They just keep on coming! Single #4 from the forthcoming album, Electric from Australian guitarist, Hamish Anderson
Release Date: 6th September 2024
Label: Self Release
Formats: CD
As we know, Hamish Anderson has established quite a reputation for himself. The ex-Gary Clark Jr and George Thorogood sideman was recognized by Total Guitar Magazine as one of 2018’s Top Ten Best New Guitarists and, more recently, he was the subject of a feature in the August 2020 issue of Guitar Player. He’s got two previous albums to his name – 2016 debut Trouble and the 2019 follow-up, Out Of My Head. Both were highly acclaimed, with Out Of My Head receiving an Independent Music Award for Best Blues Album.
We’ve been hearing a lot about him of late. Just a few weeks ago we were rocked to our roots by Stir Crazy, the third single to preview Hamish’s eagerly-awaited Electric album (scheduled for UK release on 11th October), and now, here comes another tangy Electric appetizer. Last time around, Hamish was caught channeling ZZ Top; this time, with So Alive, he’s turning his attention to something a little more earthbound, as he explains:
“If there is a song that defines my new album, Electric, and where it sits both sonically and lyrically, I think So Alive is that song. It captures this mixture of rock & roll, soul and modern blues, it has both light and shade in the arrangement and I feel it really caught us firing on all cylinders as a band. Lyrically, it was written as an affirmation of the role that music plays in my life. As Electric is my love-letter to the electric guitar, each song has a nod to guitarists before me – So Alive was inspired by The Rolling Stones (Keith Richards), Lenny Kravitz and Alabama Shakes. I wrote it in 2020, when there was a different paranoia in the air and it made me realize how I needed music as an expression and escape more than ever.”
I can’t argue with any of that – the influences that Hamish quotes come over loudly and ever-so-clearly on So Alive. Also, if you have a liking for the soulful blues-rock of Bad Company, then I’d also suggest that So Alive is a song for you. A love-letter to the electric guitar it most certainly is; So Alive is AWASH with the things – chugging rhythm guitars, wha-wha solos, crashing power chords and soaring trebly solos, they’re all here, present and correct. And that’s not to forget the rhythm section; the bass is rock-solid, the drumbeat drives the whole thing along and those wild flurries around the drum kit are just amazing.
So Alive is another triumphant taster from Hamish Anderson and Electric is already shaping up to be one of the year’s most memorable albums. Bring it on!
Listen to Stir Crazy, the previous single from Hamish Anderson, here:
Hamish Anderson online: Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / X (formerly Twitter) / YouTube / Spotify
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Categories: Single Review
