NEW ALBUMS
CHRIS ECKMAN
THE UNCUT GUIDE TO THIS MONTH’S KEY RELEASES
Former Walkabouts leader digs deep to create a career high delving into loss, forgiveness and rebuilding a life from ruin.
By Allan Jones
The Land We Knew The Best
“The rage is gone, and the fear has calmed”
NEW ALBUMS
FEBRUARY 2025
TAKE 335
1 YAZZ AHMED (P32) 2 JIM GHEDI (P35) 3 SONGHOY BLUES (P38) 4 THE DELINES (P40)
GLITTERHOUSE
THIS fabulous album is a timely reminder that Chris Eckman has been making sometimes spectacularly singular music since at least the early ’90s, when The Walkabouts, formed in 1984 by Eckman with singer Carla Torgerson, famously became the first non-grunge band to sign with Sub Pop. The label was otherwise awash with bands of incredibly hairy young men in shorts who all sounded angry, frustrated, easily upset. There was a lot of tortured wailing set to loud, bulimic guitars; much monumental riffing. Compared to the heavy musical footprints left by grunge superstars like Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden, The Walkabouts on their 1990 debut, Scavenger, stepped more lightly across a musical landscape they made increasingly their own that entertained as well as punk, aspects of folk-rock, country, the blues. You suspected they’d be happier in the studio with Cowboy Jack Clement or David Briggs than Butch Vig or Steve Albini, more likely to cite Kris Kristoffersen, Townes Van Zandt and Neil Young as influences than Black Flag or Black Sabbath.