It Came From The Nineties: Hoy hace 35 Años "Show De Fuegos Artificiales"

Hoy hace 35 años una famosa cadena de comida rápida celebraba su 20 años de existencia, y para darle las gracias a su clientela, decidieron tirar la casa por la ventana, y publicitaron un evento que con el tiempo se quedo establecido como una tradición. 

 

La velada incluía un concierto de un cantante Mexicano muy famoso por esos años, tendría su presentación en el desaparecido "Estadio Del Ejercito" y a las 10 de la noche daría comienzo el más espectacular e inolvidable "Show De Luces Artificiales" tal y como lo publicitaban traído de los Estados Unidos, para agradecer la preferencia local. 

 

El show tuvo lugar en el "Campo de Marte"  y llego a gustar tanto que la cadena de comida rápida decidió repetir el mismo show para las celebraciones navideñas de ese mismo año, comenzando una tradición que se viene realizando desde entonces para las Navidades y que solía celebrarse en el fin de semana previo a la Navidad, luego cambio a inicios de ese mes, hasta llegar a celebrarse a mediados de Noviembre desde hace ya una década, curiosamente su origen fue para los 20 años de existencia de la cadena que hoy esta cumpliendo 55  y no para celebrar la Navidad como muchos lo creen. 

 

El anuncio fue publicado en el ya desaparecido semanario Gente Joven que venía incluido en el diario Prensa Libre los días Sábados, en esa edición de hace 35 años, el top 40 oficial para Guatemala tenía como No. 1 a los malogrados The Real Milli Vanilli con "Keep On Running" banda que se promovió para enmendar la polémica con Milli Vanilli un año antes, el podio era completado por Extreme y su balada "More Than Words" y el proyecto Italiano Black Box con "Strike It Up", además de un artículo sobre la cantante juvenil Debbie Gibson.

Books: Truly Gifted Kids: A Book About A Band Called Prefab Sprout

 

A celebration of a much-cherished pop group and a long-overdue companion to their unique musical output. 

The Rolling Stone Magazine called him ‘the last pop genius’, while Richard Osman claimed he is ‘the most unfairly overlooked lyricist of his generation’. Talking about some guy named Paddy McAloon which is undoubtedly one of the great songwriters of the last half-century. As the leader of Prefab Sprout, he's overseen ten heavily praised albums.

 

Including the classic Steve McQueen, along with a trail of hit singles, among them ‘When Love Breaks Down’ and ‘The King of Rock ’n’ Roll’. His songs have been sung by Kylie and Cher. Others were written for Madonna, Sinatra and Streisand.

 

But despite the commercial success and abundant critical acclaim, McAloon remains an enigmatic figure within the bright, brash world of pop. The semi-reclusive Prefab Sprout have seldom followed paths trod by others. They rarely toured. They took their time to make records. They always danced to their own drum.

 

As a lifelong fan of the band, acclaimed writer Nige Tassell attempts to illuminate the mystery, to uncloak the enigma. Truly Gifted Kids is the deepest dive ever made into McAloon’s craft, exploring the motivations and methods of a man who, 13 years since the band’s last album, still obsessively marries melody to words on a daily basis, in the process building up an enormous stockpile of songs that no one will hear. Occasionally esoteric and freeform, and always original. 

 

Truly Gifted Kids pulls together stories, interviews, analysis, history and travelogue to fashion a fulsome portrait of the band, with its chief creative force at the very centre. During his investigations, Tassell both acts as an ad-hoc roadie for solo Sprout Martin McAloon and goes undercover in search of pop music’s most famous motorbike.

 

At its beating, romantic heart, Truly Gifted Kids is a celebration of a much-cherished pop group, a long-overdue companion to their wonderful music. The book will be available on 13 August 2026.

 

Title: Truly Gifted Kids: A Book About A Band Called Prefab Sprout

Author: Nige Tassell

Pages: 400

Publisher: New Modern

Format: Hardcover

Rocktrospectiva: The Beautiful And Magical "Dreamland" Turns 30

Released on 7 June 1996 "Dreamland" was the debut studio album by Robert Miles, the album earned critical acclaim in Europe, where it was a hit, and was also released in the United States about a month later, with a new track sung by Maria Nayler, "One and One." This new track became very popular and was later released as a single in the US and Germany, the album was also supported by two hit singles "Children" and "Fable".

 

Italian pianist Roberto Concina then turned DJ aka  Robert Miles scored a massive international hit with his wonderful, dreamy dance cut "Children" taken from this debut album Dreamland. Practically, the album  sounded as if it were one continuous song or set of beats with similar chord progressions, stretched over an hour, and this was practically its essence, sonic dreamscape so engaging and danceable. 

 

Something like a two in a one, danceable and chill out album, the sort of record that used to take the listener into another dimension and forget about everything, tunes full of melancholy, blissful, simplicity and smoothness, amongst its highlight you can count also "Fable" another cool track with the winning formula as "Children", using ehtereal female chant vocals with danceable tunes. 

 

Curiously, the formula is the same around track three, but when listener arrived by track four it can realize that this album was really only one long, continuous song, check track 5 "In My Dreams," servesd to turn things around, utilizing different break beats and a key change towards the song's finish. That is followed by the album's true highlight, for many "One and One," a gorgeous, touching, dreamy song, featuring tender vocals by Maria Naylar, which also became a massive international hit, and remains one of the most sincere dance songs of its era. 

 

"Princess of Light" came next and returned to the previous formula, but still managed to remain intoxicating. "In the Dawn" featured more straight-up, trance-like beats, and the album ends with the original version of "Children" and the album's closer, "Red Zone." possesed a undeniably dreamlike, intoxicating quality, which can be appreciated by young and old, and, if nothing else.

 

For several critics, this album was the peak of electronic music at the mid of the 90s., it had rhythm grooves, ethereal sound, groovy beats everything needed to take you into a another world back then.

 

Dreamland Track List: 

 

1. Children (Dream version)

2. Favle (Message version)

3. Fantasya

4. Landscape

5. In My Dreams

6. Princess Of light

7. Fable (Dream version)

8. In The Dawn

9. Children (Original version)

10. Red Zone

Rocktrospectiva: The Gorgeous "Let's Get Out Of This Country" Turns 20

Released on 6 June 2006 "Let's Get Out Of This Country" was the 3rd., studio album by the Scottish indie pop band Camera Obscura. It was recorded in Sweden with the producer Jari Haapalainen, and arranged by Björn Yttling of Peter Bjorn and John.

The album addresses themes of heartbreak, escapism and boredom. It received positive reviews from music critics, who noted that the band had distinguished themselves from Belle and Sebastian. Let's Get Out of This Country yielded four singles, "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken", "Let's Get Out Of This Country", "If Looks Could Kill", & "Tears For Affairs."

Composed by singer Tracyanne Campbell, after the release of the 2003 release of Underachievers Please Try Harder, vocalist John Henderson left Camera Obscura in 2004. The band did not want to self-produce another record, and Stephen McRobbie of The Pastels recommended Jari Haapalainen, guitarist for The Bear Quartet. The band practiced for several weeks before travelling to work with Haapalainen for two weeks in Stockholm. Accustomed to recording over the course of multiple sessions, the band decided to take a more disciplined approach. They recorded 15 songs and selected 10 for the album, all of which were written by Tracyanne Campbell. Because of the short time in which the album was recorded, the final tracks closely resemble the original live recordings.

Let's Get Out of This Country marked a transition for the band from acoustic sounds to more upbeat rock. The music was influenced by the Motown Sound, Lee Hazlewood's collaborations with Nancy Sinatra and David Lynch's soundtracks. Haapalainen helped the band to modernize their sound and avoid the pastiche present in some of their earlier efforts.

Campbell, who was dealing with a breakup and the death of her grandmother, wrote many of the songs to be about heartbreak and lovelessness. The lyrics also deal with escapism and feelings of loneliness. Campbell named the American country singers Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette as influences. The album's title was chosen to reflect what she recalled as "being quite bored with myself and everything in my life, wanting to do something new and give myself a bit of a shake

The album received positive reviews from music critics, several called the album as a gorgeous pop album, to say the least. The band prove that there's such a thing as brawny twee…[The album] is indie pop but that's baroque but not self-indulgent, finally the band had become "comfortable with its craft" and that its stronger songwriting was reflected in the album's "leisurely melodic lines".

Camera Obscura had previously been compared to Belle and Sebastian, another Glaswegian band, because of similarities in the bands' style of "melancholy, grandiose retro-styled" indie pop, and reviewers noted a new contrast between the two acts, finally this album found "Camera Obscura stepping out from the considerable shadow cast by Stuart Murdoch and pals, brimming with a newfound confidence and a bolder, more ambitious sonic palette"

Let's Get Out Of This Country Track List:  

 

1. Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken

2. Tears For Affairs

3. Come Back Margaret

4. Dory Previn

5. The False Contender

6. Let's Get Out Of This Country

7. Country Mile

8. If Looks Could Kill

9. I Need All The Friends I Can Get

10. Razzle Dazzle Rose 

Rocktrospectiva: The Cult-Classic "Tigermilk" Turns 30

Released on 6 June 1996 "Tigermilk" was the debut studio album from Scottish pop group Belle and Sebastian. Originally given a limited release of 1,000 copies by Electric Honey, the album was subsequently re-released in 1999 by Jeepster Records.

 

The album was named after an instrumental that did not end up on the album — it was later performed on Belle and Sebastian's early tours. All of the songs on the album were written by Stuart Murdoch between 1993 and 1996, and originally performed solo on the Glasgow open mic circuit. Though he performs on the album, trumpet player Mick Cooke was not then an official member of the band. 

 

Going back to 1994, Stuart Murdoch and Stuart David met on a programme for unemployed musicians called Beatbox, funded by Stow College in Glasgow, Scotland. David offered to play bass on Murdoch's demos despite having little experience with the instrument. The recordings caught the attention of Richard Colburn, who shared a flat with David at the time and was attending a music business course at Stow, run by Alan Rankine of the Associates. The end goal of the course was to take two songs from the class and record and release them through the college's in-house record label Electric Honey. Colburn provided a demo tape Murdoch and David had recorded titled Rhode Island (later released as the Dog on Wheels EP). The college was extremely impressed and chose to support Murdoch's goal in creating a full album as opposed to a single. 

 

In early 1996, Murdoch and David reportedly enlisted the first four musicians they came across at the city's Grosvenor Café to play on the record, settling on a line-up of Murdoch, David, guitarist Stevie Jackson, drummer Richard Colburn, keyboardist Chris Geddes, and cellist Isobel Campbell. Their initial performances took places at venues such as church crypts, libraries, and house parties. Murdoch recalls that the group was still quite loose knit at the time Tigermilk was recorded and that the full ensemble had not played together before getting into the studio. Many of the supporting instrument parts were shaped as the group recorded. After recording, though, "we were a group, no question."The band subsequently spent three days recording, finishing with an album's worth of songs.

 

The album has been considered a sort of a gentle masterpiece, the opening track "The State I Am In", bhad a slickly loose instrumentation, harmonies which haunt the fringe of fear, and a wealth of emotionally crippled reflection. Nine of the ten songs featured on the album were recorded live over a three-day period, followed by two days of mixing. The only track not recorded during these sessions, "Electronic Renaissance", originated as a demo Murdoch made at Beatbox using Cubase, and was mastered directly from a cassette recording Murdoch had made of the song being played on a local radio station, hence its lo-fidelity sound. Due to its stylistic difference from the other songs, its inclusion on the album initially proved controversial.

 

Electric Honey issued Tigermilk in mid-1996, initially limited to 1,000 copies, which sold out in months. The band received praise from BBC radio DJs John Peel and Mark Radcliffe, subsequently earning them a radio session for the latter DJ in July 1996. Colburn said "then record companies and fans started calling, and we thought 'My God, what have we done?'" They soon signed to the London-based label Jeepster Records. And finally Tigermilk was reissued in 1999; by this point, copies of the original were being sold for $600.

 

The album's cover photograph was taken by Murdoch and features his then-girlfriend Joanne Kenney. She also appeared on the cover of the Dog on Wheels EP. Tigermilk was well-received upon its initial release, and earned a glowing review from Scottish culture magazine The List

 

Tigermilk Track List: 

 

1. The State I Am In 

2. Expectations

3. She's Losing It

4. You're Just A Baby

5. Electronic Renaissance

6. I Could Be Dreaming

7. We Rule The School

8. My Wandering Days Are Over

9. I Don't Love Anyone

10. Mary Jo.

Rocktrospectiva: The Massive "Invisible Touch" Turns 40

Released on 6 June 1986 "Invisible Touch" was the 13th., studio album by the English rock band Genesis, the band reconvened in October 1985 to write and record Invisible Touch with engineer and producer Hugh Padgham. As with their previous album, it was written entirely through group improvisations and no material developed prior to recording was used. Invisible Touch was a worldwide success and reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 3 on the US Billboard 200. It remains the band's highest selling album after it was certified multi-platinum for over 1.2 million copies sold in the UK and 6 million sold in the US. 

Genesis became the first band and foreign act to have five singles from one album reach the top five on the US Billboard Hot 100, with "Invisible Touch" being their first and only song to reach No. 1 on the charts, others singles released were "Throwing It All Away", "In Too Deep", "Land Of Confusion" & "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight."

The group followed this with a period of inactivity to allow each member to continue their respective solo careers; Mike Rutherford formed his group Mike + The Mechanics and had success with their debut album, Tony Banks concentrated on film scores and released Soundtracks (1986), and Phil Collins released his third solo album No Jacket Required (1985), which was a major worldwide commercial hit. In the summer of 1985, towards the end of his solo tour, Collins confirmed that Genesis had agreed to start work on a new album that October. This put an end to a false announcement that aired on BBC Radio 1 suggesting the three had split. Rutherford felt that the break affected the group's musical style: "We had done so much work outside the band, it seemed we had gone through a lot more musical changes, although the development is largely unconscious."

Invisible Touch was recorded between October 1985 and February 1986 at The Farm, the band's private recording studio in Chiddingfold, Surrey. They were joined by engineer and producer Hugh Padgham, who had worked with the band since Abacab (1981) and produced the album with the group, with Paul Gommersall as assistant engineer.

The group approached the writing sessions for Invisible Touch with a greater sense of confidence, as they had now become a big live act in the US and had reached a new level of commercial success worldwide. As with Genesis, they entered the studio with no preconceived ideas and developed songs from recorded jams and improvisations, a process Collins compared to as "close to jazz". The group considered their strongest songs were those arranged in this way, so they repeated this approach for Invisible Touch. 

The album features Collins playing on a Simmons electronic drum kit. In order to capture more of a sound from the Simmons kit rather than feeding it directly into the mixing desk, Padgham also fed the tracks through a mixer and into a PA system before playing it "very, very loud" in the studio. Padgham later said that the Simmons sounded "a bit thin and toneless." Collins also used a Roland Pad-8, an electronic pad that triggers percussion sounds from the MIDI instruments used on the album, including a Roland TR-707 drum machine with Latin-inspired samples and Collins' own E-mu Emulator.

The lyrics to a track were written after the music was recorded, and were penned by a single member as the group considered the individual had a strong enough direction to carry the song's message through. Collins wrote the words for "Invisible Touch", "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", and "In Too Deep"; Rutherford wrote for "Land of Confusion" and "Throwing It All Away"; Banks wrote "Domino" and "Anything She Does".

The group arranged a greater number of songs for Invisible Touch than before, which required additional time to select which tracks to release. This was not the case with Genesis, where strong enough ideas were more scarce; Banks said that "if a song was around, we put it on"

The album opened with the smash "Invisible Touch" originated as the band were working on "The Last Domino", the second part of "Domino". During the session Rutherford began to play an improvised guitar riff with an added echo effect, to which Collins replied with the off-the-cuff lyric, "She seems to have an invisible touch, yeah". This led to Collins writing the lyrics to the song, with his improvised line becoming its chorus hook. The group wanted to keep the song simple in structure, but thought an eight-bar bridge with a key change and using a sequenced keyboard part complemented the arrangement. Banks produced eight different versions in step time, some ideas for which he had thought of ahead of time while others were a rough improvisation. The chosen version was the "most random" one. The basis for "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" came about from Banks, who spent some time improvising with different keyboard sounds over a rhythm Collins and Rutherford were playing.  Similar to that of "Invisible Touch", Collins then came out with the word "monkey" and explored it vocally which led to the song's working title to be "Monkey/Zulu". The rest of the lyrics were then written around the word.

The lyrics to "Land of Confusion" were written by Rutherford, and they were the last set of words written for the album. Rutherford was behind schedule to get the lyrics to the song finished, but thought the "time was right" for him to write a protest song. The lyrics to "In Too Deep" were written by Collins after he was approached to write a song for the soundtrack of the British crime drama film Mona Lisa (1986). He wrote the chorus during some spare time at a hotel in Sydney, Australia, but he was unable to write verses for it until the band were recording the song in the studio. They had difficulty in writing a chorus, so Collins suggested the part that he had written.

Banks gained inspiration for "Anything She Does" from pictures of scantily clad women the band would cut out and place on the wall of their recording studio. It features a brass sound that Banks sampled from "some tape" that he had; he clarified that the brass was not from the Phenix Horns, the brass section for Earth, Wind and Fire that were previously used on Abacab. "Domino" is a track split into two sections—"In the Glow of the Night" and "The Last Domino". Banks wrote the lyrics based on the idea that politicians often fail to think through their ideas and the consequences of their actions. Rutherford thinks "Domino" is "one of the best things" the band has done. He was aware that due to the popularity of MTV and the increased pressure to deliver hit singles, people would often forget about their longer songs like "Domino" in favor of the shorter, more commercial hits.

"Throwing It All Away" developed from a guitar riff from Rutherford, who also wrote the lyrics. Collins described it as like a "one-note samba". It was a heavy guitar song in its original form, with Collins "drumming in a John Bonham style". As the chorus developed, its mood changed to that of a softer one "matched by the single love-song lyric". "The Brazilian" is an instrumental based around a sample that Banks had recorded on his E-mu Emulator playing throughout the track, which he achieved by sticking a knife onto the keyboard. He realised he could have done it electronically, but the knife "looks better that way."

Three additional songs - "Do the Neurotic," "Feeding The Fire," and "I'd Rather Be You" - were recorded during the album's sessions but were cut from the album's final track selection. They were subsequently released as B-sides across the five singles released from the album. 

The album received a mixed reaction from music critics upon release by stating that "every tune is carefully pruned so that each flourish delivers not an instrumental epiphany but a solid hook. Much of the credit for this belongs to Tony Banks, whose synth style has never seemed more appropriate; it's his keyboards that set the mood for 'In the Glow of the Night' and maintain the tension in 'Tonight, Tonight, Tonight'. Others were not enthusiast and stated the album "could easily pass as a Collins album. His thin voice and familiar MOR&B songwriting dominate, with only occasional evidence of input from Rutherford and Banks". He also suggested the record "was made to provide material for the next season of Miami Vice". Althought things have changed in the years to come, originally the album has perceived as a bit of a Phil Collins solo album disguised as a Genesis album ... Genesis' poppiest album, a sleek, streamlined affair built on electronic percussion and dressed in synths" and he said "the heavy emphasis on pop tunes does serve the singer, not the band". 

 

Invisible Touch Track List:  

 

1. Invisible Touch

2. Tonight, Tonight, Tonight

3. Land Of Confusion

4. In Too Deep

5. Anything She Does

6. Domino: In The Glow Of The Night

                 The Last Domino

7. Throwing It All Away

8. The Brazilian  

In Memoriam: Film And TV Actor "Anthony Head" Dies Aged 72

Iconic British actor Anthony Head, best known for his roles in TV shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ted Lasso, Merlin and Little Britain, has died at the age of 72. Head found international fame as Rupert Giles in hit supernatural teen show Buffy in the late 1990s.

 

He went on to have a recurring role in sketch show Little Britain as the prime minister, he played king Uther Pendragon in the BBC's Merlin, and appeared as former football club owner Rupert Mannion in Ted Lasso. "He passed away peacefully of complications due to pneumonia, surrounded by his family," his daughters Emily and Daisy said.

His daughters' statement said "it is with heavy hearts that we announce the death of our extraordinary father".

"It has been, and forever will be, an honour and a privilege to be his daughters, and to have witnessed firsthand the impact both he and his work have had on so many."

They also said they knew "how dearly he will be missed by friends, colleagues and fans of the show he was in", adding that he "loved his job very much" and "always considered himself incredibly lucky".

His family acknowledged that "his legacy will live on" and said they considered themselves "lucky" to have watched him doing what he loved throughout his career.

Head's other credits included playing Geoffrey Howe in The Iron Lady and appearing in Doctor Who, Persuasion, The Inbetweeners and Manchild.

He also starred in Ted Lasso from 2020 as former Richmond FC owner Rupert Mannion, the ex-husband of Hannah Waddingham's character Rebecca Welton. Brett Goldstein, their co-star and a writer on the show, said: "Anthony Head was a brilliant actor who played the worst person in the world, which was an incredible skill because he was the best person."

Head first found fame in the UK in the 1980s as the face of Nescafe coffee adverts on TV. He was part of the Gold Blend couple alongside Sharon Maughan, with their coffee-themed romance ads becoming popular between 1987 and 1993. 

Head starred in numerous popular British shows during his career, also including Motherland, Silent Witness and Doctor Who. His last acting credits included Bridgerton in 2022, in which he starred in one episode in series two. He joined the cast of BBC Radio 4's long-running drama The Archers in 2018, playing Robin Fairbrother. The actor also enjoyed a long stage career, performing in several iterations of The Rocky Horror Show and musicals such as Godspell and Chess.

Born in Camden, London, in 1954, Head's mother was actress Helen Shingler, best known for BBC TV series Maigret, and his father Seafield Head, a documentary maker. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).

Head lost his long-term partner Sarah Fisher, who was an animal welfare campaigner, in December 2025 at the age of 61. His daughters Emily, 37 and Daisy, 35, both work as actors - with Emily best known for playing Carli D'Amato in The Inbetweeners. Daisy has appeared in TV shows including Harlots and Shadow and Bone. His brother Murray is also an actor, who appeared in the Oscar-nominated 1971 film Sunday Bloody Sunday and the musical Chess.

New Music: Give It A Try

           

The Ocean Blue has just shares a new concert video of  "Give It A Try" from The band's album "Ultramarine" directed by Zeke Anders. Filmed Summer 2025 on the rooftop of the Hewing Hotel in Minneapolis, MN.

Rocktrospectiva: The Album That Changed Metallica's Shape And Sound "Load" Turns 30

Released on 4 June 1996 "Load" was the 6th., studio album by the US heavy metal band Metallica, it was recorded between May 1995 and April 1996 primarily in Sausalito, California, with additional sessions in New York City.  Bob Rock returned as producer, having previously produced their fifth studio album, Metallica, in 1991. Compared to previous albums, the recording sessions were more relaxed and productive, resulting in almost 30 songs being recorded. While a double album was considered, the band decided to split the material into two albums; half appeared on Load, and the other half was released as Reload the following year.

For Load, Metallica strayed away from their thrash metal roots in favor of a hard rock sound. The band members became influenced by non-metal artists during the writing process, resulting in an array of musical styles such as Southern rock, blues rock, country rock, alternative rock, and grunge. The band also changed up their playing styles, with lead guitarist Kirk Hammett playing rhythm guitar parts for the first time. Compared to previous albums, the lyrics on Load are more personal and reflective, resulting from lead singer James Hetfield's internal struggles and personal life. The cover artwork is an abstract painting by artist Andres Serrano, created by mixing blood and semen.

Metallica adopted a new image during the period, which included short hair, leather jackets, and make-up. The new look and change in sound were criticized by many fans before Load's release. Nevertheless, Load was a commercial success, topping the charts in over 15 countries and spending four consecutive weeks at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. Four singles were released: "Until It Sleeps", "Hero of the Day", "Mama Said", and "King Nothing"; the first became Metallica's first and only US Top 10 hit. The band supported the album on the Poor Touring Me tour (1996–1997).

From 1991 to 1993, the band toured to promote Metallica, performing 266 concerts across three concert tours. Another tour followed in mid-1994 to promote the live album Live Shit: Binge & Purge (1993). Throughout early 1994, the band members spent time away from each other: lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield devoted time to hunting; lead guitarist Kirk Hammett studied film, jazz, and Asian arts at San Francisco State University; bassist Jason Newsted created his own recording studio, The Chophouse; and drummer Lars Ulrich took the band's label, Elektra Records, to court in hopes of breaking their contract following a disagreement with the label's new management.

The recording sessions for the new album began on May 1, 1995, at The Plant Studios in Sausalito, California. The sessions reunited Metallica with producer Bob Rock and engineer Randy Staub from Metallica. Despite having clashed during the production of Metallica, the band and Rock had settled their differences in the following years while on tour and decided to work together again. Hetfield explained that Rock "tends to help us dig deeper. We tell him what we're after and he tries to help us achieve that". He credited Rock with helping him deliver stronger vocal performances. The recording atmosphere was productive, and the band's songwriting process became looser and more relaxed compared to previous albums. Hetfield attributed this to the band members taking a break from each other, allowing each member to mature and return with more respect for one another.

Encouraged by Ulrich, Hammett played rhythm guitar for the first time on a Metallica album, having previously only played lead parts while Hetfield played all rhythm parts. Hammett said this was done to achieve "a looser sound". He ultimately became more influential in the songwriting process, sharing co-writing credits with Hetfield and Ulrich on seven of the final album's fourteen tracks. Newsted, on the other hand, felt isolated as his song ideas were dismissed by the other band members, particularly Hetfield. He also believed that the band's fanbase was not "ready to hear [them] sounding like more typical hard rock and roll music". Newsted felt trapped within Metallica and began working on side projects such as IR8. An IR8 demo tape ended up being played on a San Francisco radio station, which angered Hetfield and Ulrich. Newsted nevertheless did not want bad blood between them, acknowledging Metallica as Hetfield and Ulrich's band and a carefree attitude towards songwriting credits, because "I still put my signature on it".

Load is Metallica's longest studio album at 78 minutes and 59 seconds in length, the maximum duration a single CD could be. The long length was marketed by Elektra through advertisements on MTV and stickers affixed to initial pressings of the album itself. The album represented a stylistic departure for Metallica away from their thrash metal roots in favor of a hard rock sound. While the band had already taken a step away from thrash metal on Metallica, they went further on Load, resulting in a "cleaner" sound.

Primarily a hard rock and heavy metal album, Load features a variety of musical influences from genres such as Southern rock, blues rock, country rock, alternative rock, and grunge. Numerous critics have compared the music to 1970s-era hard rock bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Aerosmith, and ZZ Top. Metallica had listed several artists and bands they were inspired by while writing Load and Reload that took them away from their thrash roots, including Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Primus, Pantera, Ted Nugent, Oasis, and Alanis Morissette, among others; the songs "Mama Said" and "Wasting My Hate" were inspired by Hetfield's friendship with Waylon Jennings.

Load was Metallica's first album on which all tracks were down-tuned to E♭ tuning. Hammett said it was his attempt to play like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Thin Lizzy. Hetfield liked the change, believing the semitone drop in pitch gave his voice a "break". According to McIver, allowing Hammett to play rhythm guitar led to a looser, less "metal" and more "rock" sound, a result of Hetfield's growing maturity and the band's "desire to move forward". The band members also utilized more experimentation in their playing styles. Hammett used slide guitar on "Ain't My Bitch" and various amplifiers to create different textures and soundscapes on "Hero of the Day"; Hetfield used a talk box to perform the guitar solo on "The House Jack Built", and a pedal steel guitar on "Mama Said"; and Newsted played a fretless bass on "Until It Sleeps" and used different amplifier effects to achieve his bass sound on "Thorn Within". Hammett described his guitar solo on "Bleeding Me" as a summation of all his influences, "with a good dose of my own style

Compared to previous albums, which touched on themes of confronting a frightening outside world, the lyrics on Load are more personal and reflective, influenced by topics such as neurosis ("Thorn Within", "Poor Twisted Me") and psychotherapy ("Until It Sleeps"). Hetfield maintained that he wanted the lyrics to be vague to allow for listener interpretation. Nevertheless, the lyrics are amongst the band's most personal yet, "Bleeding Me" was an "intensely personal" song about some of Hetfield's biggest internal struggles. "Mama Said" and "Until It Sleeps" are about the death and relationship, respectively, of Hetfield's mother, while "Hero of the Day" offers "estranged youth" and "mother-and-child" themes. Death and pain are also the main subjects of "The Outlaw Torn". Religion also impacted some of the lyrics, such as on "Thorn Within". "Ronnie" concerns a shooting that occurred in Washington state in 1995. The author Benoît Clerc believes it may have been inspired by the story of Ronnie Long, an African-American man imprisoned in 1976 for a crime he did not commit, who was eventually released in 2020.

Load received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Positive reviews praised the band's performances and welcomed the change in sound. althought longtime fans should get over the change in image and appreciate the band's growth with easily the heaviest record of the year, some other critics felt that the change in style resulted in an album that was less forward-thinking and more conventional, failing to push the band forward creatively compared to past releases.

 

Load Track List: 

 

1. Ain't My Bitch

2. 2 x 4

3. The House Jack Built

4. Until It Sleeps

5. King Nothing

6. Hero Of The Day

7. Bleeding Me

8. Cure 

9. Poor Twisted Me

10. Wasting My Hate

11. Mama Said

12. Thorn Within

13. Ronnie

14. The Outlaw Torn

Albums: Play Me

The third solo studio album by the US musician Kim Gordon "Play Me" is here, done in collaboration with Justin Raisen, the album actually was recorded in Raisen's home studio, so far, the album has spawned three singles "Not Today", "Dirty Tech", & "Play Me". 

Musically, Play Me is an album that relies primarily on Gordon's trap vocals, Raisen's industrial textures, and trip hop beats. Lyrically, Gordon focuses on aspects of modern life, such as U.S. politics and the rise of AI. Collaborations has Dave Grohl on "Busy Bee", playing drums on top of sped-up dialogue between Gordon and Free Kitten bandmate Julia Cafritz. The dialogue was taken from an episode of MTV Beach House that the pair guest-hosted in the 1990s.

Origins of the record date from June 2025 with "ByeBye25!" a reworking of the single "Bye Bye" from her 2024 album The Collective, with updated lyrics based on words flagged by the second Trump administration. It was accompanied with a black-and-white music video showing Gordon walking through a construction site. Proceeds from the single and associated T-shirt went to Noise for Now, a non-profit organization based on reproductive rights. Although it appears as a track on Play Me, it had been released as a standalone single. 

The album opens with the catchy, toe-tapping title track, "Play Me" which recalls upbeat trip-hop acts from the late ’90s like Morcheeba. The chorus samples some chilled brass which is laid over some scratching in a way that’s both pleasurable and listenable. This is followed by a  "Girl With A Look",  which is built around a loop that feels disorienting and employed with repetition that instills a slightly nauseous feeling. Next is "No Nands" meanwhile, sees a welcome partial return of the sort of solid guitar riffing that characterized Gordon’s work with Sonic Youth.

Critiques of this societal development are to be applauded in the current climate, and I am all for people making them. However, the distorted warble on "Black Out" feels a little lacking in terms of contributing a unique viewpoint to the discourse, and making the phrase AI  itself effectively the entire chorus of a song feels a little on the nose. "Dirty Tech" which follows it, is similarly heavy handed in its treatment of the same subject, with lyrics like “Are you my white-collar service worker?” The following "Not Today" makes for a satisfying conclusion to the album’s first side, dominated as it is by spacey synths and buzzsaw guitars.

Other songs like "Busy Bee" "Square Jaw"m and "Subcon" are dominated by hip-hop beats, and hearing the voice behind alt-rock classics like certain Sonic Youth's track such as "Death Valley '69".  Gordon's voice blends with the beats better on “POST EMPIRE” and “NAIL BITER,” perhaps because the guitar being relatively high up in the mix helps to mitigate the incongruence between vocals and arrangement. The roaring guitar continues throughout the album's closing "BYEBYE25!," but again, the lyrics consist of Gordon intoning phrases presumably intended to allude to issue-oriented keywords like “electric vehicle,” “pregnant person,” “transgender,” and “hate speech.” 

The Album has mixed emotions, still a fascinating piece of work alone, but on the other hand, the artist is focus on certain trending topics such as AI and synthetic-sounding programming techniques, and the lyrics that introduce issues dominating our societal discourse at the most literal level possible without adding anything more substantive. She still sounds like an artist whose nerve endings are uninsulated, whose desire to create remains explosive despite Gordon keeps leaning into certain elements on "The Collective". 

 

Play Me Track List: 

 

1. Play Me

2. Girl With A Look

3. No hands

4. Black Out

5. Dirty Tech

6. Not Today

7. Busy Bee

8. Square Jaw

9, Subcon

10. Post Empire

11. Nail Biter

12. ByeBye25!