Hello, and welcome to a new Spotify playlist-embiggened Essential Guitar Tracks. As you may well know, every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.
Our goal is to give you an overview of the biggest tracks, our editor’s picks and anything you may have missed. We’re pushing horizons and taking you out of your comfort zone – because, as guitarists, that’s something we should all be striving for in our playing.
So, here are our highlights from the past seven days… now with a Spotify playlist (scroll to the bottom for the latest additions)!
Queens of the Stone Age – Emotion Sickness
QOTSA’s long-awaited new album will reportedly give us “a sonic forum in which to congregate” (not as we first read it, conjugate). Emotion Sickness is a harmony-laden sweetener – there’s a twisted riff that recalls Rocket From The Crypt’s On A Rope, some beautiful, bleary slide work and a dreamy, ’70s LA rock chorus suggesting Josh Homme’s new direction is more Eagles than, err, Eagles Of Death Metal. (MP)
Nili Brosh – Lavender Mountains
It’s no secret that the Cirque du Soleil and Danny Elfman guitarist is a huge ’80s fan, but Lavender Mountains takes Nili Brosh’s love of feelgood melodies and huge synth pads to new heights. There’s a breezy optimism in the Ibanez artist’s melodic sensibility that recalls George Benson and Joe Satriani here, and it’s hugely infectious. (MAB)
Tash Sultana – New York
This ode to the city that never sleeps – taken from the Australian multi-instrumentalist’s as-yet-untitled forthcoming EP – crackles with life, and is played out by an effortlessly cool solo that finds the Fender signature artist getting Gilmour-like mileage out of each note. (JM)
Dolly Parton – World on Fire
Dolly Parton is really committing to the whole rock renaissance thing she’s got going on at the moment. An original from her upcoming Rockstar LP, World on Fire is an impressively infectious rock anthem, crammed with crunchy guitars and some swashbuckling solo licks. It’s also got a very unsubtle nod to Queen’s We Will Rock You, which certainly helps. (MO)
Maya Ongaku – Something in the Morning Rain
Tokyo three-piece Maya Ongaku should be prescribed as lifestyle medicine. Their relaxed blend of nature-inspired psychedelia is beautifully laced together by Tsutomu Sonoda’s silken chops. Here his playing recalls something of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac instrumentals, albeit with a distinctively Japanese note selection. (MP)
Sevendust – Everything
The American hard-rock juggernaut rumbles on with this guttural chug-fest from baritone disciple Clint Lowery and his alt-metal brigade. It’s the blockbuster first single from the band’s 14th studio album, Truth Killer, out in July. (MAB)
Black Stone Cherry – Nervous
Recent Chapman signing Chris Robertson and his guitarist-in-crime Ben Wells lean heavily into their metal side on Nervous, dialing back the Southern-fried riffage with which they made their name and instead shooting for supersized powerchords and tense alternate-picked melody licks. (MAB)
Lava La Rue – Renegade
Singer-guitarist Lava La Rue leans into a decidedly AM-era Arctic Monkeys-flavored direction for Renegade, which is punctuated by decorative soundscapes and a speaker-smashing, modulation-drenched main hook. Oh, and that solo at the 2:10 mark absolutely slaps. (MO)
Asking Alexandria – Dark Void
Enthusiastic YouTube commentators are already hailing this new single as a return to form for the UK metalcore stalwarts, and with a raft of uber-chonk riffs and an air-punching chorus, we’re inclined to agree. (MAB)
Lake Nakoma – New Skin
One of the standout cuts from the self-titled debut album from Lake Nakoma, the new project from Alabama Shakes guitarist Heath Fogg and singer/songwriter Colin Woltmann, New Skin is a fine demonstration of the former’s formidable riff-writing acumen, complete with one of the most satisfying dirt tones we’ve heard all year. (JM)
Esben and the Witch – A Kaleidoscope
Did you know the collective noun for butterflies is a ‘kaleidoscope’? UK shoegaze stalwarts Esben And The Witch certainly do. Indeed, they’ve written a whole song about it. And it somehow sounds appropriately delicate, too – conjuring fluttering imagery from industrial-sized servings of layered reverb and delay. (MP)
The Shredderz – Shredderz (feat. Alex Skolnick)
OK, hear us out: The Shredderz are a virtual metal band who made a deal with the devil on their path to “multi-dimensional superstardom”, signing up guitar guest stars including Gary Holt, George Lynch and, on their eponymous debut single, Testament legend Alex Skolnick. For all the song’s virtual credentials, its bruising display of palm-muted fury and sweep-picked insanity is extremely physical indeed. (MAB)
Gouge Away – Idealized
Luscious and uncomfortable chord voicings buddy up in this essential blast of noisy post-hardcore from the Florida outfit. Gorgeous tones, ugly notes: utterly compelling. (MAB)
Liam Gallagher – I Don’t Want to be a Soldier Mama, I Don’t Wanna Die
The Oasis icon’s own laid-back take on John Lennon’s 1971 track of the same name, which sees Gallagher dial up the guitar department through rumbling electric rhythms and sizzling slide licks. (MO)
Albert Hammond Jr – Old Man
A peppy single from the Strokes six-stringer’s upcoming solo offering, Melodies On Hiatus, Old Man is powered by a guitar equation that’ll be warmly familiar to any fan of that band, but its solo – a mixture of tasteful vibrato, clear melodicism and air-tight, almost chicken pickin’-like, right-hand prowess – shows why Hammond was one of the guitarists at the forefront of making rock “cool” again at the dawn of the 21st century. (JM)
Wytch Hazel – Strong Heart
Can you riff like a British proto-metal god? Can you harmonise vocals over the top? Can you then channel it all into a beautiful harmonic solo on Flying V? And can you do it all while wearing white yoga pants? No? Then I’m afraid you simply do not have what it takes to make it in UK medieval metal four-piece Wytch Hazel. “NEXT!” (MP)
30 Seconds to Mars – Stuck
Famed for their electro-rock repertoire, the Jared Leto-fronted outfit are up to their usual antics with Stuck, which marries breezy Chili Peppers-esque clean noodles with a no-nonsense chorus riff that punches with pin-point precision. (MO)
Tinariwen – Anemouhagh
The long-running, Grammy-winning Tuareg outfit continue their hot streak with this groove-focused masterclass in weaving guitar in and out of the background. If you want to dig up the roots of Mdou Moctar and Khruangbin, start here. (MAB)
Pupil Slicer – Momentary Actuality
Deploying riffs just as graphic and unsettling as their moniker, Pupil Slicer blend the math-metal of Botch with the dream-like hooks of Deftones to frankly terrifying effect. Listen with caution. (MAB)
Nothing But Thieves – Overcome
In their native UK, Nothing But Thieves are becoming a stadium-stomping mega act. Their latest single, Overcome, is built for the big stages. There’s a smattering of Born In The USA DNA in ’80s synths and keys, then there’s the anthemic themes of holding on in the face of adversity – and it’s all topped-off with the sort of widescreen guitar solo that sounds best bouncing back at you off an arena’s walls. (MP)
This Is the Kit – More Change
A gently rolling tune from the Kate Stables-fronted group's upcoming full-length, Careful Of Your Keepers. Eruption this is not, but go behind the curtains and there’s all sorts of tasty playing from Stables and guitarist Neil Smith, particularly the textural work that colors the edges of the choruses. (JM)
Lanterns on the Lake – Real Life
Radiohead drummer Philip Selway guests on this gloriously technicolor slab of indie-rock that’s powered by a woozy guitar riff and accentuated by walls of post-rock tremolo picking. (MAB)
Bruno Major – We Were Never Really Friends
Fairly heavy on the piano, We Were Never Really Friends still lets Bruno Major flex his insanely vocal lead vocabulary and jazz-y extended chord arsenal with some of the tastiest soul chops you’ll hear this week. (MO)
Hot Milk – Party on My Deathbed
Rooted in early-noughties emo but blending the rap of nu-metal and the nasty tones of modern metalcore, Party on My Deathbed is the sonic equivalent of getting a face full of cold water the morning after a night of excess. (MAB)
