Quick Plays: SMASH MOUTH, LOVE HUNTER, TIN SOLDIERS

SMASH MOUTH – Magic 429Records

Smash Mouth have been around since 1994 and their pop punk lite is still good, although I am not sure they will be oustelling the likes of Green Day or Good Charlotte any day soon. Fair play to them as they bring in young rapper J-Dash for two songs, although if you are one of their fans and you hate rap music this move will off course not please you much. Nice topical swipe at Justin Bieber on the son named after him and ‘Future X Wife’ has a instant chorus. There is a also a decent cover of Simple Minds’ ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’.

Not a bad album but there are better albums out there if you are after a pop punk fix.

***

Jason Ritchie

LOVE HUNTER – Drawn To The Light www.lovehuntermusic.com

Not a Whitesnake tribute band but a musical project of Kelvin Fischer who has been releasing music in the past ten years or so. He handles most of the instruments with Shelina adding backing vocals and percussion.

After the choral vocal intro of ‘The Invocation’ it is onto ‘Now That You’re Gone’, a gentle, wistful acoustic tune that sets the stall out for the rest of the album. In fact that is this album’s biggest issue in that the songs tend to have similar tempo and vocals meaning they all blend into one. An older song like ‘In My Heart You’ll Stay’ offers up some classy AOR but this is not an essential or ‘must hear’ album sadly.

**1/2

Jason Ritchie

TIN SOLDIERS – Army Of One (EP) www.tinsoldiers.co.uk

New four piece band who are busy working on their second album, after their 2010 debut album ‘Telling Tales’ gained glowing reviews. After listening to this four song EP you can see why as they have biog, hooked filled rockers like ‘Always Tomorrow’ and a mellower sound on ‘Take Back The Streets’, sounding a bit like Feeder meets the Killers.They make the power pop/rock genre seem easy when often it is one of the hardest sounds to crack.

Often bands don’t always live up to second albums as many good ideas get used up on the debut (the Darkness being a classic case in point) but based on these four songs we can expect a storming album from Tin Soldiers next year.

****

Jason Ritchie

MARIA JORDAN – Better Than Nothing (CDS)

Lifted from her new album ‘Debris’, Maria Jordan has a wonderful voice and sound that encompasses country, blues and pop rock. Both songs, the other being ‘Hold My Head’ are well crafted pieces of country pop rock and in the case of ‘Better Than Nothing’ sounding like Fleetwood Mac. Both songs are made for daytime radio and have the potential to become hit singles.

****

Jason Ritchie

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Next session: Sunday 1 December

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David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 3 November 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 29 October 2024.

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Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)