First up this week we have the new track from the forthcoming DeRellas album. A rework of a familiar track sounds excellent it’s taken from the album ‘Something’s Got To Give’ which should be with us very soon.
WALKING PAPERS RELEASE LATEST VIDEO FOR “CREATION REPRODUCTION AND DEATH” FROM CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED THIRD ALBUM, ‘THE LIGHT BELOW,’ OUT NOW VIA CARRY ON MUSIC
SUZIMOON, the newest member of the Pirates Press Records family, has just released her second single for “I’m Not A Man.” The song comes from Moon’s upcoming Call The Shots 3 song EP, the debut solo release for the former CIVET member and TURBULENT HEARTS frontwoman. but there’s no video yet so check this banger out
Finally how about some dirty hard rock in the shape of Sea Of Snakes. “Ride the Line” via Metal-Temple. The song is from their recently released album “World On Fire” which came out via Metal Assault Records.
To listen to WALKING PAPERS is like gaining access to a secret society, like stumbling upon your new favorite bar behind an unmarked door — the kind where every patron has a story, and every night is a late one. With THE LIGHT BELOW, we’re once again invited behind the velvet curtain, to the smoke-filled room where whiskey-voiced Angell holds court, telling his tales over bluesy riffs with an alluring darkness.
Known for his bruised, evocative vocals, and craftsman-like songwriting, he uses the new album to build on an already formidable catalog, with a cinematic style that oscillates between lust and loathing. Described by Angell as “a sort of mindfulness exercise,” the new tracks focus restless energy left in the wake of personal loss and creative self-doubt. “I’ve always used music as a way to deal with negative experiences and to figure myself out,” he explains, “I’ve lost a few close friends the last couple years and some of these songs provided the light I needed to process that. Those same songs have now become a way to continue a conversation with the ghosts.”
PancakesAndWhiskey.com went on to call THE LIGHT BELOW, “…a powerful rush of dark rock…mesmerizing… has a uniquely cinematic feel…a sit-down-and-listen, edge-of-your-seat kind of record, but it’s equally pleasing when you might be listening more passively; a gripping life soundtrack that makes everyday moments feel like film noir. From Andrews’ strikingly precise drumming to Anderson’s vivid keys to the vibe-setting saxophone by Lothian, it’s a colorful base on which Angell paints his pensive lyrics. THE LIGHT BELOW is like a sonic trip to a place where neon signs and car headlights illuminate leather-jacketed late-nighters.”
While PhilsPicks.com called it, “One of 2021’s essential albums,” RPMOnline.com declared, “…a contender for album of the year already,” and MyGlobalMind.com proclaimed, “Bluesy, alternative, artful rock music. This is the sort of music that I always imagine Talking Head’s David Byrne telling all of his friends about. It’s got everything Byrne embraces when it comes to style, art, lyrical content and more…This is a great release that reminds us that great music is out there if we look for it.”
With a diverse array of legendary supporting members itching to hop in and jam over the years, including Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses), Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees), it’s no surprise that caliber of musicianship is what WALKING PAPERS has become notorious for. This time around, they’ve recruited Will Andrews (drums), Gregor Lothian (saxophone), and Dean DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots) for some roof-raising guitar work on “Divine Intervention” as well as “Stood up at the Gates of Heaven.”
“Who you’re playing with obviously changes the dynamics of what you’re doing,” explains Angell. “As with most labor of love projects there was blood, sweat and tears, but those shared the space with a lot of laughs and personal epiphanies. It’s never easy to articulate something you hear in your head to another person. But in the end, what we achieved was beyond our expectations and I think we’re all better for it.”
Seattle-based blues-rock outfit Walking Papers return with their 3rd album ‘The Light Below’, the follow up to their 2018 album ‘WP2’. Singer/guitarist and chief songwriter Jeff Angell and keyboard player Benjamin Anderson may have lost bassist Duff McKagan and Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin along the way due to touring commitments, but that hasn’t stopped the duo from moving forward with their brand of blues-based art rock and taking their sound to another dimension along the way.
Joining the duo on this new album are drummer Will Andrews, bassist Dan Spalding, and guitar player Tristan Hart Pierce.
If you are unaware of Walking Papers, let’s get one thing straight, they are not a party band. They may have Guns n’ Roses and Pearl Jam connections, but Messrs Angell and Anderson have not produced an album of anthemic, stadium rock to take their fans’ minds off a Pandemic ravaged world. What they have delivered is an epic album of pure escapism that takes them far away from their post-Grunge, blues rock beginnings.
‘The Light Below’ is an atmospheric and captivating album from the off and it draws the listener in, unlike either of their previous offerings. Opener ‘The Value Of Zero’ rides on downbeat, tribal rhythms and swathes of electronica. ‘Ultra’-era Depeche Mode springs immediately to mind, this is not the dusty, Seattle blues rock of their previous incarnation, this is dark and foreboding rock music that skulks along in the dark waiting to pounce.
The previous single ‘What Did You Expect?’ follows, “I never promised to be an Angel’ croons Angell over fuzzy guitars and dance beats. Imagine if Trent Reznor had collided with ‘Full Moon Over Dirty Hearts’ era INXS and took them further down the spiral…yes, it’s a 90’s alternative rock thing and that’s a good place to be.
Two songs in and I’m pretty much blown away already, intrigued and excited for what is to follow. And what does follow is, what I can only describe as a masterpiece. ‘Divine Intervention/Stood Up At The Gates Of Heaven’ is the centerpiece of the album. Originally written as one piece of music, it has been split into two for this album. The full, epic 12-minute version was released recently along with a dark, David Lynch inspired video that fits the feel of the song perfectly. Picked, bluesy guitars, pulsating bass that reverberates deep down to the bottom of the soul, and brooding, whisky-soaked vocals that sit somewhere between Ian Astbury and Trent Reznor. The sprawling, cinematic ‘Divine Intervention’ documents Angell’s ongoing ‘conversations’ with departed spirits, and features Stone Temple Pilots Dean DeLeo’s masterful guitar work.
The segue into ‘’Stood Up At The Gates Of Heaven’ is magnificent, the pulsating hypnotic beat enraptures the listener for the entirety. For me, this is what music is all about. This is an album to get lost in, an album to drift away with. With clever use of dynamics, Angell creates soundscapes to enthrall, all you have to do is put on your headphones to block out the world, close your eyes and let the songwriter take you on a trip to another dimension.
Each song is like an all-encompassing art piece, each one different but all following the same theme. The structures, the sonics and the dynamics of each cleverly thought out and played out to complement the other within the context of the album that flows as one whole work of art.
With swathes of Hammond ‘Going Nowhere’ has a gothic, almost ethereal feel to it. Sparse instrumentation, minimal drums, and clever use of space leave room for the singer to work some magic, and the surprise addition of some sexy sax gives a soulful INXS vibe.
At over 9 minutes, ‘Creation, Reproduction and Death’ is a sexually charged, dancerama of darkness. A trip through life towards death, did you take the red or the blue pill? They even tinker with jazz on ‘The Other Shoe (Reprise)’, an instrumental sidestep where unexpected but welcoming sax joins pumping bass and tribal rhythms.
Jeff Angell has mastered the fine art of storytelling on this third opus and he shows us he can still sing the blues on the last two offerings. ‘Where Did I Go Wrong?’ is a bluesy confessional accompanied by warm, clean guitar chords and subtle background keys. And closer ‘California (One More Phone Call)’ is a Black Crowes style ballad. A vocal on the verge of cracking, a love letter, a goodbye to a lover, delivered with conviction and passion, mixed with subdued Hammond chords and little else is all that is needed to leave the listener with a sense of yearning. But a yearning for what? Maybe it’s just to press play and do it all again.
I must admit I went into this review expecting an average, dare I say it ‘classic rock’ album, based on the band’s past output. Little did I expect to be drawn in to an expansive album that ticks all the boxes for what I want from music in 2021. Angell and Anderson have taken their band far from their roots and created a sound that is modern, progressive and dark, full of electronica but rooted in the classic. Overall, I can honestly say ‘The Light Below’ is utterly mesmerizing and completely spellbinding. I know it’s early days, but I feel we may have a contender for album of the year already.
‘The Light Below’ is the third album from Walking Papers, due in early 2021. “What Did You Expect?”, the first track from the album, is penned by principals Jefferson Angell and Benjamin Anderson, and represents a continuation of the impactful and artful rock and blues sound Walking Papers have developed. Lyrically, Angell challenges anyone who has dug themselves a hole, or who stood in their own way. Get it Here
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