The Evan Whitton Blog: After Hours

Corey Taylor - CMF2 - The Singles, Reviewed Corey Taylor is one of the best known frontmen in modern metal, fronting not only nu-metal juggernauts Slipknot for over 25 years, but also alternative metal band Stone Sour. In both he displayed himself to be a very skilled vocalist, solid lyricist and pretty good songwriter, so the shift to solo material seemed inevitable. However, despite not liking, and in fact pretty much hating his debut ‘CMFT’ in 2020, although perhaps being a little harsh in retrospect, upon announcement of it’s follow up ‘CMF2’, set for release on September 15th, I still went into the singles optimistic at the prospect of improvement, so let’s see. Post Traumatic Blues What this track seems to put across quite well is Corey taking perhaps a more classically “rock” song, but giving it a heavy metal sense of aggression and speed. The nearly 35 second long intro was maybe unnecessary and it could’ve probably just started with the drums, which themselves have a really co

The Chemical Brothers - For That Beautiful Feeling - The Singles, Reviewed Starting out in 1989 as The Dust Brothers before rebranding in 1995, The Chemical Brothers are one of the biggest and best loved names in the big beat scene, along with other artists like The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, and Apollo 440. While maybe not my personal favourite in the genre, they certainly are a great introduction, combining expectantly huge, thumping, danceable beats, catchy melodies and eclectic samples to great effect, with the hits like ‘Block Rockin Beats’, ‘Hey Girl, Hey Boy’ and ‘Galvanise’ to show for it. Now, 4 years after their well received ‘No Geography’ album, Ed and Tom are back with their brand new record ‘For That Beautiful Feeling’, releasing on 8th September. So let’s get sunk into these singles, shall we? Live Again (Ft. Halo Maud) Starting out with a muffled, funky, Daft Punk style beat and odd, soulful vocal chops, quickly you start to hear the washes of anthemic, psychedelic synths sl

Willie J Healey - Bunny - The Singles, Reviewed Willie J Healey honestly isn’t someone I paid a huge amount of attention to up until fairly recently. When his album ‘Twin Heavy’ came out in August 2020, it was getting a lot of very good reviews from people I know, but I wasn’t really to interested, mainly because it’s apparent “retro rock” sound kind of put me in mind of a lot of really naff, corny rock revival bands like Greta Van Fleet, or maybe Arctic Monkeys more recently playing about with glam, and so I decided to keep my distance. However, after finally giving it a listen last year, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Willie does indeed play with a fair few retro guitar pop and glam-rock influences, his sound being fairly described as, shall we say, quite Beatles-y, but with a liveliness and a sense of happiness and fun that was basically absent with his contemporaries, and so since then, he’s stayed on my radar. So now, three years on, Willie is set to release his new album ‘Bunny