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.
We’ve been in a NAMM news cyclone over the past few weeks, so brace yourself for a bumper edition of Essential Guitar Tracks, with songs from the past three weeks – now with a Spotify playlist!
You might be aware there’s a new Metallica album out. Shadows Follow is a classic ’tallica rager with a more-anthemic-than-usual chorus, a wah solo, and the ’60s Batman theme. Wait, what? Listen to 4:26. Tell me you don’t hear it. (MAB)
Smashing Pumpkins – Spellbinding
Act III of Smashing Pumpkins’ epic rock opera sequel project arrives next month, with Spellbinding serving as a delicious sonic aperitif for what’s to come. Cue hair-raising progressions and amped up instrumentation. (MO)
Speedy Ortiz – Scabs
Speedy Ortiz’s first track in five years sees the guitars twist and curdle around one another, dripping with disdain for the titular Scabs – those whose commitment to a cause ends when it becomes inconvenient for them. (JM)
Godflesh – NERO
Justin K. Broadrick’s latest guttural savagery: industrial beats and swinging riffs. And a metric ton of distortion. (MAB)
Ben Harper – Yard Sale (feat. Jack Johnson)
A calming collaboration from two masters of chilled-out acoustic tunes – there’s a Yusuf (AKA Cat Stevens) influence here too, in the blend of crisp vocal and breezy melody. (MP)
Greta Van Fleet – Meeting the Master
A decidedly acoustic turnout with a healthy helping of overdrive in the closing stages, naturally. It’s littered with delicate blues-informed fretboard noodles and gritty electric leads. (MO)
Gov't Mule – Dreaming Out Loud (feat. Ivan Neville and Ruthie Foster)
Warren Haynes taps into a considerably funkier aspect of his playing on this killer tag-team effort with solo artist/Rolling Stones collaborator Ivan Neville and Ruthie Foster. (MP)
Winger – It All Comes Back Around
Reb Beach shows his slow solo chops are just as awe-inspiring as his shred in this ’80s-tinged ballad (although he does step on the gas with some liquid tapping at the track’s tail end.) (MAB)
Sophie Lloyd – Hanging On (feat. Lauren Babic)
The third single from one of 2023’s most anticipated guitar albums. Lloyd’s soloing chops seem to get better with every release – and so too does her melodic phrasing, which is particularly strong here. (MO)
Josienne Clarke – Anyone But Me
The British folk songwriter, known for collaborationing with guitarist Ben Walker, has been experimenting with all things fuzz and rumble – yielding brilliantly brooding results. (MP)
Godsticks – Mayhem
A distinctly djentier turn – with a Telecaster! – from the Darran Charles-fronted UK prog-metallers, featuring a searing closing solo. (MAB)
MASCA – Sink Sink
Tina Maynard (ex-Souer) has recently been subbing with punk heroes IDLES. Her band MASCA’s newbie is a jangling, melodic slow-mosh that pokes you right in the feels. (MP)
Steve Lukather – When I See You Again
Ahead of new album Bridges, Lukather reminds us his fret work is as nice on the ears as his new signature guitars are on the eyes... (MO)
Towa Bird – Wild Heart
The D’Angelico-toting Instagram guitar champ launches her debut single, an infectious indie-pop romp filled with skronky fuzz leads. (MAB)
Miles Kane – Troubled Son
Kane has made good on his promise of a guitar-heavy return, revisiting the sorts of progressions and riffs that wouldn’t sound amiss on his celebrated early works. (MO)
Extreme – #Rebel / Banshee
Two new tracks from the returning Extreme. Expect punchy riffs, mind-melting solos, absurd displays of technical prowess… and even some blues rock swagger. (MO)
DevilDriver – If Blood is Life
Epic groove metal that nods to Pantera’s Revolution is My Name. For fans of long-held power chords, pentatonic fury and the occasional sweep. (MAB)
Joel Hoekstra’s 13 – Far Too Deep
For followers of rawk with a capital ‘RAWK’, look no further than this ’80s chug fest. Hoesktra is on particularly dazzling form when he deploys his modal mastery in the wide-reaching solo. (MAB)
Better Lovers – 30 Under 13
A brutally disorientating debut from the new supergroup featuring members of the Dillinger Escape Plan, Every Time I Die and Fit for an Autopsy – acerbic, atonal and with an uncompromising thrash edge. (MAB)
Spiritbox – The Void
One of modern metal’s biggest success stories return with another of Mike Stringer’s knockout ragers. A claustrophobic production adds to the djent tension. (MAB)
Bloc Party – High Life
The British indie giants' new standalone single harkens back to the glory days of the mid-aughts post-punk revival with a deliciously simple (and danceable) main guitar hook. (JM)
Foo Fighters – Rescued
Foo Fighters’ first new material this year was always going to be an emotional affair , Rescued channels that collective grief into a moving effort filled with powerful, jangly guitars. (MO)
Man on Man – Showgirls
Faith No More co-founder Roddy Bottum and fellow guitar-toting partner Joey Holman offer up a feelgood sludge-pop banger with dual leads aplenty. (MAB)
Duane Betts – Waiting on a Song
Duane Betts (son of Allman Brothers Band legend Dickey Betts) makes every note count on Waiting On A Song’s vivid extended solo, brilliantly carrying the Southern rock guitar torch for another generation. (JM)
Maebe – Harsh Realm
Full disclosure: this is my own song. A guitarist's gotta hustle, right? Harsh Realm sounds like Deftones having a math-rock throwdown with Thrice, before engaging in a high-stakes shred-off. Essential? That's for you to decide. Guitar-y? 100 percent. (MAB)
