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Sean MacLeod – Inside Out
Sean MacLeod Looks Inward Through A Self-Examining Lens
With “Inside Out,” Sean MacLeod sharpens the tension between melody and unease. The Irish songwriter, composer and author folds his lifelong love of Beatles-sized hooks, Motown lift and grunge grit into a bass-heavy track that feels both immediate and slightly bruised, like pop music staring at its own reflection. MacLeod’s voice cuts through the dark arrangement with flashes of light, giving the song a human pulse as it questions commodification, artistic identity and the cold arithmetic of the streaming age.
Coming after the deep study of a PhD in Musical Composition, MacLeod sounds newly unboxed but never less exacting. “Inside Out” sits neatly inside the world of That’s When the Earth Becomes a Star, where philosophical ideas don’t smother the songcraft; they sharpen it. The result is music that reaches for the head and the gut at once, with enough harmonic surprise to keep the ground shifting beneath it.
The Gilhoolys – False Flag
The Gilhoolys Turn Resistance Into A Hook You Can’t Shake
Glasgow cult favourites The Gilhoolys return with “False Flag,” a single that hits like a clenched fist and a singalong in the same breath. Recorded at Main St Studios in Coatbridge with Andy Anderson, it folds melancholy verses into stomping choruses, then lets the harmonised guitars flare with a Thin Lizzy shimmer and a Cure-like chill. Dev’s writing keeps one eye on the street and the other on the wire, taking on corruption, manipulation, and the slow awakening of ordinary people. It’s sharp, bruised, and built to move a room.
What makes the track land is the band’s refusal to overstate the point: the message is in the lift, the surge, the drums and bass pushing forward like a march. Nearly three decades in, The Gilhoolys still sound like a band with something to prove, and something worth saying.
Steve Montgomery – Living The Dream Right Now
Steve Montgomery Keeps Rock Real, Loud, And Fun
Steve Montgomery has spent years building his SkipRock Music catalog the old-fashioned way: with real songs, real guitars, and a steady instinct for melody. On Living the Dream Right Now, he tightens that formula into nine tracks that feel both familiar and freshly lit, leaning into classic rock muscle, power-pop shimmer, and a grin that never leaves the riff. It’s a record that moves from the punch of “Crazy Town” to the big, singalong charge of “I Gotta Rock!”, and that arc says plenty about Montgomery’s gift for keeping rock music direct without making it dull. There’s a bright, open-road energy running through the album, but also the kind of craft that comes from years spent refining a sound rather than chasing one. Montgomery doesn’t reinvent the wheel here — he just keeps it spinning with conviction, volume, and a very human sense of fun.
Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew – The Work Makes Me
Chris Colepaugh Finds The Measure Of A Life In “The Work Makes Me”
Chris Colepaugh has spent nearly three decades making music that feels earned, and “The Work Makes Me” distills that history into a lean, guitar-driven statement. Built on gritty Americana, roots rock, and blues rock muscle, the single moves with live-band energy and soulful conviction, tracing the idea that success isn’t what shapes us — the work itself does.
As the voice behind Chris Colepaugh & The Cosmic Crew, the New Brunswick artist has long blurred the line between player and pilgrim, whether onstage with Gov’t Mule and North Mississippi Allstars or through years on the road with Big Sugar and Roch Voisine. Here, that experience folds into a song about persistence, identity, and the quiet way craft leaves its mark. It’s sturdy, unflashy, and alive with the kind of authority only time can give.
Motihari Brigade – Save Ourselves
Motihari Brigade Sound the Alarm on “Save Ourselves”
Motihari Brigade’s “Save Ourselves” kicks against dogma, digital control, and the uneasy comfort of groupthink with the force of jagged guitar lines and a driving rock foundation. Led by Eric Winston, the band folds philosophical unease into classic-rock muscle, treating independent thought as something worth defending rather than taking for granted.
The track sits within Problematic, Motihari Brigade’s third album, extending the project’s self-described “Rock-n-Roll Thoughtcrime” into a pointed meditation on conformity and concentrated power. Named for Orwell’s birthplace and shaped by his suspicion of easy answers, the band frames questioning as a kind of resistance. “Save Ourselves” carries that idea plainly: stay curious, distrust intellectual complacency, and never mistake consensus for truth.
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