The song itself is an urban rock fable about a man with nowhere left to go, who heads to the city not to chase a dream but to disappear into the streets. Nostalgia won’t feed him, and memories won’t pay the bills, so to survive he needs some love, whether that is compassion, a helping hand, or just enough change from a stranger. The band says it was written to reflect the Morelli brothers’ early experience with a homeless man.

This is a band that clearly has incredible chemistry with one another. The rhythm work is tight and is actually very melodic, not rhythmically bombastic for the sake of it. Together, Phil Morelli’s keys, Lou Morelli’s guitars, and the drums and bass create the perfect skyline for Tom Sullivan’s vocals to soar through. The band also has great dynamics. They’re rocking the whole time, obviously, but there is a great sense of dynamics because when they really hit it, and the backup vocals and keys go crazy, you can really feel the added intensity.

The members bring a long history from cult-followed Chicago acts including Blind Ambition, Myth, Third Rail and The Resin Diggers. Morelli says they aren’t trying to recreate the music of that era, only to take what they loved about it and make something fresh and relevant, and the band says it is writing new songs alongside the old unfinished ones. With that approach, “City RIP” reads as the opening of something that is meant to keep going.

This song texturally is different from the previous song I covered, “It’s Getting Near Christmas.” It’s much more traditional and focuses on weaving gorgeous harmony with the choir and bells, while rhythmically the strings keep time and support. The layers here are beautifully warm and are exactly what is needed to create this atmosphere of festivity and togetherness.

Seasonal songs are only one part of what Clark does. According to his own account, his wider catalogue spans pop, rock, ballads, R&B, dance, Latin and country, and he has written songs for younger listeners as well, including an empowering song about bullying and self-harm and an anti-smoking song sung by pupils from the BRIT School, both of which he says were put into schools across Croydon. A message about peace and love for children sits comfortably alongside that work. There is also a music video for Mick J. Clark‘s “Sing Glory Glory Hallelujah,” for anyone who wants to see the festive spirit on screen as well as hear it. With the festive season drawing closer, a song that puts peace and love at the center of Christmas is a gentle reminder of what many listeners hope the holidays will bring.

It is exactly the kind of Christmas song the season needs: warm, honest, and capturing all three dimensions of what December actually feels like. The excitement building toward Christmas Day. The stress that comes with it. And the romance that, when it lands, makes the whole chaotic thing worthwhile.

“I hope my song ‘It’s Getting Near Christmas’ captures the excitement leading up to Christmas Day, the stress and the romance!” — Mick J. Clark

“It’s Getting Near Christmas” joins Mick’s already celebrated festive catalogue as a fresh addition for 2026 — a song that speaks to the universal experience of the holiday season with the warmth and accessibility that has defined Mick’s songwriting throughout his career. Pop sensibility, genuine heart, and a knack for writing the kind of song that stays with you long after you’ve heard it: that is Mick J. Clark’s signature, and it is fully present here.

The single adds to a Christmas body of work that has already racked up over 300,000 streams across Mick’s Christmas EP Mick’s Christmas Mix and its three festive offerings.

⇒ Read our full review here.

Mick J. Clark is not simply a songwriter. He is a musician who uses his platform with purpose — and has the track record to prove it on every level.

His single “We Know It’s True” reached No. 3 in the UK and No. 2 in the USA on the iTunes Top 100 Rock Chart. His album Causes made it through to the 64th Grammy Award nominations. His Box Set Song Catalogue now contains 63 songs spanning Pop, Rock, Ballads, R&B, Dance, Latin, Country, and Christmas. He has appeared in the iTunes Singles Chart six times and the Album Chart once with Brand New Love Songs. His summer anthem “Anuther Sunny Hulliday” — complete with its famous Parrot Dance video — has passed 200,000 streams, as has his birthday song “Blow Those Candles Out.”

Beyond the chart success, Mick’s work has reached the places it was most needed. His empowering children’s anthem “Me My Body And I” — designed to help children resist bullying and self-harm through positive, empowering language — was placed into every school in Croydon by the Croydon Education Department. His anti-smoking and anti-drugs song “You Don’t Look Cool”, performed by students from the Brit School with kids speaking directly to kids, was similarly distributed across Croydon’s schools.

Over 1,000,000 Spotify streams across his catalogue. A multi-instrumentalist across guitar, drums, and keyboards. A man who has always believed music can do more than entertain — and has repeatedly proven it.

The three bring long résumés, according to the band’s bio. Bennett, a singer, songwriter, and preacher, founded the StarSong recording band Sacred Fire and toured the U.S. with Petra and Mylon LeFevre & Broken Heart. Davis, a Berklee-trained guitarist, founded Last Generation and For You Brother, and Miranda joined the Brazilian rock group Oficina G3 at twenty-one. The sound they bring to this single sits in an 80s and 90s rock pop mold.

The first thing that caught my attention was how crisp the production is. This is superb and incredibly satisfying to listen to. There is an undeniable gospel influence here, not just because of the contagious positive vibes of the narrative and the lyrics themselves, but because of the execution itself and the choir backup vocals. Speaking of the narrative, the song carries a beautiful message that love is out there for all of us in all forms, and the form that never fades is God’s grace. Faith is the purest form of love, and one should open themselves to it because no human can love you more than God.

The band is currently working on bookings and festival appearances, and it describes “When Love Walks In” as the start of a new chapter for the trio. No dates have been announced yet, so for now the single is the best way to hear what three experienced players sound like when they have the time and space to get it right.

It opens the project’s second chapter, following the relationships, betrayal, grief and recovery of Blinded By the Blonde: Chapter One, and this time humor takes the lead. The single was recorded through Musiversal with professional session players, among them Joe Bills on lead vocals, Breno Machado on guitars, and Christiano Galvão on drums. Paul oversaw production, though by his own account he mostly stayed out of the professionals’ way.

The song came to life through a process of brainstorming with AI-generated demos, but it’s just to stimulate the creative process, and the final version is fully human recorded. That’s an interesting gray area for using AI, because how different is it from using a preset on a drum machine to inspire the drummer to play a groove in their own way? It’s just a jumping-off point. Human execution is what matters when it comes to art, and here the execution is peak divorced dad rock, pun intended.

The other half of the joke is the video. It’s done in a comic-book style with illustrated scenes, background gags, and a fourth-wall break where Will questions the songwriter responsible for his predicament. According to the press materials, the idea is to add jokes rather than just repeat the lyrics on screen.

Paul’s background as a novelist shows in how the song is put together, as a story that escalates rather than a single mood. A premise this silly only works if the storytelling keeps its footing. Whether Will ever makes it home to feed his cat is left for the listener to find out.

Cherry Bomb continues their track record of proving they have command over the 80s sound. This is a colorful album filled with energetic songs, some of them frankly vulgar, like “Your Hole Is My Goal” and “Pussy Pix And Rock ‘n’ Roll,” while others are wholesome and beautifully melodic. That mix is a perfect representation of the 80s.

The title track and “Eyes Like A Tiger” are my favorites from a momentum perspective. They have great pacing, and the rhythmic energy is palpable in those two songs specifically. They feel like Van Halen, with incredibly relentless night jams.

My overall favorite, though, has to be “Silent Night.” It is supremely melodic and Christmassy, and in my opinion it has the best harmony layers on the album. It’s just a blast to listen to. The song is the band’s annual Christmas track, first released in 2024, and it features a group billed as the Cherry Bomb Allstars, including Marco Mendoza of Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and The Dead Daisies, Eric St. Michaels, Frank Pané, Emmo Acar and Henning Wanner. The band describes it as a nod to the “We Are the World” anthem.

The album has other stories behind it. “Rockin’ Memories” was written for the festival of the same name, which Cherry Bomb headlined in its inaugural year in 2026, performing the song for the first time there. The first single, “Calling Out Your Name,” features Nici Foxx on vocals, the band’s first duet on an album. Work on the record began in 2025, and it was self-produced in guitarist Vince Vixxen’s home studio, sticking to a songwriting process the band calls successful.

That Hollywood, Sunset Strip spirit runs through everything they do, and Midnight Gasoline is built for the same kind of long summer drive that Sunset BLVD suited so well. The band is now working on its first video for the album and on a new Christmas song, so there is more to come soon.

This is a very wholesome song, as expected, but we needn’t shy away from wholesomeness. We need to embrace it more and more, because God knows we need it as the world presents us with more challenges. It is worth getting excited just over the idea that Christmas is coming.

Clark has been writing Christmas songs for some time. His Christmas EP, Mick’s Christmas Mix, collects three of them, and he says it has passed 300,000 streams. “It’s Getting Near Christmas” adds to that run of festive songs, and it is tagged as 80s rock, rock pop and soft rock.

Seasonal songs are only part of what he does. His wider catalogue spans pop, rock, ballads, R&B, dance, Latin and country, and he has also written songs aimed at younger listeners. According to his own account, an empowering song for children about bullying and self-harm, and an anti-smoking and anti-drugs song sung by pupils from the BRIT School, were put into schools across Croydon by the borough’s education department. His album Causes takes on issues like bullying, self-harm and global warming. For this one song, the subject is the plain pleasure of the season arriving. If you like your Christmas music warm and sincere, “It’s Getting Near Christmas” is a good way to start the countdown.

Somber is the key word here. This is a song made for introspection, and its atmosphere is spacey but also very intimate, as if it were someone exploring their own mind. As I wrote that thought down, I realized it was subconsciously influenced by the song’s theme, the way a song can continue playing in your head long after the actual sound has stopped. That kind of overlap between a song and the mind listening to it is fitting for a track about music that keeps playing in the head.

Songwriter, vocalist and rhythm guitarist Jonathan Gibbon created the project, working with Michael John Ross on guitars and production, Mike Pratt on bass, Chris Nickolls on drums, Bill Mudge on keyboards and Jessica Greenfield on backing vocals. Nickolls also engineered and mixed the track, and it was mastered by Topfloor Music. The sound draws on art-rock, post-punk and the more experimental side of late-70s and early-80s songwriting while keeping the melodic, guitar-based character that runs through the project’s earlier music.

Their earlier releases have picked up independent radio support in the UK and internationally, along with coverage from Mystic Sons, Lost in the Manor, Our Sound Music and Sinusoidal Music. The Wrong Man also uses animation and illustration for its artwork and videos instead of appearing personally. “Return to Silence” belongs to a four-song release that began with “Starship” and also includes “Cassette Compilations” and “Sleeping Pills.” For listeners who like melodic, atmospheric alternative rock with a left-field edge, it is a fitting place to pause and let the quiet do some of the work.

Drawing heavy inspiration from the golden eras of 1970s and 1980s rock and roll, Studio flows seamlessly across diverse sonic landscapes. The record kicks off with the David Bowie-influenced alternative rock lead single, “Scratch,” pivots into the Rolling Stones-flavored tracks “Deja Vu” and “Hig & Jig,” and ultimately concludes with an 80s pop-dance mix of “It Ain’t Perfect But It’s Free”.

⇒ Don’t miss our thoughts on the “Studio” album, and read here.

The album’s signature sonic fingerprint comes from the tactile combination of a 1960s Hammond Organ run through a vintage Leslie Cabinet Speaker and a Fender Mustang guitar.

Recorded at Vancouver’s Blue Light Studio alongside producer Kaj Falch-Nielsen, Studio features a powerhouse lineup of contributors. Most notably, legendary drummer Steve Ferrone—renowned for his work with Tom Petty and Eric Clapton—anchors six of the album’s tracks with exquisite percussion.

“Pennan first saw Steve playing in Eric Clapton’s ’21 Nights’ performances at the Royal Albert Hall. It was an honour to have him play on the record,” notes the production team.

The rich instrumentation is further rounded out by Alison Jenkins’ creative vocal harmonies, Kaj Falch-Nielsen on bass, and Cameron Wilson on violin. Visually, the release maintains continuity with Paint, featuring striking cover artwork by Nathan Gowsell that highlights vintage Vancouver neon signs.

⇒ Don’t miss our thoughts on the “Studio” album, and read here.

⇒ Purchase the CD from here. 

James Masters Patterson (1956–2013) — songwriter, musician, writing partner, best friend, and by Moore’s own account a brother to him at the time it was most needed — wrote, co-wrote, or inspired every single track on this record. The title is a tribute to Patterson’s personality as much as to his music: Moore knew Jim’s sense of humour intimately, and he knows Jim would have loved it.

“A seed was planted in my mind the day Jim was buried. I wanted the world to know about this soft-spoken, kind soul. He was gifted, and was the hardest working musician I ever knew.”

A Wink Is As Good As A Nod To A Blind Mule is a studio album assembled across continents and time zones, bringing together a remarkable roster of contributors united around a single artistic vision. What makes its creation extraordinary is the painstaking process at its foundation: Moore carefully reconstructed drum parts from old recordings measure by measure using MIDI — entering every note by hand, without AI assistance — using Toon Track Superior Drummer 3 for the final audio. From that reconstructed rhythmic backbone, each collaborator built their parts remotely, piece by piece, track by track.

⇒ Purchase the CD from here. 

Guitar tracks were recorded at Jay Michael Smith’s studio in Dallas, Texas. Bass tracks came from Brian Patterson’s home. Vocal contributions arrived from Albuquerque, Pittsburgh, and the United Kingdom. Everything was mixed by Moore at his own studio, Ground Zero West in Texas, and mastered by Jeff Lowes at OTR Mastering — with the exception of “Love Is The Victory,” which was co-produced by Stuart Epps and mastered by Garry Simmons.

The album’s most powerful moment arrives on “Mysteries of Life” — where Jay Michael Smith’s guitar work captures James Patterson’s playing style with such precision and empathy that, as Moore describes it, it sounds as though Jim himself is performing. It is the sonic equivalent of a ghost made present.

⇒ Purchase the CD from here. 

Seven of the album’s tracks were released as singles from late 2025 onwards, building anticipation for the complete collection. The full album arrives today.

The album brings together an extraordinary range of talent:

Jay Michael Smith and Brian Patterson — The Speaker Wars (Stan Lynch’s band)
Hollan Holmes — Spotted Peckary Label
Fred Sullivan — 56 East Band and Daphunk
Ralph Galetti — Disclaimers, with his daughter Abbie McKinney
Jackie Dwire — AmberAlexis Band
Stuart Epps — Recording engineer for Led Zeppelin’s Coda, The Firm’s debut album, and collaborator with Jimmy Page, Paul Rogers, and Bill Wyman

Without Smith recording the guitar parts that Jim Patterson originally wrote and played, Moore says the album would still be a concept rather than a reality.

David Moore’s path to music began not with a guitar but with an injury — a professional soccer career ended before it fully started, and in the aftermath, music became his calling. It was during that pivotal transition that James Patterson became his writing partner, his closest friend, and the person who believed in him most. Patterson’s death in 2013 left a void that Moore has spent over a decade finding the right way to fill.

A Wink Is As Good As A Nod To A Blind Mule is that answer.

⇒ Purchase the CD from here.