MAD PAINTER Take Their Poetic Vision To An Island

October 9, 2026

As far as modern takes on classic rock go, there are ensembles that embrace the idiom without forays into pastiche while retaining all the panache their heroes from the past deployed, and that’s the way Boston’s own MAD PAINTER have been working for the last decade. Upping the standard set on their previous album, "Splashed" from 2024, the American band release its follow-up today: featuring a dozen cuts – eleven originals and a “mandatory” URIAH HEEP cover – of prime hard rock and prog, “Island Poetry” rides a variety of moods, designed by Alex Gitlin and in half of the cases given lyrical substance by yours truly.

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THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT Reformat “Tales” For The 50th Anniversary

October 7, 2026

It’s never a good thing when a new edition of a classic album expands a previous reissue, and fans who already shelled out for a smattering of extra material have to buy the same stuff and then some, with this “some” often being of dubious value. Fortunately, the 50th anniversary re-emergence of THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT‘s “Tales Of Mystery And Imagination” which will be released on December 11th is as far from a money grab as it could be. While the 40-year version of the British ensemble’s debut album wasn’t cheap, because it included – alongside three CDs with the original 1976 album, the platter’s 1987 remix and a collection of work-in-progress tracks – two LPs and a Blu-ray, the new offering comes split between various formats which one may want to combine, yet the availability of separate variants should make them affordable, especially when an aficionado picks a triple-disc mediabook.

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MAD PAINTER Bring DME’s Lyrics To A Split LP With KING GIZZARD

October 5, 2026

Never one to blow my own trumpet, I still feel a tad stoke by the news that four of the songs I co-penned, as a lyricist, with Alex Gitlin, the leader of MAD PAINTER, who preserved them from posterity, will be issued on a vinyl platter the Boston ensemble share with Melbourne’s psych royalty, KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD. Titled “•••• — •-• ••• • -•– / — — •-• ••• • -•–“ – a weird phrase in Morse code – and prepared for release by Barrel And Squidger Records, it’s a limited edition longplay housed in a striking sleeve by British abstract artist Louise Ellerington.

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Steve Ellis Released A New Album With Paul Weller In Tow

October 3, 2026

Eight years form a huge gap in an artist’s discography, especially when the artist in question is a septuagenarian, yet it makes their new album an event of sorts. Not that Steve Ellis is touting his latest platter so much, but still, “Baby Faced Assassin” that was issued last week – sadly, only on digital platforms, although there’s always a chance for a physical media variant – looks like a great follow-up to "Boom! Bang! Twang!" from 2018.

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THE PRETTY THINGS Chart Alternative Trips In Massive Box Set

October 1, 2026

When THE PRETTY THINGS transitioned from their original rhythm-and-blues to fanciful psychedelia of “S. F. Sorrow” in the late ’60s and then heavy glam of “Silk Torpedo” in the following decade, they more than ensured the ensemble’s immortality, and yet there are many obscure corners in their oeuvre. Much has been made to shed a light on those reaches, and aficionados eagerly snatched various box sets which charted the band’s official trajectory. Some of the reissues came augmented with previously unheard tracks – but not on the scale that the forthcoming twelve-CD offering titled “Pretty Rare” will achieve.

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