Planet Rock - USA (2020-04)

Albums

PLANET ROCK 105

STATION

Stained Glass

INDEPENDENT

++++

Hold that dial, don’t
change the station!
If you remember when the
States was awash with melodic
hard rock and AOR bands,
then you’ll welcome the emergence of New
York’s Station. A band built on the foundaĥ
tions laid by the likes of FireHouse, Hardline
and Boston, they have the potential to break
big. Following 2018’s More Than The Moon,
Stained Glass is their fourth outing in seven
years. In that short time they’ve managed to
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on stages alongside Guns N’Roses. While
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like Emily or A Matter Of Time, they can also
cook up tracks like Angel, the kind of ‘lighters
in the air’ power ballad that could make you
blub like a baby. They epitomise everything
that was great about this genre in the ’80s,
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emerge in recent years. ROB EVANS

BEST TRACKS: A Matter Of Time, Emily, Angel

SKY VALLEY MISTRESS

Faithless Rituals

NEW HEAVY SOUNDS

+++

Debut doesn’t always find
gold in the desert.
“I want this to perforate your
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your head,” a grizzled voice
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to call when you’re making a stoner rock
record. Blackburn’s Sky Valley Mistress did
just that and headed to Joshua Tree to create
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Nothin’ and Punk Song suggest it was worth
it, coated in the desert dust kicked up by their
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trast to the fuzzier elements, though the
space it’s given makes some of the songs feel
a little thin. JAMES HICKIE

BEST TRACKS: You Got Nothin’, Punk Song

BLACKWATER CONSPIRACY

Two Tails & The Dirty Truth

Of Love & Revolution

BULLETPROOF 20/20

+++

Decent second helping

of raw, rootsy rock from

talented Irishmen.

It’s one of those nonsensical

album titles you hope will gain

clarity the more you play the record. Spare

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The transatlantic loyalties are obvious, but

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plant US Southern rock better than most

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ties as Goodbye To Yesterday and Take It On

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comes laden with obvious emotion and the

band even employ uilleann pipes on Bird In A

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More of that ethnicity would give Blackwater

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they’ve at least begun to make on this worthy

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BEST TRACKS: Take It On The Chin,

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SNAKE OIL & HARMONY

Hurricane Riders

ZERO ONE ENTERTAINMENT

+++

A worthy two-man,

semi-acoustic jam.

There may never have been

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in the late ’80s/early ’90s, but this debut

album continues a collaboration that began as

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aren’t exactly raging storms, but more a case

of the calm in the midst of such chaos. The

Vaughn fronted numbers aren’t that far

removed from anything he’s delivered in

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The Heart Of The Sun, for example, could

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Reason could have come straight from a Seal

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noteworthy, his harrowing Aberfan is, given

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anyone of a certain age. DAV E REYNOLDS

BEST TRACKS: The Lines Are Open, Dance In

The Heart Of The Sun, Save The Day

Transatlantic loyalties:

Blackwater Conspiracy.