Hello there, and a very warm welcome to Guitar World editors’ picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors over the past four weeks or so.
With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from the month of May, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.
So, without further ado, let’s hand things over to our EIC MAB to kick things off…
Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief, GuitarWorld.com
When Billy Corgan said earlier this year that the Smashing Pumpkins had been working on an album that would ensure “the old-school fans will be happy, for once”, it signaled a return to the sound that made the Pumpkins alt-rock superstars in the early ’90s. Although the resultant Aghori Mhori Mei is rather lacking in hooks to my ears (Corgan’s underrated solo-led Pumpkins efforts had more memorable guitar parts IMO), the album’s opener is a verifiable banger. Edin’s tones are off the charts, there’s a real sense of atmosphere and progression, and dammit, that riff is top-tier. I’ll take that, if nothing else.
Irish post-punks Fontaines D.C. meanwhile, have put out a contender for album of the year in Romance, their most diverse and irresistible record yet, following a truly remarkable run of singles in Starburster, Favourite and Here’s the Thing. Awash with chorus and reverb, it’s a love letter to the Cure, but the urgency and spiky overdrive are pure Gang of Four. It’s nostalgic yet fresh.
If you want more proof of the rude health guitar music is in right now, beabadoobee is as vital as it gets. Her new Rick Rubin-produced record, This Is How Tomorrow Moves, hit number one on the UK album charts, and is a nuanced singer-songwriter effort that tackles a wealth of styles with Beatles-esque poise. California is, appropriately enough, the most electric guitar-heavy, with harmonized lead lines and chugging power chords worthy of the artist who once released a single called I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus.
Donning my appropriately garish prog hat for a second, much has been made of Opeth’s return to growls on their new effort, §1. It’s certainly the most metal and least prog the band has sounded in years. Dark, but with a sense of fun, it sort of sounds a bit like a Swedish Faith No More. But, ya know, with a mind-melting Fredrik Åkesson solo.
Oh, and did I mention The Smile are readying their second album of the year? Its third drop, Zero Sum, is fueled by a seasick Jonny Greenwood riff that goes some way to filling the extremely weird void left by Black Midi following their all-too-soon hiatus this month. Whatever creative fire this new project has lit under Greenwood and Thom Yorke, we like it. Just don’t wait too long for that next Radiohead record, yeah?
Damian Fanelli – Editor-in-Chief, Guitar World magazine
In the past, Guitar World has described JD McPherson’s music as “Duane Eddy meets Radiohead.” So it’s kinda rewarding to see McPherson use a similar turn of phrase in the press release for Don’t Travel Through the Night Alone, the latest – and tastiest – appetizer from his upcoming banger of an album, Nite Owls.
“To me, the thread between Duane Eddy and Depeche Mode is that single-note, reverb-y guitar style,” he says. “So it felt natural to blend that kind of big-string guitar thing with the classic stuff and a dash of surf. It made sense.” We agree. And – just to continue the motif – we’d like to request mashups of Duane Eddy and Joy Division, the Smiths and Echo & the Bunnymen!
How can you resist a song that starts with “You can put your clothes back on / she’s leaving you,” slyly namechecks Eric Clapton and then grabs your ear with a deliciously downtuned open-chord D/F# shape (at 1:22)? MJ Lenderman’s latest, She’s Leaving You, does all that and more while simultaneously channeling the magnetic charm of early, rough-around-the-edges Teenage Fanclub.
Actually, we know that J Mascis, Thurston Moore and Neil Young are more Lenderman’s speed; but the cool thing about Lenderman is that he’s funnier than all those guys – and he can still throw down the indie-fuzz heat.
If electric blues and acoustic blues were brothers, their parents would send electric blues to Yale and buy it a 2025 Tesla Model X for its 18th birthday. Acoustic blues would probably go to a trade school and get dixieland’s hand-me-down 1985 Hyundai Excel. But things are looking up for acoustic blues, thanks to guys like Keb’ Mo’, Buffalo Nichols and Jontavious Willis, whose new album, West Georgia Blues, is packed with gems, as heard on the slinky Earthworm Basement Blues.
“I think of things like the British invasion, which was good and bad,” Willis says in an upcoming issue of Guitar World. “It brought awareness to the music, but it didn’t bring awareness to the culture. They were great guitarists, but they weren’t as good as Robert Johnson or Robert Lockwood. Those people were playing the music and singing in church since they were babies. You can’t duplicate that shit.”
Matt Owen – Senior Staff Writer
Back in April, I said that Wunderhorse’s sophomore record, Midas, was my most anticipated album of the year, and for good reason. After their sensational debut in 2022, the fast-rising indie rockers have now returned with a worthy follow-up that completely obliterated my already-lofty exceptions. The unhinged riffage is even more unhinged, and the chaotic guitars are even more chaotic, as evidenced by the angsty, gritty Rain.
If this is what Wunderhorse can do with just their second album, who knows just how high they’ll go. There’s no wonder Rolling Stone has said Wunderhorse “could become generational”, and with the release of Midas, that observation seems all the more prophetic.
After the hustle and bustle of Wunderhorse’s material, I found myself finding calm in the new Adrianne Lenker track. Once a Bunch is a breezy folk cut that finds Lenker at their songwriting best, with story-telling lyrics soundtracked by pads of acoustic. Indie folk is a genre I find myself leaning into more and more recently, and Lenker is an ideal gateway into this world.
And I’d be remiss not to mention Easy Distraction – the latest single from James Bay, who continues to be sorely underrated as a guitar player, despite being widely recognized as a standout singer-songwriter – and Lonely Fight from Mk.gee.
Mk.gee, who also plays with soul/R&B artist Dijon, has taken the music world by storm with his tone and playing style, and recently was named as Eric Clapton’s favorite contemporary guitarist. Lonely Fight shows why: no other active guitarist has quite the same palette as Mk.gee, whose approach to recording guitar and assembling tones has resulted in something truly unique.
Janelle Borg – Staff Writer
Grace Bowers has transcended the “one-to-watch” stage and is now firmly in rising star territory. Her album Wine of Venus showcases an artist who is fully confident in her artistic trajectory. The track I've chosen to highlight in this recap, Holdin On To Something, is a potent mix of funk, blues, and soul. Bowers displays her prowess and penchant for solos that tell a story, while her band, The Hodge Podge, grounds these guitar moments in compositions that make for a truly enthralling listen.
The first thing that sprang to mind when I first listened to Du Blonde's TV Star is that it would not be out of place in a late 2000s-early 2010s coming-of-age movie like Juno and Perks of Being a Wallflower. The phaser-tinged guitar chords and the grunge-meets-indie-meets-singer-songwriter vibe evoke a sense of nostalgia while still managing to sound contemporary.
In Tu Te Vas, Manu Chao does what he does best: sun-drenched guitars and reggae-inspired grooves that contrast with, yet complement, the melancholic lyrics lamenting a couple's decision to part ways. What makes this track special, however, is that it marks the upcoming release of Viva Tu, Chao's first album in 17 years, which he describes as a reflection of the nuances of daily life observed during his world travels.
The final track comes from Turkish artist Melike Şahin. I must admit that I only discovered her today but was immediately captivated by her work. As is the case with Anatolian folk-inspired music, the instruments serve as a vehicle to deliver the emotionally charged narrative depicted in the lyrics, and Ortak is no exception. It's right up my alley, and now that I've discovered Şahin, I'm genuinely looking forward to her upcoming album AKKOR.
