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Silver Lining Music [Release date : 20.02.26]
Michael Monroe is on his 13th album now, with the same lineup as last half dozen or so, Steve Conte, Sam Yaffa, Rich Jones and Karl Rockvist, and so you expect more of the same, only better. And better is what we get.
For a while now, Monroe’s vocal performance has swung between a lusty, ragged edged bravado and poignant storytelling. His music, always ambitious, never gets weighed down by those ambitions.
He’s always been a champion of the true rock’n’roll spirit, a torch bearer for searing, elemental rock anthems like ‘Black Cadillac’ and ‘Precious’.
And listening to ‘When The Apocalypse Comes’ and ‘Pushin’ Me Back’, both pitched somewhere between Tom Petty and Springsteen, it’s evident that the band has become a tighter, more muscular outfit over the years, creating a powerful, distinctive sound.
Monroe’s songs have passion and purpose, often riding on a melancholy undertow. And there are so many examples here.
‘Painless’, full of big chords and martial beats, expands from a slinky sense of mystery into a charismatic force. Then they flip the coin for ‘Newtro Bomb’, capturing raw energy and a punk vibe, wrapping it up in a prickly sheen of studio polish.
Monroe often trades in nostalgia, but ultimately settles on realism. Step forward, ‘Disconnected’. Delivered in a welcome blitz of low slung, springloaded guitars, it champions the underdog, celebrating the individual. If anyone knows that story first hand, it’s Monroe.
The ballad ‘Glitter Dust’ goes a step further, with the man looking back on the hardships of his youth, and the defiance and drive they instilled. It’s as much a hymn to the ordinary man as it is a rock song.
Few artists continue to make music as good and as moving as this.
Monroe and band embark on a UK tour later this month. ****
Review by Brian McGowan
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Power Plays w/c 9 February 2026
EVA UNDER FIRE Murder Scene (Better Noise Music)
ARGOVIA Ebb & Flow (Presagio Records)
TELENOVA In The Name Of Your Love ()
TAILGUNNER War In Heaven (Napalm Records)
FROM ASHES TO NEW Villain (Fiction Records)
WITHIN TEMPTATION & SMASH INTO PIECES Somebody Like You (indie)
XO SOUNDTRACK Talk About Me (indie)
Featured Albums w/c 9 February 2026
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)
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