Brian Fallon - Painkillers MA

March Album

Another month another absolutely fantastic lot of albums that have been released. Such new albums from The Joy Formidable, Bob Mould, Richmond Fontaine, The Wild Feathers and Adult Books have been particularly great but my top favourite has to be Brian Fallons first release as a solo agent titled Painkillers.

This post was ideally meant to be posted last week but better late than never, thats a phrase people say? Anyways, I have been a big Brian Fallon fan from his years in The Gaslight Anthem. Their blend of emotion stirring Americana rock and roll has always made me some kind of way in the same way that of Springsteen (to give a nice and dated reference) does. It is that quality of storytelling lyrics about the every-man that connects seemingly easy with me and gives a personal extra layer of enjoyment from the music. This solo release was a great progression from his work in the band, keeping everything that I loved about the bands sound, then adding the more personal lyrics to the tracks and taking more responsibility on his shoulders for being a solo effort. My track highlights are Among Other Foolish Things (possibly for the Beatles influences), Steve McQueen and Long Drives.  Below is one of the single releases Painkillers, please watch the video and go get the album if you like what you hear! Enjoy!

Brandi Carlile - The Firewatcher's Daughter MA

March Album

This month has had so many great country/folk music album releases, it made it really hard for me not to pick one as my album on the month. Other great albums came from Noel Gallagher, The Shires, Tobias Jesso Jr., Courtney Barnett, The Staves, Circa Waves and Laura Marling just to name a small portion out of all the brilliant releases.

I chose Brandi Carliles The Firewatchers Daughter because of the emotional ride the album as a whole took me through. She has moments when she is singing a proper uptempo, happy foot stompers of a track and on the turn of a dime she is singing about heartbreak and the transition is the magical thing. Brandi makes it so smooth and effortless, the songs just flow naturally and makes for such an exciting listen. With its ups and downs throughout, it really makes for a classic storytelling album. One of the singles from the album (below) shows how much you don't need a fancy production in a music video, just a good amount of passion and a cracking voice. My stand out track from the album has to be Blood Muscle Skin & Bone. It has a slight different musical direction compared to the rest of the tracks without sounding out of place in the middle of the album and is a nice twist up at the mid point, and having the same Brandi Carlile vocals really makes it a proper ear worm that will make you listen to it on repeat.