To celebrate the New Year – I have just added 20 new songs into high rotation in the playlist. Eighteen of the songs are from the following newly released classic rock albums:
The Who – WHO … Roger Daltrey has called this new release the “best album since Quadrophenia“, and I am hard pressed to dispute this claim. Pete Townshend has crafted some incredible songs with great topical lyrics that are beautifully delivered by a team of crack musicians. Listen for the tracks I Don’t Wanna Get Wise, Hero Ground Zero, This Gun Will Misfire, Rockin’ In Rage and Break The News. Read the review here.
Jimi Hendrix – Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts … This box set captures Hendrix live with the Band Of Gypsys in all his guitar wielding glory. Running approximately five hours, the album boasts forty-three tracks, restored in sequence from Wally Heider’s original recordings over 2 nights. Over two dozen of these tracks have never before been released commercially (or have been newly pressed and newly remixed). Listen for the tracks Fire, Hey Joe and Lover Man. Read the review here.
Pink Floyd – The Later Years … This box set captures the David Gilmour led incarnation of the band, and features remixes of their albums from Momentary Lapse Of Reason onward, as well as remixed and reedited versions of concert films, unreleased footage from various tours, Division Bell outtakes, rehearsals, and more. Listen for a live version of Run Like Hell recorded in Atlanta in 1987, as well as a couple of 1994 instrumental studio outtakes – Marooned Jam and Nervana. Read the review here.
Grateful Dead – Ready Or Not … This new album contains live versions of the six tracks included on the band’s So Many Roads album, plus a further three live songs from the Vince Welnick era. Listen for the track Samba In the Rain. Read the review here.
Gary Numan & The Skaparis Orchestra – When the Sky Came Down … This album was recorded live in Bridgewater Hall in Manchester England with a full orchestra. Numan himself called the experience “one of the highlights of my career”. Listen for the songs Ghost Nation and Everything Comes Down To This. Read the review here.
Marillion – With Friends From the Orchestra … The band has rerecorded some of their extended opuses and lesser known album tracks with a string quartet, flautist and a French Horn player. The album captures the band on a creative high, confident and comfortable in what they’re about and – after all these years – still wanting to push the boundaries and do something new. Listen for the track Seasons End. Read the review here.
Steve Hackett – Genesis Revisited Band & Orchestra: Live at the Royal Festival Hall … The former Genesis guitar player also teams up with an orchestra on this live album, on which he covers classics from his earlier solo career, his more recent releases, and a Genesis set list which includes a track from every album he contributed to (skipping The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway). Listen for the song El Nino. Read the review here.
Harry Nilsson – Losst And Founnd … This album is the first posthumous release from the artist. Original producer Mark Hudson has taken the recordings from Nilsson‘s last unfinished recording sessions, spiffed up and completed the tracks, enlisting a number of the artist’s old friends along the way (such as Jimmy Webb, Van Dyke Parks, Jim Keltner, as well as son Kiefo Nilsson). Listen for the track High Heel Sneakers/Rescue Boy Medley. Read the review here.
Molly Hatchet – Battleground … This live album is a well-balanced and all-encompassing taste of the charm that the band has carried with them through the decades, balancing the flair of old-school rockstars with a tasteful twang in both voices and instrumentals. Listen for a live version of their classic Dreams I’ll Never See. Read the review here.
New Singles
The other 2 songs are currently released as singles:
Huey Lewis & The News – While We’re Young … this is the second single from the band’s new album, Weather – which is due for release on February 14th, 2020.
U2 with A. R. Rahman – Ahimsa … this song was released a while ago – but I recently discovered it. U2 wrote the song with Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman. The title of the song is a Sanskrit word for “non-violence”.
Choice Classic Rock – classic rock radio like you’ve never heard it before!
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