Playlist: What Yahoo editors are listening to now
Vernon Lee, Senior news editor
With the release of This Is Not A Safe Place in August 2019, shoegaze legends Ride have once again returned to the top tier of the UK albums chart. Its sixth studio album - and the second comeback album after Ride reformed in 2014 - reached No.7 at its peak. While the Oxford band are no longer performing effects-heavy songs that had elevated them to fame in their formative years, they are still capable of crafting tuneful, poppy melodies such as “Future Love” and “Clouds of Saint Marie”. Revving it up with the post-punk leaning “Kill Switch” and the electro-tinged “Repetition” and winding down a notch with the acoustic-driven “Shadows Behind the Sun”, the quartet show that they are capable of reinventing themselves and staying ahead of musical fads. A leap forward from Weather Diaries, their previous album, This Is Not A Safe Place exemplifies that the band are poised to craft another chapter beyond their illustrious 30-year musical journey.
Dhany Osman, News editor/Senior content producer
After a 13-year wait Tool has finally released another album and it sounds... just like Tool! Danny Carey’s hypnotic poly-rhythms, Justin Chancellor’s epic bass tone, Adam Jones’ darker-than-the-abyss riffs and Maynard’s creeping, syncopated vocals - they’re all there on Fear Inoculum.
At just under 80 minutes there’s more than enough to please long-time fans. Tracks like “7empest” and “Descending” are as heavy and catchy as anything the band’s ever done.
This is a band that’s set their own standard by crafting a singular sound - and Fear Inoculum is a testament to that accomplishment.
Reta Lee, Editor-in-chief
I sporadically pick up Nick Cave’s response to fan mail every now and then, ever since he launched his journal that showed off his brutally honest and raw answers. And of course, he revealed his double album Ghosteen, alongside the Renaissance-like cover and tracklist in issue #63. Ghosteen trails after the band’s 2016 Skeleton Tree, and sounds like a warmer companion albeit coupled with eerie sounds and Nick’s numb prose. Occasionally you’ll hear the gentle piano keys, and dark rhythm that picks up when he sighs and longs for his late child’s return on “Waiting For You.”
Well, I'm just waiting for you
Waiting for you, waiting for you
Waiting for you, waiting for you
Waiting for you
Or the howling on “Your Funeral My Trial.” And the stretches of repeating lines again in “Spinning Sounds.”
It’s a hauntingly beautiful album that Nick Cave and Bad Seeds have recorded, that fits with the album’s lyrical themes. There’s so much depth and breadth in Nick’s Cave - emotive, full-bodied pieces of songs, recounted in hints of weariness and hope.
