Maximo Park – Stream Of Life (Eco Mix Vinyl)
Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching (2xLP, Red Vinyl)
Ritchie Kotzen – Nomad (Sky Blue Vinyl)
Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak (2024 Remix, Silver Vinyl)
Thin Lizzy – Johnny The Fox (2024 Remix, Coloured Vinyl)
Ed Sheeran – +-=÷× Tour Collection (2xLP, Blue Vinyl)
Maximo Park – Stream Of Life
Maxïmo Park release their eighth studio album, Stream Of Life via Lower Third. The road to Stream of Life saw the band link up once again with Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective), Grammy-winning producer of 2021’s near-chart-topping, pandemic-era tour de force Nature Always Wins, and as a result it marks the first time they have all been together in a studio to make an album since 2016.
It finds the band in perhaps the most reflective state they’ve been in. Lead singer Paul Smith, this most lit-pop of lyric writers, took the album title from a short story by Ukrainian-born Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, inspired by both its stream of consciousness style and the way it prompts reflection on the inner mechanisms of people’s minds. It begs the question of why they do the things that they do, even when they can seem counterintuitive to the outsider. There’s an inner flow to every individual – a stream of life.
Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching
Dance, No One’s Watching is an ode to the sacred, yet joyous act of dancing, an album that musically guides you through a night out in the city, from the opening of possibilities as a new evening spans out ahead, to dawn’s final hours as the night comes to a close.
Written during a blistering 2023 which saw Ezra Collective tour the world, and become the first jazz act to win the Mercury Prize, Dance, No One’s Watching is a documentation of the many dance floors they encountered. From London to Chicago, Lagos to Sydney, dance and rhythm connect us. These songs are a testament to that spirit.
Ritchie Kotzen – Nomad
Nomad is the brand new solo album from the seminal rock n’soul singer/songwriter Richie Kotzen. Renowned for his guitar virtuosity, as well as being a highly respected solo artist, he’s also played with Mr Big, is a member of The Winery Dogs as well as being one half of Smith/Kotzen with Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden. The debut track, Cheap Shots sets the tone for the album with a gloriously powerful slice of guitar-drive and hard-riffin’ heavy rock.
Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak / Johnny The Fox
Thin Lizzy were not true heavy metal perpetrators; more accurately, out and out rockers with a feeling for pop. The late Phil Lynott has a growing core of younger fans, as word is passed down that even though he had his demons he was an outstanding performer. This is their best studio album and it contains two classics, ‘The Boys are Back in Town’ and the title track. Both spit and crackle, bass and lead guitar burst out of the speaker at loud volume, and throughout, the gentle, laconic voice of Lynott delivers his poetry. Don’t allow his death to see Thin Lizzy fade from the memory.
Johnny the Fox is the second album in what most fans call the classic four Thin Lizzy albums: Jailbreak, Johnny the Fox, Bad Reputation and Black Rose. Released during the band’s peak years (the mid – to late ’70s), the album is highlighted by the twin guitar attack of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson and Lynott’s own songwriting. Although his romantic artistic ambitions often outreached his hard rock grasp, the songs here (taken one by one) reveal a more focused craftsman. The overall tone of the album is looser – funkier even – than on any previous Thin Lizzy effort. Of course, the only successful single was the predictable pounding of ‘Don’t Believe a Word’, but there are richer and unexpected highlights scattered throughout. the gentle strains of ‘Borderline’ reveal a melodic grace not usually associated with the band. The easy roll of ‘Old Flame’ likewise unearths heart-on-your-sleeve romanticism; and this from a guy who’s better known for casual dismissals such as “if that chick don’t want to know, forget her”, from the band’s signature song, ‘The Boys are Back in Town’.
Ed Sheeran – +-=÷× Tour Collection
Global superstar Ed Sheeran releases +-=÷× (Tour Collection) which brings together some of Ed Sheeran’s biggest songs to date from his decade-spanning mathematical album era.
+-=÷× (Tour Collection) features 22 tracks including the tracks ‘Shape Of You’, ‘Perfect’ ‘Thinking Out Loud’, ‘Photograph’, ‘Shivers’ and ‘Bad Habits’. The song ‘Afterglow’ appears on vinyl for the very first time. The tracklisting includes 9 UK Number 1 singles with 11 tracks that have been streamed in excess of 1 Billion times on Spotify.
