Wormslayer

貴公子クリスピアン・ミルズ率いる英・ロンドン出身のロック・バンド、クーラ・シェイカーによる8枚目となる新作スタジオ・アルバム。

オアシス再結成で90年代ブリット・ポップの再評価が高まる中、正にその真打ちといえるUKロック・レジェンド＝クーラ・シェイカーが2024年の『Natural Magick』に続くニュー・アルバム『Wormslayer』を早くもリリース！アルバムの先行曲「チャージ・オブ・ザ・ライト・ブリゲード」は、ミステリアスかつ軽快なロックンロールが弾けるザ・クーラ・シェイカーなサウンドに仕上がっている。

Few bands conjure the heady, dream-like atmosphere of 60s psychedelic rock as believably and with as much passion as Englands Kula Shaker. Its sentiment they underscore on 2026s incense-soaked Wormslayer, their eighth album and third since coming off an extended hiatus in 2022. As with much of their past work, the album finds singer-songwriter Crispian Mills drawing from a mix of influences, blending British mythology and history with Indian spiritualism, as well as a balance of electrified rock and folk sounds. While not a complete concept album, at least three of the songs form a kind of rock opera. Central is "Shaunie," a song purportedly inspired by a story Mills grandmother wrote about a boy who is either persecuted by society for having wings, or grows wings and flies away to escape his abuse. Either way, its a tale about being different and sensitive and fighting those who would try and stamp that poetic inclination out of others. Mills champions this idea on "The Charge of the Light Brigade," leaping into the existential fray, singing, "Weve got to mobilize/The poets of light/With spiritual greed/And the mystical seed...Light in the Shadows." Equally exuberant moments pop up elsewhere as the band embrace 90s club-psychedelia on the Primal Scream-esque "Good Money" and conjure joyful, pub singalong vibes on "Broke as Folk." ~ Matt Collar

鮮烈な初作『K』からちょうど30年の節目で届いたニュー・アルバム。ジェイ・ダーリントンが復帰を果たした前作『Natural Magick』(2024年)の好調を受け継ぎ、良い意味でトレンドとは関係なく磨いてきたエクレクティックな個性が、骨太なグルーヴの独自性をメラメラと輝かせている。クリスピアン・ミルズの呪術的な歌唱もキレのあるギターも健在だ。
bounce (C)轟ひろみ