MASSIVE WAGONS – Earth To Grace (2024)
British ruffians MASSIVE WAGONS are back with their seventh studio album, ”Earth To Grace”, perhaps their most commercial offering to date, bringing the anthemic muscle and power-pop gusto that the band have made their name with.
From the gleaming slow dancer “Night Skies“, the radio friendly pop of “Sleep Forever” and ”Missing on TV”, to the dynamism of “The Good Die Young” (featuring Hundred Reasons‘ vocalist Colin Doran), every track has a catchy factor.
The album also sees the welcome return of Adam Thistlethwaite and Stevie Holl‘s twin guitars, which entwine to create a hulking double helix of guitar brawn to these accessible melodies, whilst keeping frontman Barry “Baz” Mills’ iconic lyricism, the album proffers tracks which will prove to be huge anthems in the live arena.
Given that ”Earth To Grace” is their most relatable set of songs to date, it’d be folly to predict anything other than continued ascent for these genuine working class heroes.
A big step has been recruiting producer Matt O’Grady who has helped Wagons perfect what they were doing anyway – writing about real situations in a way that truly chimes with the human experience.
It still rocks like a pissed mastodon when it needs to – metallic opener ”Sleep Forever” and rapid-fire closer ”Rabbit Hole” being two examples – but it mostly does so with hand on heart.
Baz Mills, an enjoyably eccentric but notably human frontman, sounds and looks like nobody else in rock, and his caring tones illuminate ”Night Skies”, a song about depression that doesn’t preach but simply asks you to look and think.
Elsewhere, you can feel where producer and band have gelled, softening spikes, making the good bits better, and finding the right backdrops for Mills’ quasi-comic candor.
Highly Recommended
01 – Sleep Forever
02 – Missing on TV
03 – Free and Easy
04 – Night Skies
05 – The Good Die Young
06 – All We Got
07 – Cool Like a Fox
08 – Fun While It Lasted
09 – Whatever Makes You Happy
10 – Underdog
11 – Rabbit Hole
Baz Mills – Vocals
Adam Thistlethwaite – Guitar
Stevie Hull – Guitar
Adam Bowsill – Bass
Alex Thistlethwaite – Drums
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