Back catalogue: Rock

Review: Whether or not you expected Liam Gallagher to turn his attention to the notoriously unpredictable world of Christmas music - there be demons - here the Mancunian icon gives it all he's got for the most messed up festive season in recent history.

With all proceeds going to Action for Children, Gallagher's point is pretty clear. Cutting to the chase as ever, the chorus asks us to consider what love really means. Here, it's the question of whether it can survive the worst of the world, phrasing that will resonate with many after a turbulent pandemic year. But fundamentally this can only make us consider what 2020 has been like without support, nurturing relationships or stability. With vocals soaring over simple piano chords, building to a rousing crescendo, here's hoping it's loud enough for people to remember the message long after the crisis has passed.

Review: Dutch band Golden Earring scored a huge hit in 1982 with 'Twilight Zone.' It's inspired by The Bourne Identity book and spent over six months in the US Pop Charts and was the band's only No. 1 hit in America when it hit the top spot on the Billboard Top Album Tracks chart. The band's guitarist George Kooymans wrote the tune and shares vocal responsibilities with Barry Hay. It's as big as pop rock gets with its soaring chords and big drums, and on the flip is 'When The Lady Smiles' which is another classic 80s anthem.

Review: In many ways the critical reception to Dave Gahan's debut solo outing is still surprising. Mainly because a good number of critics seemed surprised at the depth and assurance of the record, which kind of seems to deny the fact this is the voice of Depeche Mode, arguably one of the finest bands to ever come out of the UK and certainly a group that understand what it means to layer musical textures and meld multiple themes.

'Stay' might be the best case in point. It's patient, it's elegant, there's a real air of sorrow but also you can't help feeling loved while listening to it. Balladry in the truest sense, the fact that track is sandwiched between the soft half-house music of 'I Need You' and the epic, theatrical anthem 'Black & Blue Again' is a case in point. A real journey.

Review: Let's take you back to the year 2000. A time when we'd all just realised the world wasn't ending (just yet, anyway), hopes for the future outweighed existential fears over what it might hold, and Granddaddy released The Sophtware Slump On A Wooden Piano to critical acclaim. As timely as they come, critics cited a meeting point where the death of the wild American frontier dream ran into the start of technologically-driven madness.

Both an outdated and perfectly fitting record for our times, or those times, like anything made well from wood the album hasn't really dated, but instead matured and taken on a life of its own. Coming at us with little else other than heart-wrenching ivories and Jason Lytle's lone, tender but not beaten voice, it's enough to inspire a serious emotional response in anyone. A lo-fi indie landmark worth revisiting.

Review: On July 9th 1995, Jerry Garcia had just turned 53 and took the sated for what would be the very pastime with The Grateful Dead. It was evident fo all in attendance at this gig in Chicago that he was a very ill man - his face was pallid, his body was shaking. The whole tour is said to have been something of a disaster form start to finish but there are times in this set that all that was forgotten and Gerry manages to working his magic and make for some real musical bliss. This double album was The Grateful Dead's last ever concert with Jerry, who died in his sleep a week later on August 9th 1995. It is now pressed to vinyl for the first time.

Review: If Dookie was packed full of raging adolescence, last summer highs and formative experiences, Insomniac, Green Day's follow up record, marked the band moving into a new life stage, sonically and lyrically. Exploring their most punk-punk sound yet, a heavier, growlier, blood, sweat and tears-ier take on the immediately arresting, riff-focused formula that first grabbed our attention.

So it stands to reason a quarter century later things still sound powerful and pleasurable. Of course the singles 'Geek Stink Breath', 'Stuck With Me', 'Brain Stew/Jaded' and 'Walking Construction' will be more than familiar even to those who have only heard the band in passing. But the record is packed full of depth and quality elsewhere it arguably far exceeds its older, more widely remembered sibling.

Review: It's 1997 and Green Day have just unveiled Nimrod, their fifth studio album, with the clear intention of trying different ideas, en masse. Rather than specifically looking to release an album per se, the band convinced Reprise Records to let them loose on what's effectively a series of singles. Lacking the coherency of a full record, the fact it still bagged universally positive reviews - with many rightly pointing to its rousing and invigorating qualities (surely a product of its shape-shifting nature) - is testament to the band's deft abilities.

It certainly showed off the outfit's ability to craft these huge, memorable hook lines and melodies, the sort of tracks that you instantly feel you know, even on first listen. Veering between folk, punk, ska and skate rock, what's here may not have had quite the same impact as Dookie, but many ways this is a more convincing argument for their legendary status.

Review: Greta Van Fleet were either born too late or at exactly the right time. It all depends on how you feel about Led Zeppelin-esque hard progressive rock music, which is a relatively fitting description for the band although not necessarily bang on. Straight out of Frankenmuth, Michigan, the four piece formed of brothers Jake and Josh (twins no less) and Sam Kiszka, and Danny Wagner, know how to wail, riff, and drive tracks forward, and seem disinterested in falling for, or fawning over, the latest best things since sliced bread. Instead, they create these huge rock 'n' roll symphonies that seem made for stadium-sized crowds. Take 'Meeting the Master', for example - any bigger and it would take over the world itself. Even in less grandiose moments, 'Farewell For Now', it's hard to deny the rousing qualities at play. Overall, then, Greta Van Fleet may be exactly what we all needed, without realising it.

Review: This exceptional collection showcases the iconic rock band Guns N Roses at the height of their energy, during the early stages of their Use Your Illusion tour, and on their second electrifying performance in Rio de Janeiro. They deliver a dynamic mix of their greatest hits to that point, alongside a variety of cover versions, topped off with the thrilling live premiere of 'Bad Apples'. Rox Vox presents the complete, unedited broadcast of G N' R, on nice orange vinyl which helps to deliver this wild and uninhibited performance at the Maracana Stadium in style.