Tag Archives: Ray Bull

Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 11th May 2026

Ray Bull – All That You Are

I have been reading a lot in recent weeks about how there is an uprising in pop music of new young acts who are doing it right. They are leaning in to the performing and production aesthetics that gave the form such potency and variety in its sixties and seventies heyday, as well as placing emphasis on musicality, style and non-generic personality. In other words they are rejecting the formulaeric tropes that makes so much of the current chart music landscape a bland, uninspired and largely unloveable environment. That it is a young persons movement is welcome because, so often when similar groundswells of resistence have appeared, you look at the actual people involved and it always seems to comprise of former members of bands from earlier decades or seniors having a belated roll of the dice. Which is all perfectly valid and often delivers some magic, but that this latest unconnected collective appears to be populated by the youth, that does give me hope for the years ahead. The art of the pop song pioneered by the Beatles, Kinks and Rolling Stones etc will have a future if this kind of forward flow can still occur at ground level. America’s Ray Bull are one such example of a band that are treating the form with the respect and craftsmanlike quality it deserves. If you want to know more we have just published a review of their new album on this site and furthermore, you can get a copy of that album here: https://amzn.to/42Z18d1

Eel Men – When I Get Rich

In the UK the mod sounds of popular music as minted in the sixties, re-positioned in the punk years then persuasuvely re-sharpened by Blur’s British music manifesto ahead of the Britpop boom is another design classic that never dies out. Not that it troubles the charts much these days but all the same, it is exciting to come across a band like Eel Men and hear that the energy and the attitude, not to mention the thrill of a bangin’ new single with a snotty cutting edge, still exists among what is left of the grass roots music scene. They are a North London band about to release a 10″ EP called ‘Glass Hammers’ which includes this track. It is a middle finger to the ludicrousness of the never-ending quest for more, the thought that life might suddenly make sense once a certain threshold is reached, and the quiet realisation that it rarely resolves that way. Check out the forthcoming new release here: https://eelmen.bandcamp.com/album/glass-hammers-ep

Sharp Class – Faith In The Brakes

Drinking from a similar fountain of inspiration are Sharp Class who, with this driving slice of three minute perfection, are proudly wearing their allegiances on their made to measure sleeves. I have no issue with a band giving such an up front nod to The Jam because, ultimately, what they are showing loyalty to is an attitude and a lifestyle that has music high, or even top, on the list of priorities. That was all Paul Weller’s breakthrough band were doing and he did not hold back on proudly displaying the effects Steve Marriott and Pete Townshend had on his sound and look. ‘Faith In The Brakes’ is the first single and title track from the bands upcoming third album. It is said to be a song about someone stuck in an extreme tunnel vision mentality but whether or not it was insipred by personal experience, it is that very focus and assuredness in what they are about that makes Sharp Class such a hot proposition. Get ready to buy the album via this link: https://amzn.to/4uHoD6p

Kathleen Halloran – Showstopper

We are moving into a rootsier rock sound with this one as Kathleen Halloran shows some love for the scuzzy glam and decadence of the early seventies. It is available on her debut solo album ‘Nobody’s Baby’ which represents the moment she is stepping out of the shadows, having been an in demand touring guitarist, and finally forging a musical identity of her own. It is a debut built on clarity of purpose: sharp songwriting, unforced emotional weight, and a refusal to hide behind virtuosity even though she easily could. Roscoe James Irwin’s production gives the record its warm, lived‑in glow, but the spine is Halloran’s own. You can get the album via this link: https://amzn.to/435JCnr

The Black Keys – She Does It Right

This is a track from the new Black Keys ‘Peaches!’ album which sees them turning their hands to a set of covers. It was cut live in the room while Dan Auerbach was caring for his father during his final illness. What began as friends jamming to lift the weight off his shoulders hardened into a raw, unvarnished document of the band reconnecting with the blues that first lit the fuse. Across these reinterpretations (from George Thorogood to Junior Kimbrough) you can hear the duo shedding polish, chasing feel over finesse, and rediscovering the grit that once defined them. That is especially evident on this Dr Feelgood cover, a jerky stimulant fuelled thrash in its original form, it is now a “let’s spend the night together” piece of cranked up blues rock filth – and I mean that as a compliment. You can get yourself the album via this link: https://amzn.to/3OVurKt

Tidetied – First Of Spring

Finally this week another new band that I strongly urge you to keep an eye on. I featured their superb song ‘Valley’ in the third volume of our ‘Fresh Juice New Releases’ Mixcloud shows (see the Music Mixes page on this site) and now this newly available live performance further enhances the evidence that there might be something pretty damn good going on here. They came together a couple of years ago from the debris of Thomas Haywood’s post‑Blinders project Whitehorse, whilst John McCullagh and Nathan Keeble joined from other Sheffield loose fits. For now they have been finding their footing on the live circuit but the music coming out has moodiness, poetry, dynamics and some handsome melodic flashes so keep a watch in this direction https://tidetied.com/

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New Release Reviews

Ray Bull – Please Stop Laughing

Ray Bull offer a persuasive case that any path to great music counts, especially given that the New York duo did not start as a band. They were actually art‑school kids at Cooper Union, Aaron Graham with his images, Tucker Elkins with his films, circling ideas that were generally unrelated to music making. It took a chance reunion at a Brooklyn gallery years later for them to realise that had both been quietly edging toward songwriting. They moved into a Bushwick loft, and the boundaries between their art forms dissolved almost immediately. That fusion of disciplines became their calling card. Their ‘Did You Know’ series, equal parts Photoshop trickery and surreal storytelling, spread fast, as did the ‘Songs That Are The Same’ fusions which revealed uncanny overlaps between pop hits. On a musical level alone, this was all fantastically engaging stuff. It was no surprise to me to find that Taylor Swift songs could be easily married to other peoples’ hits, but was the match making potential of White Stripes ‘Seven Nation Army’ and Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ widely known? Or ‘Running Up That Hill’ and ‘Titanium’? I have one of my own; ‘It’s Raining Men’ by The Weather Girls and Jethro Tull’s ‘Beggar’s Farm.’ Same song, but I digress.

Graham and Elkin’s audience ballooned: 600K on TikTok, half a million on Instagram, and tens of millions of streams for their own songs. Festival slots, support tours, and a sold‑out 2025 headline run followed. And so, after such a groundswell of appreciation and deserved attention, all roads have led us to this new album of original music, a collection that distils a half‑decade spent living, working, and shaping an identity together. It is a portrait of two artists wrestling with the persona they have built and the emotional truth underneath it. Often when someone comes to prominence via a vessel other than producing their own music, getting that aspect of their work accepted can be problematic. People can have a resistance if they sense that composing and building a presence in that way is not their core being; few have crossed between these poles with ease. The times when it does work, however, are like this; from the moment you hit play on opening track ‘You’re Still Here, So Am I’ there is a sense that we are in the realm of a vital, melodically eloquent, modern art-rock band from the US. Ray Bull had already proved with their previous activities that they understood music, that they can play and that they boast tonal range. Here though, they show that they can do something with these skills. They can express, there is something to say and stories to tell.

And when these two sink their teeth into a song it comes out packed with detail and intrigue. ‘Marry A Skater’ has production frills literally piling up on top of each other, not to mention an artisan’s song structure incorporating a slumbering chorus, an elegant middle eight and a nonchalance in the verses that suggest a shrugging of the shoulders at life choices in the lyrics. Lines like “you can marry a skater or go fuck the neighbour’s, its fine” and “go start your family, work at Morgan Stanley and rot, save up for the yacht” appear like withering put downs, but the song is heavily swayed by a sense of wonder at the uncertainties of embracing either conformity or chaos. Far from your basic pop songsmiths, even though each track has a winning immediacy so essential to the form. The same can be said of the title track, more of a guitar strumming indie anthem but still one constructed with chart-hit sensibilities and dramatic lifts akin to Britpop. The thing is, Ray Bull can easily insert these little reference points that might inspire comparisons to alternative savants such as Vampire Weekend or Spoon, but in doing so they also lay down a marker that challenges onlookers with the thought that they do not merely equal the work of their peers, they genuinely have the chops to surpass them.

If anything holds Ray Bull back it might simply be that they are too good at this. It should not be that way but sometimes versatility is a curse, I hope their audience meet them with open minds and arms. The deeper you go into this album the range just keeps on widening. We hear pensive electro pop, folksy ballads, routes into country textures and they even pitch themselves as fully paid-up members of the pop world. One of my most despised modern tropes is the overuse of synthetic, auto tuned vocals but when utilised by these two, even this production tick can sound like a valid, potently applied, production choice. They can do mainstream too, the rising chorus on ‘Under Your Eyelid’ would not sound out of place if played on a prime-time TV talent show. Basically, if this band ignite, it is not a stretch to imagine them becoming massive. Just listen to the perfection that is ‘All That You Are,’ featuring a vocal with strong echoes of Chris Bell’s ‘I Am The Cosmos,’ hinting that we are witnessing a uniquely joyous blend of artfulness within mass appeal of the most satisfying kind. I would love to see that success become ever more real, these two absolutely warrant it.

Danny Neill

Get a copy of ‘Please Stop Laughing’ here: https://amzn.to/3Pw0PmY

Ray Bull – Photo by Kyle Berger
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