to know where all I’m letting go of goes.” It’s a mostly slow song with a occasional advancement of the tempo occasionally, briefly, when appropriate. The delivery is sweet and pleasant with tiny instrumental flourishes adding to the lyrics’ whimsy while sustaining the song as a serious repeated listen.

Lori Triplett smiling in promotional photo

photo by Taylor Christian Jones; photo courtesy of Skye Media

One of the songs I’ve been almost surprised to find pop repeatedly into my head is the smooth, vacation-flavored (a la Buffett, slightly – perhaps Buffett-adjacent) flowing number, “Mexico.” The linguist in me wishes Lori didn’t pronounce the “s” at the end of “anyway” during the line “thank you anyway, Mexico,” but that’s just the insidious language nitpicker inside of me. It doesn’t diminish my love for this soaring performance.

Lori begins the back half of the album with the somewhat foreboding instrumental opening of “Hollow White Oak,” replete with a haunting “oo-oo-oooh” lyric. As a lyricist, Lori turns some nifty phrases in this song, too, like “I’m headed out to sit beneath her, my wooden savior, secret keeper.” The sweet cadence of the phrase. I mean, this song is a rich, haunting sonic wonder, but as a writer, I keep noticing nifty couplets. Check it out for yourself.

Lori Triplett seated on a chair in a grassy field

photo by Wonder Film Co.; photo courtesy of Skye Media

“Things You Said to Me” is a breezy, steadfast song about when it’s better to let go than hold on, and though that phrase is not particularly different from a particular line in the song, mostly the lyrics coolly make that point without making it out straight. As in, it’s an interesting song lyrically, and the light strumming and come-closer, I’m-saying-something-profound, sometimes-nearly-a-whisper delivery is a perfect vehicle for the message.

One song that grew on me over many listens and is now one of my favorites in the light, cheerful, relentlessly hopeful “Light From Another Room.” Sure, times are hard, “but there’s a light on, there’s a light on somewhere… I see it cutting through the darkness of my deepest blues. There’s a light from another room.” At times, if you’re blue, that light could be this song. So put it on a playlist somewhere you can find it easily when you need it. And yes, sometimes it’s just “a soul-sucking routine” that’s responsible for the blues, but that doesn’t make it any less difficult to find the light sometime. Thanks, Lori.

“Night Rider,” the album’s penultimate track, is deep and dark, with a rich, atmospheric keybed and a vocal delivery that makes the entire song sound… well, deep and dark.

Lori closes the disc with melancholy, the sweet “Here for a Minute” that urges, gently, to live and share love because “we’re only here for a minute.” The song is an easy favorite, a pleasant listen and, depending on your mood at the time, potentially deeply moving. And, with that, the album is over.

Somehow, this album almost slipped past me, but when I had a chance to give it a good listen, I discovered When the Morning Comes really is something special. It’s soft and pleasant but complex, varied, and an easy repeated listen that soon becomes a favorite record. I’m so very glad it found its way into my consciousness.

Album Review: Shania Twain – The Woman in Me

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Shania Twain

photo by John Derek; photo courtesy of UMe

Album Review of Shania Twain: The Woman in Me (UMe)

In February, Shania Twain‘s record label celebrated the 30th anniversary of Shania’s breakout album, The Woman in Me. It wasn’t Shania’s first album. Her self-titled debut peaked at 67 on the Billboard country chart, failed to break into the Billboard 200, and resulted in two singles that didn’t even make the top 50 on the country singles charts. No, The Woman in Me was Shania’s second release, and it’s the one that launched her to the stratosphere. It reached number one on the country charts – peaked at 5 on the Billboard 200 – and notched three number one singles on the country chart, eight top 50 country singles, and two top forty hits on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It was the album that put Shania on the map, to be followed by a number two album and a number one, as Shania became a crossover country-pop superstar.

Shania Twain – The Woman in Me album cover

cover photo by John Derek; image courtesy of UMe

The two crossover hits – “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?” and “Any Man of Mine” – remain well-known classics. I’d posit “Any Man…” was the song that gave Shania the sort of confident, fun, ballbusting image that she built upon on the following album – in particular, I’m thinking of the attitude she brought to “That Don’t Impress Me Much.”

Of course, songs like “You Win My Love” and “If It Don’t Take Two” – both fun, mid-tempo country-rockers – balanced that with sassy but heartfelt appeals to true love. “If It Don’t Take Two,” by the way, was one of just four songs on the 12-song album that wasn’t released as a single, but over the course of multiple re-listenings of this album, it has become a personal favorite. And there’s a classic ballad on the record, too, that showcases Shania’s versatility. “The Woman in Me (Needs the Man in You)” was a top 20 country hit, which is a pretty big deal but pales a little on an album that spawned four country number ones. Still, it’s a heartfelt number that I’m sure graced many wedding playlists, at least at the time.

It’s odd that I never reviewed this album before, but at the same time, not so odd. When it was released, I was publishing Geoff Wilbur’s Renegade Newsletter, and though I was receiving most of the top country albums (Nashville was getting almost all of its biggest releases into my hands for inclusion in my publication), I had a bunch of great writers, so I often sent the hottest music their way for review. In particular, I had a particularly strong country music reviewing staff on that publication, so even though I reviewed some great country albums myself, I let my staff handle most of them. Come On Over, the next release, is part of my CD collection, so apparently I reviewed that one myself. (One day, maybe I’ll sift through my archives to see if The Woman in Me was reviewed in my publication 30 years ago.) But I digress…

Shania Twain

photo by John Derek; photo courtesy of UMe

As much fun as many of the songs on The Woman in Me are, it was an album whose song list was filled with very stereotypically on-brand country music heartbreak. The album kicks off with another personal favorite, the balladic “Home Ain’t Where His Heart Is (Anymore).” Heartstring-tugging songs like “Is There Life After Love?” and “Raining On Our Love” expressed similar, if slightly different sentiments; oddly, neither of those two songs were released as singles, but they’re fantastically powerful, both of them. And “Raining On Our Love,” heavy as it is, is followed by “Leaving is the Only Way Out,” an Opry-esque crooner that’ll bring you down to an even lower emotional depth, if possible.

Other songs range from even-more-sassy, as in “(If You’re Not In It For Love) I’m Outta Here,” and simply playful, like the fun “No One Needs to Know,” to the album-closer, “God Bless the Child,” a “hallelujah”-filled song that sonically recalls Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel.” Though Shania’s song is older, so maybe that recollection should be stated the other way around.

Anyway, for those who remember first hearing all of these songs 30 years ago, this is a great trip down memory lane. For those of us who heard the singles but didn’t know the album, there are some soon-to-be-favorites on here that never previously entered our consciousness. And some of the rest of you? Well, maybe you’re relatively new to Shania (yes, some people were born after the nineties). Maybe you’re familiar with her 2023 release Queen of Me (which charted in Canada with “Waking Up Dreaming” and “Giddy Up!”) or her kickass 2023 single with Anne-Marie, “Unhealthy.” Well, then this is a great way to start your journey.

Shania Twain

photo by John Derek; photo courtesy of UMe

Final Word

This goes out to the longtime, old-school Shania Twain fans: If you haven’t heard Queen of Me, give it a listen. And if I can only convince you to check out one song from that 2023 release, skip the singles. Instead, check out “Pretty Liar.” (But not at work; it’s a little NSFW.) I mean, yeah, you can check out the singles, too, and the rest of the album, but I’ve just told you what my favorite song is.

Album Review: Hell’s Addiction – Nine O’Clock Horses

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Hell's Addiction

photo courtesy of Head First Entertainment

Album Review of Hell’s Addiction: Nine O’Clock Horses

Whether you consider this genre to be heavy rock or classic metal, Hell’s Addiction‘s Nine O’Clock Horses is a collection of fast-paced, engaging, hard-driving earbleeders… in the best possible way.

The album opens heavy – full of guitar, drums, and fury – with power rocker “Leave It Alone.” The next song, “Upside Down,” opens kinda haunty before launching into a sidewinding, heavy, unnerving rhythm with a cool, edgy delivery.

Hell's Addiction – Nine O'Clock Horses album cover

image courtesy of Head First Entertainment

Song number three on the disc, “Scream Your Name,” was the album’s first single, and it was a terrific choice. “Scream Your Name” is a hook-filled heavy melodic rocker with that utilizes stop-starts, tempo changes, soaring vocals, and repeated guitar hooks to jump off the record. This song, in particular, is straight out of the late ’80s/early ’90s, akin to something that might have been a big hit for Slaughter.

“Run For Your Life” follows, equally catchy and classic hard rock-based but a little more timeless. “Crying Over Me,” which follows, is a little heavier and a little edgier.

Hell's Addiction

photo courtesy of Head First Entertainment

“Your Master Plan” opens as a guitar-driven, eerily soaring heavy metal ballad, with the “there’s got to be another way” serving as the singalong lyrics while the music bed roars with muted power.

“Save Me” serves up a heavy thumping rock rhythm that drives the song forward forcefully in support vocals that are generally more tuneful than the aggressive instrumentation might typically suggest. Then, similar to the “Run for Your Life”/”Crying Over Me” sequence earlier in the record, the following song “Give Me a Sign” skews heavier. And it’s followed by a ballad.

Hell's Addiction

photo courtesy of Head First Entertainment

In this case, though, said ballad “Love” is a stripped-down, barebones heartfelt plea for more than half of the song, seemingly a la Mr. Big, before quite suddenly but naturally morphing into a very electric guitar-driven power ballad with much fuller production for the final minute-plus. Very cleverly arranged.

Sidewinding guitar rocker “Playing Chicken With a Knife,” straightforward classic rocker “Stare Into the Sun,” and chicken-fried, swampily rhythmic heavy rocker “Cannot Hide” close things out.

Beginning to end, Nine O’Clock Horses is a robust, enthusiastic guitar rock album that draws upon the heavier, edgier segment of the ’80s-style classic, heavy melodic rock subgenre. If you rock hard and dig guitars, you’ve gotta hear this disc.

Live Review: The Santana Project at the Sterling Coffeehouse

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The Santana Project live performance photo

photo by Eric Harabadian

by Eric Harabadian, Contributing Blogger

The Santana Project

Sterling Coffeehouse, Sterling Heights, MI

February 20, 2025

The Sterling Coffeehouse at the Sterling Heights Community Center recently hosted an event featuring, arguably, one of the premier Santana tribute bands in the country. The Santana Project is a Detroit-based ensemble that uncannily and dutifully recreates the sound and feel of the original Santana band in all its incarnations.

The Santana Project live performance photo

photo by Eric Harabadian

The Santana Project consists of T.J. McGloughlin (lead vocals), Monte Porenta (keyboards), Bill Hanna and Greg Gdaniec (guitars/backing vocals), Henry “Hank” Tomlinson (bass), Ernesto Villarreal (percussion), Enrique “Kito” Pardo (percussion), and Gino Maisano (drums).

The band accurately captures that infectious spirit of classic rock that is timeless and spans many generations. In addition to the Santana catalog, the octet also delves into related jam-oriented fare like Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love,” “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” by The Allman Brothers, and The Zombies’ “She’s Not There.” They kicked off the night with one of the early Santana hits, “Everybody’s Everything.” It’s a rousing song, steeped in R&B, and filled out nicely by Porenta’s horn-like keyboard embellishments.

It was an evening featuring two sets that gave the audience more than they could ask for. Songs like “Evil Ways,” “No One to Depend On,” and “Smooth” were real crowd-pleasers. “Europa”( Earth’s Cry Heaven’s Smile)” and “All I Ever Wanted” really showcased both guitarists and ran the gamut from pensive and somewhat jazzy to raucous abandon.

The Santana Project live performance photo

photo by Eric Harabadian

Each member of The Santana Project is a committed and accomplished pro. Porenta creates an orchestral mix within the band via his bank of modified organs and pianos. His ability to add specific textures on a dime to support a guitar tone, in particular, is very tasteful. And now that TSP has two lead and rhythm guitarists on the front line they can cover all the nuances of the Santana studio recordings to a tee. Lead vocalist McGloughlin has a substantial range and really shined on standards like “Black Magic Woman” and latter day gems like “Stand Up.” And, let’s face it, you’ve got to bring it if you’re a member of the percussion and rhythm section. This unit did not disappoint! Pardo manned a number of timbales and congas, along with Villarreal, who handled conga and shakers. These guys provided the platform on which many of the tunes were built. The drums and bass ebbed and flowed within that foundation, and that’s the secret sauce that, along with the twin guitar attack, makes them one of Michigan’s – if not the nation’s – finest tribute bands on the current scene.

The Santana Project live performance photo

photo by Eric Harabadian

For more information on upcoming gigs and events please go to www.facebook.com/thesantanaproject/.

Single Review: Shade – “Break Out”

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Shade band photo

photo by Dominic Walsh; photo courtesy of BJF Media

Single Review of Shade: “Break Out” (Golden Robot Records)

Earworm alert! Shade is a Manchester-based fivesome comprised of, at the time “Break Out” was released, Luke Anthony Owens (guitar, lead vocals), Adam Taylor Clare (bass, backing vocals), Oliver Clare (drums, backing vocals), Ben Mcdonough (lead guitar), and Mac Anthony McCartney (keyboards, backing vocals).

Shade – "Break Out" cover art

image courtesy of BJF Media

With a raw, thumping, rock-driven sound supporting Owens’ crisply powerful vocals, Shade delivers a catchy, hard rockin’ “power pop” number with “Break Out.” You’ll find yourself singing along with the “break in, break out” chorus and/or the support vocals of “do whatchoo wanna, do whatchoo wanna” air-guitaring a bit during the nifty guitar solo bridge just past the song’s midway point, and/or air-drumming along with the prominent rhythm that drives “Break Out” forward. The song clocks in at a swift 2:37, but the tempo makes it seem to go by even faster.

More Recently

The band has released two additional singles since “Break Out.” At least, there are two more recent releases on the Shade Spotify page. Also, this review of the band’s August 2024 release “Supercars” discusses the line-up change that turned the band into a foursome.

Single Review: Charming Arson – “Saving Chelsea”

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Charming Arson

photo courtesy of Charming Arson via Knyvet

Single Review of Charming Arson: “Saving Chelsea”

Boston-based Charming Arson is Stefano Bellezza (lead guitar, backing vocals), Dave Cameron (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Dave Gould (percussion, backing vocals), and Aaron Clark (bass guitar, backing vocals).

Charming Arson – "Saving Chelsea" cover art

image courtesy of Knyvet

The band delivers a fun, memorable alt-rock (technically, I suppose alt-power-pop) track with “Saving Chelsea.” It kicks off with raw, distorted axe riffs before the initial vocals match the guitar’s intensity. However, finesse soon follows, leading pleasantly to the muddy, flavorful alt-rock chorus, replete with some stylistically appropriately strained harmonies. The grainy, fast-paced guitarwork in the transitions and late-song bridge to nowhere – a cool way to end the song, a bridge-esque guitar run that just leads to the end of the track. In all, just a tightly-written song that’s a fun repeat listen, in part because it manages to capture the feel of a live gig in a well-produced radio-ready package. Well done, dudes!

More Recently

You can find “Saving Chelsea,” along with five other songs (none of which I’ve listened to yet) on Charming Arson’s Another Kind of Vision EP.

Single Reviews: Erin Gibney – “Kryptonite” and “By June”

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Erin Gibney seated in front of a piano

photo by Margaret Anna Media; photo courtesy of Skye Media

Single Reviews of Erin Gibney: “Kryptonite” and “by june”

You’ve read about Erin Gibney here before. I reviewed her single “You Made Your Bed” in 2023. Well, don’t sleep on Erin; this is a singer-songwriter with big-time chops!

Erin Gibney – "Kryptonite" album cover

image courtesy of Skye Media

Within the past year, Gibney has released a few singles. This review focuses on a pair of Erin’s 2024 releases, the singles “Kryptonite” and “By June.” The songs are varied enough to show a bit of range – something always cool to notice – and solidify my impression of her songwriting prowess, helping prove she didn’t “peak” with the song that first earned my attention, “You Made Your Bed.”

“Kryptonite,” a spring 2024 release with cover art that looks like ’60s pop art a la Lichtenstein but without the dots, is a memorable song with a lightly pleasant vibe and the singalongable line “you’re my kryptonite,” a lyric that summarizes the storyline of this well-written, sweetly emotional, relatable soft-pop tune.

Erin Gibney – "By June" cover art

image courtesy of Skye Media

Fall release “by june” gives away its melancholy immediately with a rich, sad, sweeping sound bed befitting Gibney’s wistful vocals and clever lyrics, “By August I’ll quit calling just to hear you say my name. December I won’t remember the way your hands felt on my waist. And by March it won’t be so hard to picture me with someone new. And if they’re right on the timeline I’ll be over you by June.” Heavy! And the words ring true.

Gibney’s delivery is engaging in a way that suggests future singing success. And her songwriting is insightful and clever enough to guarantee a future as a songwriter, even if the stars don’t align for singing stardom. I’m hoping, though, that they do.

Erin Gibney standing on the beach with a small wave crashing behind her

photo by Vincent Pecoraro; photo courtesy of Skye Media

More Recently

Just as I was wrapping up my first draft of this review last week, Gibney dropped another single, the countryesque crooner “Leave the Pieces,” replete with twangy, swiftly strummed guitarwork. I’ve only given this new song a couple listens, so I won’t do an in-depth review, but, um, Erin can write and sing country music, too. It just isn’t fair to the other singer-songwriters out there, is it?

Single Review: Alison Brown & Steve Martin – “Bluegrass Radio”

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photo of Alison Brown & Steve Martin

Alison Brown & Steve Martin; photo courtesy of Compass Records

Single Review of Alison Brown & Steve Martin: “Bluegrass Radio” (Compass Records)

Alison Brown and Steve Martin previously collaborated on the Emmy Award-winning instrumental “Foggy Morning Breaking,” a song from Brown’s On Banjo album. Well, last year the banjoists teamed up again for a new single, “Bluegrass Radio.”

Alison Brown & Steve Martin – "Bluegrass Radio" cover art

image courtesy of Compass Records

On this record, the pair are joined by top bluegrass musicians Sam Bush (mandolin), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Trey Hensley (guitar), and Todd Phillips (bass), ensuring tip-top musicianship on the track.

The song is an energetic, fun romp. The fast-tempoed ditty doesn’t dawdle, clocking in just a hair over three minutes, but the song is like an English muffin, sporting plenty of nooks and crannies for the band members to show off a little. Lyrically, it’s playful and a little silly, perfectly suited to Martin’s emotive vocalization, featuring lyrics like “Number three in California, five in Arizona, didn’t seem to mean a thing to you, but I got number one in Texas, and now you fix me breakfast because I am a hit on bluegrass radio.” Just trust me, with Martin’s tone and phrasing, it’s downright mischievous.

photo of Alison Brown holding a banjo

Alison Brown; photo courtesy of Compass Records

Whether you’re typically a bluegrass fan or not, this light, tightly-performed fare is likely to put a smile on your face. Of course, if you’re not a bluegrass fan, then this just might be your favorite Steve Martin song since “King Tut,” and it’ll serve as a great introduction to banjo luminary Alison Brown.

More Recently

Last fall, Brown and Martin teamed up again, this time bringing in Vince Gill for a featured role, on “Wall Guitar (Since You Said Goodbye).”

In addition, last summer Brown dropped a remixed and remastered version of her 1990 Simple Pleasures record, which landed her a Grammy nomination following its initial release. That record also earned Brown recognition from the International Bluegrass Music Association as Banjo Player of the Year, the first time that honor went to a woman.

photo of Steve Martin standing, holding a banjo

Steve Martin; photo courtesy of Compass Records

In February, Brown also teamed with Kristin Scott Benson and Gena Britt on the single “Ralph’s Banjo Special.”

Of course, we all know what Martin has been up to lately on the acting front, starring in the critically acclaimed series Only Murders in the Building. Also, if you were previously unaware of Martin’s banjo aficionado-ness, it’s worth noting that, in 2010, Martin founded The Steve Martin Banjo Prize, which has been awarded to numerous recipients in the years since its inception.

Looking Ahead

Brown has tour dates scheduled in as far north, south, east, and west as Maine, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Wisconsin, plus many, many points in-between. Be sure to check the tour listing on her website to see if she’ll be performing near you.

Album Review: The Outfit – Go

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The Outfit band photo

photo courtesy of Pavement Entertainment

Album Review of The Outfit: Go (Pavement Entertainment)

The Outfit‘s Go is one helluvan AOR album. Guitar-driven rock with intricate musicianship, a big, arena-filling sound, and hooks catchy enough to have made several songs hits during the genre’s heyday. Instead, The Outfit will have to settle for being a favorite new discovery of guitar rock fans, however they might discover new music. (Hopefully, a few of you discover new music here at the Blog.)

Actually, fans who follow current rock music closely may have already discovered The Outfit. The band’s self-titled debut album in 2018 spawned the song “Soldier Boy,” which received rock radio airplay and reached #34 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Radio chart. A second album, Viking, followed in 2020, with the video for that album’s title track racking up 380,000 views on YouTube. So yeah, maybe I’m the one who’s late to the party, after the decent success The Outfit found with its first two albums. Go, The Outfit’s third album, the one that gained my attention (because it was sent to me for review consideration, and it’s a friggin’ rock masterpiece) was released last year.

The Outfit – Go album cover

image courtesy of Pavement Entertainment

The Outfit is mainly a classic-styled rock band, but some of their most engaging songs are unique originals in which the band takes a big swing and hits it out of the park. “Arrival of Jane,” for example, has a big, open, progressive rock feeling, a sci-fi-related theme, booming drums, and soaring guitars. It’s the sort of thing some ambitious bands were able to succeed with in the ’70s or ’80s but not so much since. That’s the second track on Go, following album-opener “Monster,” which introduces The Outfit fittingly as a power rock band, perhaps hinting at some later variety via guitar runs that spin forth from the pounding, heavy rhythm.

The third track, “Big Eyes,” is another favorite and perhaps the uptempo song with the most crossover hit possibility in this collection, at least across fans of various guitar-driven rock subgenres. The heavy music bed and screaming guitars part periodically for the fun-to-sing-along with “hey, hey, hey, big eyes seem to follow you; hey, hey, hey, big eyes seem to haunt you.”

Of course, “Mountain,” a rock ballad, has this record’s most crossover appeal, with the ability to reach beyond guitar rock fans, as slow rock songs more often reach the broadest audiences.

The first of two very British, punk-recalling rockers, “Elo Kiddies,” is up next. (That song title would be pronounced “ello, kiddies!”) This sort of irreverent attitude won’t be found again until the last song on the record, The Outfit’s raucous cover of “God Save the Queen.”

“Go” marks the return of smoothly heavy rock, a full-tilt, energy rocker driven by its powerful rhythm section and the repeated, singalongable lyric “If she won’t go, I will go.” “Fire Eye” follows, with a heavy thumping rhythm and vocal delivery that recalls “Arrival of Jane,” with an almost haunting vocal delivery transitioning to a brightly engaging chorus.

The album’s penultimate track, “You Say,” is probably my favorite song on the back half of the disc – though it’s close. This song is built on a steady rock rhythm with one of those attention-grabbing, stop-and-go-boom pauses between the verse and the chorus. It’s actually the last track performed in the predominant style found throughout Go; as I noted above, the disc closes with “God Save the Queen,” which really is a fun way to close the record.

Looking Ahead

As the band notes in this Facebook post, there’s a new record on the way. I can’t wait to hear it! This post gives a release date of March 14th for the new album’s first single, “Hard On Me.” You can pre-save at this link (or click through to view, post-release).