Tag Archives: Silver Synthetic

Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 12th May 2025

Galactic & Irma Thomas – Puppet On Your String

Irma Thomas is the goddess of New Orleans soul music, in fact you can go even further than that and claim she is the true queen of soul. It seems barely comprehensible that she was making classic R&B as far back as the fifties and can still, in 2025 at the age of 84, be involved in a collaboration project like this and deliver vocals with that voice still sounding as devastatingly wonderful as it ever did. She has made an album with fellow New Orleans chameleons Galactic called ‘Audience With The Queen’ and it is possibly already the essential soul release of the year. If you don’t know Irma Thomas then I urge you to go deeper, music does not get much better than that which has her name attached to it; maybe start with ‘It’s Raining’ and then move on from there but do not ignore this, a 2025 pleasing teaser for sure…

The Waterboys – Hopper’s On Top

Mike Scott’s Waterboys have just released a concept album built around the life, work, reputation and legacy of Dennis Hopper and despite my initial reservations, it has proved to be a well structured, frequently deviating and surprising journey in song and sound. I think my initial caution might have had something to do with this video, packed with magic carpet riding cliches and literal lyrical representations but then I have to remember, it is often the direct route that Mike Scott takes with his writing that results in so many songs that I love. And so it is here, if Mike wants us to know he thinks Hopper was a genius he’s not going to subtly weave it into a poetic yarn with indeterminate meaning, he is just going to come right out and sing it; but then love, sincerity and focus are all ingredients that have fed into the greatest Waterboys tracks of our lives and that is no different here, genius!

Samantha Crain – B-Attitudes

Taken from her new album ‘Gumshoe’, this track seems to be about the feeling you get when the idea of finding your own home, your own little space in the world speaks to you the loudest and you set about realising it. That is definitely something I am experiencing in recent times after finally settling in a town and a home that feels like me. Samantha is dependably addictive here, clearly still in command of her easy fluency in singer-songwriter craft that has been under serious threat in recent years, not least after a car accident left her unable to play her guitar, an injury that thankfully she was able to find a long path to recovery with. Here is a singer working out her life stuff through music that is regularly a thrill to hear…

Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts – Big Change

This is Neil’s first release backed by the Chrome Hearts, taken from the forthcoming album ‘Talkin To The Trees’. It feels absurd that in such unsettling economic and political times, especially in the US and Canada, that it is still the old guard like Neil Young who are planting their flags in the protest ground. He is whipping up a storm here, offering a rallying cry of big change in a moment when it’s inevitably going to come along anyway whether you like it or not so you might as well try and fight for something good to emerge. Like the late great Phil Ochs, Neil Young really cares a lot and badly wants his music to get inside folks heads and make something happen. Unlike Phil though, he can accept that the preferred option may not necessarily arrive and so can console himself with the visceral thrill of a loudly cranked guitar and amp to get him through the day. Whatever it takes…

White Rose Motor Oil – Hit In The Face

If the previous track feels like a bit of a slap in the face to shake some action, then this tune is the soundtrack to the moment of impact and the reverberations of all that follow. It is a rollin’ and tumblin’ rockin’ rockabilly thunder crack of a tune that revs its engine delightfully with every repeat of the “you’re gonna get hit in the face” chorus line. They are a red hot duo from Denver with a fire lighting zipper of a female vocalist and a love of playing fast and loud. Together they surf the waves between cowpunk and garage rock which is a pretty exhilarating place to be if you can manage to catch it, so do not miss out on this one…

Silver Synthetic – Rosalie

A couple of years ago Silver Synthetic caught my ear with a debut album that occupied a very pleasing little side street situated between the late period of the Velvet Underground and seventies FM country rock. It was a lush sound that they played with belief and proficiency and it is a welcome return that I flag up here as the band offer similarly breezy Americana on a brand new song, which also happens to be the title track of the new Silver Synthetic album…

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Fruit Tree Records Of The Year, Records of 2021

Silver Synthetic – Silver Synthetic

Silver Synthetic are a New Orleans band born out of the punky fuzz excursions of that city’s Bottomfeeders. Around 2017 they found that amid the rough-edged garage creations they had built up there were other kinds of songs emerging. These tunes were crying out for a different sort of treatment, they didn’t seem to belong to the current bands style, sounding far more in need of a group with a facility for variation, refined flourishes alongside an ear for melody and texture. So it was that the creator of this tantalizing pile of songs, Chris Lyons, recruited long time musical cohorts and fellow Bottomfeeders to form Silver Synthetic. This self-titled debut album, the end result of their journey, is an artfully crafted jewel of Alt-Americana, timeless in its clarity and surely a record that will delight those who discover it for years to come.

Opener ‘In The Beginning’ sets its stall out with easy country-rock vibes, there is an unmistakable hint of Beachwood Sparks in the air and a curiously inviting tone to the expressive electric guitar playing. ‘Unchain Your Heart’ is pure acid-country gold, a momentum fueled rhythmic guitar chug that makes the simple plea to “unchain your heart, bring it back to me.” Its that classic killer number two album track that puts a record on the front foot with the listener, locking them in for the duration. You just cannot fail to get into this track, it is the very definition of infectious simplicity in terms of lyric and ear worm hooks but on top of that there’s still space for a burning, bending guitar solo that lifts the track even higher.

This happens again on ‘Around The Bend,’ in which the song hangs itself deliciously around lush guitar hooks, chiming folk-rock chord changes and yet another easy on the ear chorus. About two thirds of the way through there’s a gear change, everything speeds up and the track literally accelerates its way to a conclusion. Simple musical furnishings these may well be, but they are tried and tested movements that will always work when executed, as they are here, by a band that sound totally locked into each other.

The entire album is without fault, every song enhances the collective tone. ‘Chasm Killer’ is mellower but just when you think you are familiar with the formulae here, Silver Synthetic throw the heaviest of golden chord changes in the chorus and let rip more sumptuous melodic fuzz guitar ploughing. ‘Out Of The Darkness’ is appropriately urgent, reminding me a little of the way the Velvet Underground took a charge at a song like ‘Foggy Notion.’ ‘Unholy Love’ floats on a vacillating sea of summer harmonies, forlorn guitar strokes and a soft underpinning of organ; in other words, it is rather exquisite. ‘Some Of What You Want’ arrives with drive, this time the band show how seemingly straight forward arrangement ideas can result in head spinning excitement; they do this by opening with a guitar solo then breaking down to a middle-eight section that lands right before the final chorus. Finally, LP closer ‘On The Way Home’ sets the sun down on a song collection that has warmed the heart and mind of this listener and with just eight songs to thrill over, Silver Synthetic have definitely left me wanting more.

Danny Neill

You can purchase a physical copy of the album here: https://amzn.to/3Q5rQ0K

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