Hello there, and welcome to Guitar World Editors’ Picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured our editors’ attention over the past four weeks or so.
With the aid of our Spotify playlist below, we’ve rounded up all our favorite new releases from August and noted our personal highlights – the playing, tones, and songwriting that most set our six-string (or seven- or eight-string) senses a-tingling.
Highlights this month include a tongue-in-cheek single from a certain Rivers Cuomo, a dash of microtonal pop, a centuries-old nautical ballad about Napoleon (yes, the Napoleon Bonaparte), Tele trills for days, and jangly riffs from a very charming man.
All that and much more in our playlist below.
Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief
Track of the month: Weezer – C.E.O.
Rivers Cuomo has always been a deceptively gifted guitar player, but I am particularly obsessed with the opening chord on Weezer’s latest tongue-in-cheek single. It’s one of those inversions that’s optimistic, melancholy, and pure magic. I’d happily hear it in an indie rager or a post-rock weepie.
Fortunately, Cuomo has opted for the former, and while there’s a cheeky air of resignation about it – heck, the opening line is “cranking out another ’90s jam / wish I could do something new” – C.E.O. sits neatly in the mid-section between Blue and Green. Oh, and I figured out that chord: 2x434x (in standard tuning). A Bmaj7 with an F# on the bottom? Rivers, you sly ol’ dog.
Also playing:
- Russian Circles – Seventh Seal
- Grace Bowers – Eat Shit and Live
- Sarah Longfield – Wrath
Matt Parker – Deputy Editor
Track of the month: Jake Xerxes Fussell – Boney
Fussell is my favorite kind of folky – someone who makes new from old, and does not regard an electric guitar as heretical. Hence why this centuries-old nautical ballad about Napoleon Bonaparte is somehow rendered fresh as a spring morning in his hands. And it is his hands and ears that make the difference here.
Fussell’s reverberating, finger-picked Tele lines cascade and luxuriate in the space of this sparse arrangement. It is confident and not showy, relaxed but not lazy, blending moody palm mutes on the lower strings with almost tropical color and a hint of tremolo in the upper registers. He is the sort of guitarist who can knock you down with a feather.
Also playing:
- Paerish – Vapor Cloud
- Lily Seabird – The Afterglow
- Devil Master – Death Anthem
Jackson Maxwell – Operations Editor
Track of the month: Bloc Party – Pigwig
Man, until a week or so ago, I had no idea that my pick this month was going to be such a contrarian one. The reception to Pigwig, the latest single from UK alt-rock heroes Bloc Party’s forthcoming record, Anatomy Of A Brief Romance, has been… less than stellar, one might say. And yeah, the lyrics aren’t Kele Okereke’s finest, sure – but that’s not why we’re here, is it?
Russell Lissack’s got his Tele trills going again! His rapid-fire interplay with Okereke is as good as it’s been in a looooong time. Perhaps I’m an unsophisticated lout yearning for the days 20 years ago, when Bloc Party stood on Mount Rushmore overlooking the ten trillion other two-guitar bands of the era that were practicing some form of the angular, terse ping-pong riffing taught in the school of Television. Sue me, I guess – I like this tune a lot.
Also playing:
- The Tallest Man on Earth – Deliver Me From Trying
- beabadoobee – Memories
- Tommy Lefroy – Thief
Matt Owen – News Editor
Track of the month: Johnny Marr – It’s Time
Just like Johnny Marr was taken aback by UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham jamming The Smiths in Kyiv with Ukrainian soldiers, I have been equally enamored with the Britpop icon’s latest solo single, It’s Time.
Marr – who was on the cover of the most recent issue of Guitarist and has a bumper celebrity guitar auction coming up – is gearing up to release his new album in October. It’s Time is an exceptional appetizer, with a crystalline Smiths guitar tone and jangly riff that wouldn’t have felt out of place in the band’s heyday.
Also playing:
- Nothing But Thieves – Baby Kool (Evelyn)
- Hermanos Gutiérrez – Los Andes
- Phoebe Bridgers – I Can’t Wait
Janelle Borg – Staff Writer
Track of the month: Maddie Ashman – Amber
Turns out, you do get a good song recommendation from Instagram every once in a while…
When Maddie Ashman’s Reel (specifically, this Reel) popped up on my feed, I was instantly transfixed, and it’s easy to see why.
I mean, who doesn’t like off-kilter, avant-garde, guitar-based pop that not only uses alternate tunings but is also microtonal? Ashman is tearing up the pop playbook – all while playing a Mustang – and Amber is the perfect introduction to an artist who’s quickly becoming this generation’s Imogen Heap.
Also playing:
- Slayyyter – brand new chanel$
- Protomartyr – Feed the Sewer
- Grace Potter – Main Street U.S.A
