Muzikm4n – There Must Be Some Other Way
By the time that Genesis realized just what they’d done to their musical careers while they were busy having pop hits and filling stadiums all over the world, it was too late. As is often the case, prog rock’s desire to show off had morphed into a desire to please at any expense.
They weren’t the first to suffer the fate of winning their financial independence while suffocating their creative drive. Pink Floyd and Yes had found more palatable versions of their progginess, while the likes of Asia went full pop and sought out the MTV small screens.
Genesis did make one last stab at integrity with their album Calling all stations. Critics that swore by the Peter Gabriel-fronted era of the band, loved it. Fans ignored it.
Muzikm4n turn their attention towards that oft-forgotten period, flexing all their musical muscles to recreate the songs that made up those records. It’s not just the sophisticated playing that they get right. The grungey vocals that accompanied those compositions are also nailed great here—great way to gaze back into the past.
Rife – Irony & Agony
I used to think that certain types of rock stars are restricted to a life of adulation in the United States of America. It’s not just because they happen to have been born there. It seemed to me that the vaguely working-class songs and the problems that the heroes of these compositions find themselves in are inherently American.
It turns out that I was wrong. Bruce Springsteen, when touring was a reality, could easily sell out arenas in Europe where the words of Thunder Road and Born in the USA elicited an enthusiastic reaction.
Disciples of his, like Brian Fallon’s Gaslight Anthem, proved to be some of the most successful heartland punk-rock groups in recent memory. We’ve often talked about them on the website and Swedish group Rife also share an admiration for that kind of writing and performance style.
Irony & Agony finds them in that headspace. Here’s a working-class song full of fire and wit. The irony that a working-class band of this quality would spring out of Sweden of all places is not lost on us.
