The Evan Whitton Blog: After Hours

The Streets - The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light - The Singles, Reviewed After over 20 years in the limelight, I don’t think calling Mike Skinner a UK rap legend is unjustified. After a run of five great albums with The Streets, including classics like ‘Original Pirate Material’ and ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’, in which displayed his talent for creating gritty, homegrown production, complete with unorthodox delivery and witty lyricism, he retired the project in 2011 to focus on other ventures like The D.O.T. with Rob Harvey among others. However, Skinner returned to The Streets in 2017, citing the making of a self produced film and its accompanying soundtrack as the reason for his return. That’s not to say that’s all he’s been doing though, as in the time between his comeback and the film’s release, he’s seen fit to drop a fair bit of music, including various stand alone singles, a duets mixtape, the soundtrack’s sister album, (which at one point I mistook for the actual so...

Don Letts - Outta Sync - The Singles, Reviewed  DJ and filmmaker Don Letts I think is one of the more underappreciated figures in the pivotal 70s UK punk movement. Starting out as a videographer for The Clash, he eventually became a very prominent name in that scene, shooting reams of important archival footage such as for his 1978 ‘Punk Rock Movie’, and even (rather sensically given his reggae background) at one point managing The Slits. Over the years though, Don has also been involved in a number of musical projects, most notably co-founding Big Audio Dynamite with Mick Jones. Now though, after over 45 years in the business, it’s his turn to show what he can do. Teaming up with producer Gaudi, Don’s debut solo album ‘Outta Sync’, set for release on September 29th, purports to display Don’s eclectic range of influences from the worlds of reggae, pop, and rock, combining them in a D.I.Y. style. So, let’s have a look at the singles to see how that’s panning out. Outta Sync Musicall...

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...

Night Drive - Position II - The Singles, Reviewed Night Drive are a duo that only came to my attention fairly recently. While trying to put together a playlist for my Youtube series ‘The Not-So-Forensic Records Society’, one of their tracks showed up in the recommendations, and after listening I was instantly hooked. They operate within the fairly popular retro avenue of synthwave, but there’s much more than pointless nostalgia at play here, as they offer up moody, nocturnal washes of bass and synthesisers over danceable beats, supplemented by a dramatic sometimes downtrodden, highly catchy vocal presence. But since their debut album in 2017, aside from a few standalone singles, it’s been a little quiet on the musical front. Now though, they’ve re-emerged as a trio, with a brand new EP: a follow up to their debut release called ‘Position II’, coming out on August 4th. So, let’s get stuck into these singles. Summerwaves Now this is the Night Drive we all know and love. Starting out with...

Post Malone -  Austin - The Singles, Reviewed Post Malone is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in modern popular music. After bursting onto the rap scene with his 2016 ‘White Iverson’ single, and later his 2017 album ‘Stoney’, he quickly gained an audience with his unique mix of styles, combining elements of pop-rap with flourishes of country guitar, alongside heartbroken and braggadocious lyrics, but still with an ear and indeed voice for an irresistible pop hook. He went onto develop this further with what many, including myself, may consider to be his best album: ‘beerbongs and bentleys’ in 2018. It wasn’t a perfect record by any means, but showed his pre-established skills amplified to very high levels indeed, with a fair few hit singles along with it. Following that though, while I enjoyed a few tracks from 2019’s ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’, there were also a fair few that just didn’t interest me, a problem that worsened with ‘12 Carat Toothache’ two years later. Now though, it...