The best new rock songs you need to hear right now

This week we were reminded that Kiss legend Gene Simmons once wrote a reasonably well-received book about the so-called “27 Club”. We mention this for no other reason that to enjoy the fact before we forget it again, and to give us something to talk about before we crack on with another red-hot edition of our Tracks Of The Week contest. 

Last week’s poll action saw Trucker Diablo’s Kill The Lights beat out Elles Bailey’s 1972 which beat out Kyle Daniel’s Fire Me Up (feat Maggie Rose), so congratulations to all of them. And here’s Truckers Diablo again.  

That Gene Simmons book was pretty decent, by the way. Here’s this week’s selection. 

Gorilla Riot – Molotov Sister

If the Rolling Stones were fronted by Eddie Vedder and spent more time at the beach, they might have sounded like this gorgeously laidback, grunge-laced dose of bluesy rock’n’roll from Manchester’s Gorilla Riot. A promising first impression of their next album, Salvation, which is due in October. “It’s a classic rock’n’roll tune with a touch of filth, catchy hooks, intertwining guitars and a pumping rhythm that’ll make you wanna move your body,” says frontman Arjun Bhishma. “It’s a great way to kick off the album.”

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Blues Pills – Bad Choices

Inspired by bassist Krisoffer noodling out a groove in the throes of a dreadful hangover, Bad Choices is a heel-stomping, head-shaking ode to following your own path – wrapped in delicious Motown and blues rock flavours. “He may have been hungover, but he had soulful vibes in that bass groove,” singer Elin Larsson recalls. “Basically, it’s a ‘Do whatever the fuck you want with your life’ song. People are gonna have opinions, but you need to say fuck it!”

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Scarlet Rebels – Let Me In

If you’re new to these Welsh rockers, this robust, uplifting banger is a strong place to start. And if you’re already converted…well, chances are you’ll like this a lot, not least because you may recognise it from 2020’s Live: Made In Sonic One. Now bigger, tighter and better all-round for its makeover on new album Where The Colours Meet, it has ‘big fuck-off summer night crowd singalong’ written all over it in shiny letters. 

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Myles Kennedy – Nothing More To Gain

Back in a decidedly rock-shaped place after two more introspective, acoustically rooted solo records, the Alter Bridge frontman is in fine voice in this driving, stompalong fistfull of oomphy, pummelling guitars and moody-yet-strident melody. Backed by compadres Zia Uddin on drums and Tim Tournier on bass, Kennedy has a lot of space to play with as a guitarist – and if this is anything to go by, he’s having an excellent time doing so (lest we forget, he was a guitar teacher long before he became modern rock’s voice to beat).

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Austin Gold – The Wire Defines

Peterborough’s Austin Gold know their way around a quality rock song, and The Wire Defines is no exception. Mixing some early 80s AOR brightness with their existing contemporary colours, it offers a catchy, stirring peek into their next album Ain’t No Saint. “The new album reflects a transformative period marked by personal challenges for me particularly,” frontman David James Smith says. “Each track is a heartfelt expression, a diary entry if you will, capturing moments of struggle and triumph. It’s some of my most personal work to date.”

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The Sheepdogs – Darlin’ Baby

Such a pretty new song from those dulcet tunesmiths up in Canada – via Memphis TN, where they recorded this gentle fusion of Americana, dreamy 70s-evoking harmonies and West Coast sunsets (think Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, with their eyes on a yacht), inspired by a soul-searching trip to Florida. One of those tracks that’s so full of yearning and heartache, even as it consistently strikes the sweetest of major key moments. There’s a new album coming, and UK shows later in the year, so keep your eyes and ears peeled.

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Sam Millar – Chardonnay

If The Sheepdogs are flirting with yacht rock this week, Sam Millar has raised the anchor, set sail and cruised off with a trunkload of captain hats, boat shoes and Toto’s Africa on repeat. You will either absolutely hate this, or decide that Millar is some kind of genius. It’s cheese on cheese, in the most unabashedly glitzy way (is he rhyming ‘chardonnay’ with ‘meant to be’ – or rather ‘meant to bey’?? Yes, yes he is…). His new album Virtual Summer (via, erm, Earache Records) comes out in September. 

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X – Ruby Church

It must take a special kind of discipline for a punk band to get well past the four-decade mark and still happily produce spiky two-minute singles, instead of wandering off into flute jazz or something, but that’s X for you. Ruby Church is the opening track from the Los Angeles icons’ final studio album Smoke & Fiction, and finds the band in lively form, with Exene Cervenka and John Doe’s voices dovetailing in that way they always have, and the song propelling itself along at a speed that might not be breakneck, but is probably fast enough to encourage a nasty case of whiplash.  

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Polly is deputy editor at Classic Rock magazine, where she writes and commissions regular pieces and longer reads (including new band coverage), and has interviewed rock’s biggest and newest names. She also contributes to Louder, Prog and Metal Hammer and talks about songs on the 20 Minute Club podcast. Elsewhere she’s had work published in The Musician, delicious. magazine and others, and written biographies for various album campaigns. In a previous life as a women’s magazine junior she interviewed Tracey Emin and Lily James – and wangled Rival Sons into the arts pages. In her spare time she writes fiction and cooks.