Rocktrospectiva: The Heavy And Brilliant "A Matter Of Life And Death" Turns 20

Originally Released on 25 August 2006 in Italy and Finland, and 28 August worldwide—excluding the US, Canada and Japan, where it was released on 5 September, "A Matter Of Life And Death" was the 14th., studio album by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It was the first album in Iron Maiden's career to enter the US Billboard charts in the top 10, achieving significant chart success in many other countries as well.

Iron Maiden began writing new songs near the end of 2005, after a break following their hugely successful festival dates in the US and Europe during the Eddie Rips Up the World Tour. After taking time off over Christmas, the songs were completed and the band began recording at Sarm West Studios in London, with their regular producer, Kevin Shirley. The album was recorded from 1 March to 4 May 2006.

To provide a more "live" sound, the album was not mastered. Shirley said, "Spoke to 'Arry (Steve Harris) on Friday, who has decided against mastering the Iron Maiden album ... It means that you will get to hear the new album exactly as it sounded in the studio, no added EQ, compression, analogue widening, etc., and I must say, I am pretty happy with the end result. Lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson commented that "Everyone was up for pushing things as far as they'd go, but the record was so easy to make." Dickinson went on to claim that they "finished the record with two months to spare," with Harris adding, "A lot of what you hear are first time takes." Speaking about the record's musical style, Harris states that "It is heavier than we've ever been, but also very progressive. And I don't mean that in the modern sense, but like Dream Theater, more in a 70s way."

A Matter of Life and Death is Iron Maiden's fourth studio album that does not have a title track, following Piece of Mind, The X Factor and Virtual XI. Drummer Nicko McBrain and guitarist Janick Gers claim that the band originally intended to name the album after one of its tracks, with both "The Pilgrim" and "The Legacy" being considered. According to Gers, "sometimes a title will just leap out at you as the obvious choice, but it didn't this time for some reason", so the band decided on A Matter of Life and Death, which, according to McBrain, was amongst "two or three ideas which we were kicking around". Neither Gers nor McBrain can remember who came up with the title, which they state was thought up by either Harris, Rod Smallwood (the band's manager) or "Drew" (an engineer at Sarm West Studios).

The album cover was created by Tim Bradstreet, an American artist, best known for his work on the Hellblazer and Punisher comics. A lifelong Iron Maiden fan, who drew much influence from Derek Riggs' artwork for them, Bradstreet described the opportunity as "one of my wildest dreams". He had a tight schedule, receiving for reference the songs to listen to and key art done by Peacock Designs UK, who directed the booklet's artwork. Along with redrawing a few of the original elements – which featured the tank described by Bradstreet as "Korean War era but with a twist" as the gun barrel is patched over from another vehicle – Bradstreet added Eddie as a general leading an army of skeletons. Bradstreet's colourist partner Grant Goleash finished the art, which was then retouched by Peacock. The back cover would originally feature Eddie shot on the back, but then the band opted to instead feature a detail of the tank icon featuring Eddie's head along with crossed guns.

The first single to be released from the album was "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg", released on 14 August 2006.  On 10 August, "Different World" was made available for public streaming on the band's website,  as was "Brighter than a Thousand Suns" the following day. "Different World" was the second single, receiving airplay on many rock radio stations. The song also features an animated video, similar to that of "Wildest Dreams."

The album was met with highly positive reviews from music critics and rated 10, cause it contained everything fans want to hear; be it exciting, Maiden-style story telling; aggressive riffs; impressive solos; or melodic harmonies. BBC Music praised the band for "their uncanny ability to write great lyrics wrapped around guitar orchestration that rock fans crave", concluding: In this world of hopeless auto-tuned mediocrity here is a British band that consistently crafts fantastic music that surprises reviewers and fans alike.

 

A Matter Of Life And Death Track List:  

 

1. Different World

2. These Colours Don't Run

3. Brighter Than A Thousand Suns

4. The pilgrim

5. The Longest Day 

6. Out Of The Shadows

7. The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Bregg

8. For The Greater Good Of God

9. Lord Of Light

10. The Legacy

New Music: 'Once A Man, Twice A Child

           

Dexys Midnight Runners have released "Once A Man, Twice A Child," the latest single from their new album "Love" out September 4 via Heavenly Recordings. Produced by David Holmes, the song follows earlier singles"“My Life In England Pt. 1" and "You've Got The Love" and centres on Kevin Rowland's changing relationship with his father. For Rowland, the song comes from a relationship he once believed would never become close. "I had a really tough relationship with my dad, my old man," he says.  "I was resigned to the fact that we were never going to be close." That dynamic shifted after his father suffered a stroke. Rowland recalls being able to show affection in ways that had previously felt impossible, from hugging him and holding his hand to helping him get ready for bed. He describes those later years as an unexpected chance to build the relationship they had never managed earlier in life. The experience ultimately gave the song its title. Reflecting on the role reversal that can come with ageing, Rowland says, “As they say, once a man, twice a child.

New Music: Goodnight Or Goodbye

           

John Oates shares "Goodnight or Goodbye" the title of a new song from — but its origins go back to 1992. As Oates explained in a statement about the track, he stumbled upon an old tape from decades back and decided to put the song together for release now as an attempt to capture the musical spirit of the 1960s: "I rediscovered this song on an old tape that I recorded in 1992. I wanted to tap into the uncertainty of young love, and it seemed like a ’60s retro approach kind of fit that teenage dilemma. Plus, I just wanted to find an excuse to do a ’60s-style doo-wop tune and sing all the background harmonies." Video by Jason Lee Denton.

Rocktrospectiva: Blur's Rare Debut Album "Leisure" Turns 35

Released on 26 August 1991 "Leisure" was the debut studio album by English rock band Blur. The album drews influences from the Madchester and shoegaze styles popular in the UK indie scene at the time, contrasting with the Britpop sound that the band would later pioneer beginning with follow-up album Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993). It features the band's first three singles, "She's So High", "There's No Other Way", and "Bang", and marks the beginning of Blur's long-running collaboration with producer Stephen Street, who produced the majority of the album's 12 tracks.

Upon its release, Leisure received mixed reviews from critics but was a moderate commercial success, selling over 100,000 copies and earning Gold certification in the UK. While the album has undergone some critical reappraisal in later years, it is most often viewed in comparison to the band's later work.

After adding producer Stephen Street to the mix, their second single "There's No Other Way" became a big hit in the UK, peaking at number 8. Although the third single "Bang" did not fare as well, the band became bona fide pop stars in the UK and, according to NME, "the acceptable pretty face of a whole clump of bands that have emerged since the whole Manchester thing started to run out of steam."

Heavily influenced by The Charlatans and The Stone Roses, Leisure is a great snapshot of a band trying mightily to find its voice. Leisure was a stepping stone for Blur indeed, on the strength of their subsequent releases, the foursome transformed into one of Britain's most beloved acts of the past 35 years, while they still enjoy a very loyal, somewhat cult-like following here in the US.

Even though Leisure was very much a product of its time, it still holds up as a rather solid debut album. In the early '90s, the music scenes were struggling to find a definitive sound and at the time the Manchester scene had simply died out with nothing to replace it. Blur just happened to be caught in the middle of this transition.

Talking about the tracks, you can find a series of clues to what will come later in the band, and Albarn's career, "Repetition" clearly pointed to Albarn’s acclaimed side project Gorillaz the odd gem on Leisure was "Sing" the original version of "Sing", entitled "Sing (To Me)", was recorded as a demo in late 1989 under the band's former name, Seymour, and can be heard on the ultra-rare promo-only single which was released over a decade later in February 2000 and on the first of a 4-disc set with rare material in the Blur 21 box set, also, the track subsequently featured on the 1996 Trainspotting soundtrack. With one foot stuck in the past (think Velvet Underground) and the other reaching for the future, this song illustrates Blur’s untapped promise, the trippy and quasi-psychedelic "She's So High" manage to peaked at No. 48 in the UK, and of course the groovy "There's No Other Way"and of course the hatred "Bang". There were other weaker tracks such as  "Wear Me Down" and "Birthday” but in spite of that, Leisure was intriguing enough but there was something quite special about discovering a band at its genesis.

The cover photograph was taken in May 1954 by Charles Hewitt, for a Picture Post fashion feature on bathing hats, "Glamour in the Swim".

Leisure received mixed reviews from the British music press and called the album as one of those happy occasions when the hype is dead right but recalled the band don't appear to know what they're doing and as a result make appalling mistakes all over the place". He also described the lyrics as "bad". In a 2007 interview, lead singer Damon Albarn expressed distaste for the album, describing it as "awful" and being one of the two "bad records" he has made in his career (the other being Blur album The Great Escape).

 

Leisure Track List.

 

1. She's So High

2. Bang

3. Slow Down

4. Repetition

5. Bad Day

6. Sing

7. There's No Other Way

8. Fool

9. Come Together

10. High Cool

11. Birthday

12. Wear Me Down

Rocktrospectiva: The Refined And Quite Successful "Fear" Turns 35

Released on 27 August 1991 "Fear" was the 3rd., studio album by the US alternative rock band Toad The Wet Sprocket. It became the first commercially successful album for the band, selling over a million copies and was certified platinum three years after release, on September 1, 1994.

The album debuted at number 49 on Billboard 200 a year after its release. Two of the album's singles peaked within the Billboard Hot 100's top 40: "All I Want" and "Walk on the Ocean", which peaked at numbers 15 and 18 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. Other singles released were "Is It For Me?" & "I Will Not Take These Things For Granted."

Fear was Toad the Wet Sprocket’s coming-of-age album, one where they graduated from woodshedding of the first two albums to a fully-formed artist.  And what an artistry it is. It contained both their biggest hits "All I Want" and perhaps most consistent set of tunes.

The album opened nonchalantly with their signature tune "Walk on the Ocean" which was just as indescribable as Toad’s artistic identity.  Languid yet steady, nostalgic and poignant, the song takes us through a mysterious journey in which we venture out of the harsh reality, witness some miracles, only to be pulled back into an unsettling homecoming. From there the band took us through eleven more songs that go up and down effortlessly both in terms of momentum and intensity, with not a single weak spot in sight.  "Is It for Me", "Hold Her Down", "Before You Were Born" all rock hard while painting vivid pictures of childhood adventure going awry, sexual violence and personal rejection.  "Something To Say" and "All I Want" were more reassuring, even if not entirely able to abandon the melancholy behind.  “Pray Your Gods” and “Stories I Tell” went into somber and scary places, but those are the low points that make the closer "I Will Not Take These Things for Granted" all the more uplifting.  And finally the shortest song "Nightingale Song" is a perfectly crafted gem about life's humbling moments.

Fear was the real and serious deal, the band had a bigger production budget, and producer Gavin McKillop created a reverb-drenched sonic soundscape that highlights the mystery that still exists in the band songs.  Philips, guitarist Todd Nichols and bassist Dean Dinning took advantage of the longer studio time by creating denser and more varied layers than they have done before or since, and the result is an album full of beautiful acoustic layers, a sort of ntrovert's rock, cause as relatable as some of Glen's lyrics are, Toad is about subtlety, ambiguity and shades of gray.  

 

Fear Track List:  

 

1. Walk On The Ocean

2. Is It For Me?

3. Butterflies

4. Nightingale Song

5. Hold Her Down

6. Pray Your Gods

7. Before You Were Born

8. Something To Say

9. In My Ear

10. All I Want

11. Stories I Tell

12. I Will Not Take These Things For Granted

News: Pet Shop Boys Announce The Release Of "A Man From The Future"

 

The Pet Shop Boys are pleased to announce the forthcoming album release of  "A Man From The Future", along with a special listening and conversation event in Manchester to mark the occasion.

Created in collaboration with Alan Turing biographer, Andrew Hodges, and performed by Pet Shop Boys and the Manchester Camerata Octet with narration by Juliet Stevenson and string arrangements by Sven Helbig, the work explores eight significant chapters in the life and death of Alan Turing, the pioneering British mathematician and cryptanalyst who laid the foundations of modern computing. The work has been revised and updated since its first performance at the BBC Proms in 2014. This new version, produced by Pet Shop Boys and Sven Helbig, will be released as an album on October 9th., via Parlophone Records. It is now available to pre-order in various formats at this link: AMFTF

Pet Shop Boys and Andrew Hodges will take part in a listening and conversation event for “A man from the future” on Thursday, 8th.,  October at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester which will feature a full playback of the album followed by a discussion about the work by Pet Shop Boys and Andrew Hodges. Tickets for the event go on sale on Monday, 7th., September at 10am BST via the link below. The conversation will also be filmed and made available online shortly afterwards.

News: Simple Minds Announce Their Brand New Studio Album

Simple Minds announce their brand new studio album ‘Sacrosanct’ with today’s release of it’s first single "Beginner Boys". The album will arrive on 29th January 2027 and is available to pre-order right now!

 

The North American leg of their hugely successful Global Tour in 2025, inspired Kerr and Burchill to draw on their art rock and new wave roots, after witnessing fans in cities they’d never before played, react ecstatically to early songs such as "Sons and Fascination". This atmosphere prevails throughout Sacrosanct, and its eight brilliantly crafted songs that have both a simplicity and an ethereal directness to them.

The album finds the lifelong collaborators on supremely confident form, on one of their most vital albums in decades; one which recaptures the magic and majesty at the very heart of Simple Minds.

Sacrosanct is an artistic triumph and the third, alongside Walk Between Worlds and Direction of the Heart, in an emphatic trilogy.

The metalwork on the album artwork comes from a collaboration between Simple Minds and Glasgow-born sculptor Andy Scott, who has reimagined the band’s logo in steel. Scott was awarded an OBE in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours for services to sculpture and fine art.

A lifelong fan who first saw the band at Glasgow's Tiffany's in 1982, Scott builds his large-scale outdoor works using a distinctive welded assembly technique, composing each form from thousands of hand-cut steel sections. He is best known for The Kelpies, the pair of 30-metre horse heads at Falkirk — the largest equine sculptures in the world.

 

Sacrosanct Track List: 

 

1. Elysium 

2. King Of The Underworld

3. Beginner Boys

4. Jerusalem (State Of Mind)

5. Our Secrets Are The Same

6. Songs

7. Alive In This Moment

8. The Next Right Thing 

New Music: Call It What You Want

            

The South London band Fat Dog are back with new single "Call It What You Want". Fat Dog's new album "Cancel Me (I'm Tired)" is out on October 2nd, the video shows the group playing an open air show in Bermondsey to over 500 fans last weekend. The show – dubbed Woofstock by some – saw Fat Dog air their new single, and it’s a propulsive, relentlessly entertaining slice of noise rock bedlam under the direction of Shammy Dalton.

 

New Music: Free, Free

           

Ladytron shares their new single & music video "Free Free" taken from the band latest album "Paradises" and keeping their usual dance-oriented electronic sound.

New Music: Nothing Happens Twice

           

Gurriers have released a new single, "Nothing Happens Twice", the track is off the Dublin, Ireland band’s forthcoming album, Nobody’s Coming To Save You, available September 25. The single follows the release of the album's title track, "Nobody's Coming To Save You" and "Party Lines". "Nothing Happens Twice" is accompanied by a video directed by Thomas James. The single is an absurdist take on the state of the modern world, inspired by Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Blending existential lyricism with the ‘dead internet’ theory, "Nothing Happens Twice" explores the idea that online, we're increasingly surrounded by bots rather than people, whilst further dissecting political unease, digital alienation and dark humour".