Hot Milk
The King and Queen of Gasoline
(Music for Nations)
★★★

KNOWN for stand out single California Burning — a rally cry against greed and the ruling class — emo power pop duo Hot Milk, consisting of Han Mee and Jim Shaw, have released their latest call to the disaffected youth of today.

This six-track EP — The King and Queen of Gasoline — comes across as a mini concept album telling a tale of tearaways fighting the system and creating a movement of their own.
 
The twin vocals play off one another with a rock guitar driven soundtrack that occasionally segues into melodic emo a la early Pale Waves or The 1975 with a bit of Yungblud attitude mixed in.

This album could do with a bit more of the fire of the band’s live set, but it’s accomplished emo power pop with some interesting twists that surprise and sooth the listener as well as shout directly to the soul.

Prince and the Revolution
Prince and the Revolution: Live
(Legacy Recordings)
★★★★★

 
IT IS more than six years since Prince passed, but his vast musical repertoire lives on.

But it was not always about what was on record, Prince was always a performer, and in 1985 his New York Syracuse show went down as one to be remembered as the enigmatic showman and his band the Revolution performed his breakthrough album Purple Rain in a live concert that was broadcast across Europe.

It’s recently been reissued by Legacy Recordings and is well worth adding to any collection.

From opener Let’s Go Crazy to an almost 20-minute rendition of Purple Rain at the end this is Prince at the height not just of his pomp, but also his powers.

There’s rock n roll boogie on Let’s Pretend We’re Married, bombastic belief in “God,” and a raw, but riveting When Doves Cry.

This is live music as an event and a guitar genius at work. Enjoy.

Pales Waves
Unwanted
(Dirty Hit)
★★★★

 
IF Pale Waves second album took reimagining pop punk as its starting point, the band’s third album Unwanted follows through on that last record’s promise and takes full ownership of its influences.

While the band has grown in confidence, and seem much more sure of themselves, they still sing of vulnerability, whether in the punchy opener of Lies, or the pared back My Chemical Romance-like The Hard Way which talks of regretting walking by when someone needed help.

The sound is grittier than before, evocative of the alt-power pop of key influence Paramore, but there’s also touches of Garbage in Jealousy and Joan Jett in You’re So Vain which is most definitely not a Carly Simon cover.
 
The lyrics are deeper and perhaps even more personal, and the album evokes the band’s more energetic live approach, but it is still unmistakably Pale Waves, and will no doubt be anything but unwanted.