1971 was a great year for what we now call classic rock – Rod Stewart, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and The Who all released indispensable albums. Boiling down 1971 to 20 A+ tracks was no easy feat – my apologies to the Chi-Lites and the Stylistics, among others.
Bitter Rivals – Sleigh Bells – The new album is released today and this song leading up proves there is nothing much to worry about: a great synth lick pushes the duo all the way and the sound is filtered through to its focussed doctored vocals and weirdo bridge – B+
Song Beneath The Song – Maria Taylor – The Saddle Creek stalwart has her best album to date coming out soon, till then here is an early solo song that will keep you going; that’s Conor singing back up – A
