Last year kicked off with Cleveland-area rockers Cloud Nothings releasing their fourth album, Life Without Sound, a great but somewhat more reserved album than their previous output. After a quick turnaround, Dylan Baldi and his band are back with Last Building Burning, eight tracks that are largely back to the ripping guitars and in-your-face yawps of the band’s first three albums.
The album was led by “The Echo of the World” and features the band’s longest-running track, “Dissolution,” which clocks in at almost 11 minutes. Their world tour, which kicks off next week, features a December date at Union Transfer.
It’s strange that a band like Greta Van Fleet somehow feels controversial. It’s four early-twenty-somethings/teenagers from Michigan who play throwback blues-rock and have only just now released their debut album. The distaste seems to come from a few factors, but mostly it’s either fans of Led Zeppelin who say they sound too much like the Robert Plant-led legendary English band or fans of Led Zeppelin who love the sound and have declared them the saviors of rock and roll. They are, of course, neither of these things, but somewhere in between. Following two four-song EPs last year, Anthem of the Peaceful Army comes out today with a hype train already behind it.
The ten-song group was led by “When the Curtain Falls” and later “Anthem” and “Age of Man.” The tour in support of the album will begin in Europe. Though it does not include a date in Philadelphia, there are three nights in New York and a stop at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park in May.
Jared Hart is a Jersey boy formerly of The Scandals who currently plays in Brian Fallon’s solo tour backing band, The Crowes, and often opens for those shows with his own music. The Quarry is the first album from a new project called Mercy Union, featuring Hart and Gaslight Anthem drummer Benny Horowitz. The album was produced by Pete Steinkopf of The Bouncing Souls.
Other albums in stores today we’ll be checking out:
Canadian rock band The Arkells release their fifth album, Rally Cry.
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit have a new live album compiling songs from their five-night run at The Ryman Theatre last October. The album features songs from Isbell’s last three albums, Southeastern, Something More Than Free, and The Nashville Sound.
“Ex’s and Oh’s” singer Elle King follows her 2015 debut with Shake The Spirit.