Zak Smith – Fix Me
The biggest rock stars, I suspect, are people beloved by millions of people and, especially, by their management team. They’re easy to talk to. They take orders well, and they’re insanely frightened about doing the wrong thing.
And that’s why these people are always out there on the road, can produce new recorded material with unbelievable consistency and are never too tired to create pieces of social media. They’re a manager’s dream!
But, frankly, most of the time the great artists don’t even make it to the recording studio before something awful happens to them. In fact, we’ve probably never even heard the best songs ever written because the world’s greatest minds tend to have a habit of getting in their own way.
That’s what Zak Smith sings about with the passion of a man who is caught smack in the middle of a rage fit and an epiphany about the magical powers of love. “Fix Me” is a country-tinged rock song about being damaged and afraid to step away from the decisions that got you there. Smith sings this with conviction.
J. Killen – Oak Tree
There are plenty of important questions that you’ll be forced to consider. But make sure to choose the right time and, if possible, try to delay the process as much as possible. If you don’t time yourself right, you may find yourself spending endless sleepless nights looking at the ceiling, or, worst still, finding yourself crying your eyes out in public transport.
Now, making pop-rock music is, usually, a game designed for people who want to avoid the big questions. It’s a wonderful distraction, and we all play along. But the time comes for everyone. If you’re going to progress, to advance, to do anything, you’ll just have to face them, and that’s what J. Killen does here.
“Oak Tree” sounds like the first music that an experienced songwriter makes after experimenting with oblivion for a long, long time. That’s not to say that this is not pretty. The music echoes the 90s alt-country heroes that, for the most part, have given up asking any musical questions a long time ago. Killen, on the other hand, sounds determined. It all starts again for him here. And that’ll have to be enough for now.
