A quick gander at some recent releases of many different styles.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & E STREET BAND, Land of Hope and Dreams (2025). It doesn’t matter where he is. When Bruce Springsteen speaks, the world listens. In the case of Land of Hope and Dreams, The Boss takes the stage in Manchester, England where he wastes no time ripping into the way things are being done by the current President of the United States. To back it up, the air-tight E Street Band drops in to get their leader’s back. There’s no mystery to Springsteen’s music. There’s no magic formula. It’s just straight-ahead, no holds barred, damn the torpedoes rock and roll. The only discernible difference is that the song’s lyrics are even more direct than they usually are. You either dig it or you don’t. The Manchester audience was digging it. Consider it completely dug from here.
https://youtu.be/6ZHWIYHlXOs?si=eO0JwTEO6EGnP0ng
DEADCODE, Nothing and Nowhwre (2025). A nice throwback to the early days of Nine Inch Nails, with heavy electronic grooves and metal guitars, driven by a brutal drum groove. The album plays out like an angsty EDM dance party until things shift to industrial metal. Deadcode manages to walk that musical tightrope with skill and precision. The music is completely straightforward … the band has found a groove and they’re determined to stay there. It seems to working while we listen and feel like we’ve been transported back to 1994.
https://store.deadcodemusic.com/
RICK WAKEMAN, Yessonata (2024). One thing is certain — and it’s far from being a secret — Rick Wakeman can play the daylights out of a piano. More than enough evidence is contained in this completely solo effort, where Wakeman takes the music he created progressive rock legends Yes and takes it for a walk in various directions. It’s a great deal of fun to hear Wakeman play what he wants only to slip into a few bars of a Yes classic. “The King Arthur Piano Suite” is equally compelling. It’s no wonder these pieces were so popular when he played them in concert. Now everyone has a chance to experience Wakeman’s genius. It’s time well spent.
https://rickwakemanofficial.store/collections/frontpage
JEFF BECK, Who Else (Remastered 2025). Between the early eighties and the turn of the century, a new album from legendary guitarist Jeff Beck was more than an event. New releases were so rare, they were a happening. But lucky for guitar nerds everywhere, whatever dam that restricted Beck’s recorded output broke, and new music flooded forth. It all started in 1999, when Who Else saw the light of day. The album was nothing short of a revelation. Never one to rely on the past, Beck took his signature sound to the musical trends of the day, including electronica. The modern sounds were accompanied traditional blues and tender ballads. Each tune left a legion of frustrated guitarists in its wake as they tried to figure out just how in hell Beck was able to get those sounds to come out of his Stratocasters. Beck also had a six-string foil in Jennifer Batten, who held down some sick grooves of her own for Beck to play through and over. Who Else has been remastered, so we are now able to take in all of those groundbreaking sounds with increased depth and clarity. The Jeff Beck of the new millennium could hang with any of his fusion classics from the seventies. The proof is in the digital pudding.
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