RAPID FIRE SUCCESSION: ON TARGET PART II Bangalore Choir (Brave Words Records) ****
If fist-pumping riff-powered rock is your thing, this album should already be in your collection. Rapid Fire Succession: On Target Part II, released back in October, has a 4-on-the-floor gritty, sinewy drive that 80’s rock fans love so very much, led by singer David Reece.
There’s nothing terribly edgy or adventurous about Rapid Fire but then again I wasn’t expecting there to be. The palm-muted, chugging riffs are timeless, the songs are straightforward and hummable, and Reece is a world-class metal singer. He was picked to replace Udo Dirkschneider in Accept for 1987’s Eat The Heat and though fans didn’t embrace him (taking over for an iconic lead singer is a tough gig) I thought he acquitted himself well, and he formed Bangalore Choir in 1990 when he left the German metallers. This disc kind of feels like classic Accept musically, and that’s a good thing.
I might be late to the party on this one but Rapid Fire: On Target Part II has been well received, landing on many reviewers’ “best of the year” lists for 2025. David says “the response from everyone has been incredible and it’s hard to put into words the feeling” as he looks forward to a robust touring schedule in 2026. As I listen I can understand why… in an increasingly fractured musical landscape it’s actually refreshing to hear someone like Bangalore Choir sticking to their guns. In Reece’s vocals you can totally hear why he was chosen for Accept, and the rest of his band delivers the goods; walls of guitars in lockstep, solos that never get too ‘weedly-weedly’ and the thick, meaty production music like this needs.
Power ballads like The Light aside, this album takes me back to another time when rock & roll was uncomplicated, energetic and life-affirming.
HOT TRACKS: Bullet Train, Prisoner, The Light
ALWAYS AS YOUNG AS WE’LL EVER BE The Lowest Pair (independent) *****
In my 36 years of writing album reviews, I’ve come to see some records as ‘soul healers’ and this is one of them. Always As Young, The Lowest Pair’s 8th album overall and first in 6 years, is incandescent folk music, warm and troubling, comforting and emotional.
Always is a record that addresses our collective wish for life to unfold in a linear way, working through the dark to get to the light. But The Lowest Pair take a different tack; what if we sit with the mess? What if that’s more peaceful and magical? “Fare thee well and go to hell, I love you and I’m mad at you, it’s such a theme in my life” Kendl Winter says, “wishing things were different but loving all of it too.” That’s a sentiment I’m coming to understand all too well at this particular point in my own life… it’s good to know I’m not alone in that.
The Lowest Pair are Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee, and Always As Young was produced by Tucker Martine of The Decemberists. Their string-driven sound is the perfect backdrop for their lyrical observations and the musicianship is stunning, described as playing that breathes and listens. “We’re trying to make space for each other rather than crowd each other out” Lee says. “We’re doing a lot of listening and reacting to what the other person is doing”.
Previous albums have been self-produced and limited to instruments Lee and Winter play themselves, but this time they wanted to kick things up a notch… hence Martine as producer and a number of guest musicians. “It was thrilling to be in the studio with that group because they are all really sharp listeners” Winter says. “I love us stripped back, that’s the essence of our songs, but I felt excited about letting somebody else paint with us.”
Always As Young As We’ll Ever Be is the sort of album that will help you figure things out. As Palmer says, “I hope it helps people not feel alone in the heavy things.” Amen to that.
HOT TRACKS: Give It All Always, Quantum Physics, Shitty Light
MEET ME IN NOWHERE LAND EP Timmy Skelly (Live 2/ Neon Gold) **** ½
This is rising star Skelly’s sophomore EP, the follow-up to last year’s Dive Bar Sermon. Meet Me In Nowhere Land is a Midwest screed, twangy alt rock with a nod towards latter day Beatles. It’s jangly, messy, and utterly charming.
Timmy Skelly describes his self-appointed genre of Midwest y’ alternative as “a bit of everything I grew up on including cornfields, lakefronts, my dad’s red ’79 Volkswagen bug playing Tom Petty and country radio, tall tales by the fire pit, Friday night football, whispered prayers, frozen kisses and the smell of Halloween.” That’s a lot to unpack and a solid reason why MMINL defies categorization or genre. That can make it hard for some to accept, but hearing music that colors outside the lines is refreshing.
Produced by Noah Ehler (Kendrick Lamar, Quadeca, Kevin Abstract) and mixed by Nathan Boddy, this is rightly described as “walking the line between Indie Twang and pop Americana sensibilities.” While the song construction itself can feel a tad unruly, it’s obvious that Skelly has a serious grasp on pop song craft, creating hooks and melodies that stick. He sums up the feeling of this EP when he says “I am a hopeless romantic, I love the past. I love tossing a golden filter on my youth and soaking up the simpler times.” As pleasant as Meet Me is musically, that vibe belies some deeper subject matter. I Get Drunk is about getting stressed out and getting loaded. It’s about losing control and yet it’s a redemption song. “Why can’t this Friday night out in the same small town become a night we’ll never forget?” he asks. Timmy and producer Noah went at this as “like minded individuals coming together to live in the moment, to love and cry and talk deeply and candidly.” We should all be so fortunate.
https://www.instagram.com/timmyskelly/
HOT TRACKS: I Get Drunk, Summer of ’16, Gospel Song #7
LAST CALL Cheryl Lescom & The Tucson Choir Boys (Busted Flat Records) ****
This legendary blues belter with the throaty pipes has just released her final album with her band The Tucson Choir Boys. Last Call is a collection of songs about understanding life’s changes and endings. When you’re young it’s about tomorrows and hellos, but Cheryl has been doing this for 50 years so this is a record about yesterdays and goodbyes.
Lescom’s career started in 1975 when she began fronting her own bands before becoming a backup singer for Ronnie Hawkins and touring with Long John Baldry as well as Matt Minglwood, Dutch Mason, Downchild, Jack DeKeyzer, Bill Durst and Jeff Healey. Experience has given her voice a soulful, road weary yet sweetly sophisticated sound, and when she really reaches for those notes packed with emotion it makes me think of Janis Joplin. But why is this Last Call? “I love writing songs and making music, it’s therapy” she says, “but these days with streaming and downloading and no cd players in cars or any f**kin’ way to make recorded music profitable, it’s not a good retirement plan.” Cheryl adds “I’m retiring from recording music but my biggest joy is from playing live which I will continue to do.”
Last Call is smartly produced with a swingin’ vintage blues vibe, heartfelt songwriting and some sweet playing from The Tucson Choir Boys; Ray Walsh on guitar, Dave The Cat on guitar, Les Graham on bass, Mike Menheere on drums and Kristine Walsh on washboard. The musicianship has that feel that comes with having played together for a long time and it’s a precious thing. Last Call may be a farewell to Lescom’s recording career but there’s life and a joy in these songs she’s chosen to share with us . Enjoy.
https://bustedflatrecords.com/pages/cheryl-lescom
HOT TRACKS: Better Days, Nothing To Do, Old Soul
