THE CLASSIC SQUAD
New tracks from classic artists
THE ROLLING STONES
Angry
From Jagger’s petulant count-in to Keef’s slashed chords, Angry marks the honking, strutting, gloriously unexpected rebirth of a legend long preserved in amber. You’d be gutted if they didn’t play it live, and for a new Stones track, there’s literally no higher compliment.
METALLICA
72 Seasons
The intro alone is a masterclass – with almost two minutes of tempo-shifting, hand-melting chugga – but it’s the meaty verse of the title track that confirms the thrash veterans still have teeth after eleven albums. Vivaldi must be shitting himself.
EXTREME
Rise
Dark, doomy and kinetic, Rise is already a cut above – but the rest of the song suddenly feels like scaffolding when Nuno Bettencourt’s phenomenal guitar solo crashes in. Awoodpecker-fast tour de force, it’s arguably the most thrilling thing done with wood and wire this year.
LUKE MORLEY
I’m The One You Want By the Thunder god’s own admission, this is “the closest I get to my day job” on solo album Songs From The Blue Room. But even without Danny Bowes, this Crowes-
influenced strut feels like a benevolent sunbeam in a world spinning off its axis.
BLACK STAR RIDERS
Better Than Saturday Night
like you could get into trouble on a night out with Ricky Warwick, with this old-school party-starter urging us to ‘keep on dancing on the ledge’. In a teetotal age, it’s a vintage drinking tune, with Joe Elliott’s backing vocals as the chaser.
