Hello there, and a very warm welcome to Guitar World editors’ picks – our monthly guide to the guitar tracks that have captured the attentions of our editors 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 the month of April, and put them under the microscope to wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that have set our six-string senses a-tingling.
Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor
While not quite the length of The Brutalist, as it was last month, my personal playlist of new guitar-driven music this month was still quite formidable, and as all over the map stylistically as ever.
First, I’m giving myself away as a proud native of the fine state of New Jersey, but one of the most exciting announcements (of any kind) in April for me was that of Tracks II, a massive new box set of outtakes and lost songs – grouped thematically into seven (!!) albums – from the Boss, Bruce Springsteen.
Ok, so you’re clearly a nerd, you might be thinking. Why should I care? Well, give the first single from the set, Rain in the River, a listen.
Designed for the arena and stadium, the song makes up for what it lacks in development in pure steely determination.
It’s hard to get caught up in how skeletal the lyrics are when Max Weinberg is pounding away and Springsteen, Nils Lofgren, and Stevie Van Zandt are creating a tangled web of feedback, riffing, and six-string atmosphere. Which one of them plays that triumphant solo that so brilliantly echoes the hook? Probably Bruce, but who cares!
On the bluesier side of things is Bye Bye Blues, an infectious, swinging new single from guitar great Larry McCray. Its funky opening riff absolutely can’t be denied, but the real treat comes during the song’s final chorus, when McCray stings a single note repeatedly, for all its worth. You want to know what they mean when they say ‘do more with fewer notes’? You won’t go wrong with that example.
Joanne Shaw Taylor’s magnificent run, meanwhile, continues unabated with Look What I’ve Become, a funky but elegantly executed rocker with a distinct late-period Beatles (think While My Guitar Gently Weeps) flavor. The song’s climactic, aching solo is really the cherry on top – one of the best I’ve heard all year.
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain, and so I have become one by throwing “song of the summer” declarations around, but I can’t help but award that banner to Far Caspian’s First Day, a feast of interlocking guitar beauty. I’d also like to shout out Jahnah Camille’s sit with you (pain), which will have shoegaze fans seated, and Hayden Pedigo’s work of instrumental guitar brilliance, Long Pond Lily.
Matt Parker – Deputy Editor
First up this month, I have been enjoying the somewhat-against-the-odds return of Dinosaur Pile-Up. Songwriter Matt Bigland has always had hooks for days and no problem backing them up with massive post-grunge rock riffs.
However, I didn’t have him down to pull-off a rap-rock number called My Way, in which he simultaneously explains why he’s done listening to industry advice, breaks down all the reasons why it’s impossible to be successful as a band – and then somehow whips it into shape as one of their most appealing earworms to date.
Yelling “Kiss this motherfuckers” before ripping a shred solo on a Flying V is quite the flex in the year 2025. It’s a little childish and stupid, but then so is high school the music industry – and this sort of nonsense absolutely gets me through the day.
On the subject of bands that refuse to stay in their corner, Turnstile’s latest – the first taste of their new album NEVER ENOUGH – completes their transformation from hardcore caterpillar to psychedelic New Wave butterfly.
There’s a full minute in which you’d have serious trouble recognizing this as the same band popping blood cells on 2018’s Time And Space, but that core DNA and ability to make monstrous riffage sound somehow airy and uplifting is all there. Its euphoric centerpiece is a whammy-laden guitar solo (possibly intertwined with some synth bending). Imagine writing that about a hardcore band even 10 years ago…
It’s a sign of how far not just Turnstile has come, but the whole new hardcore movement that has broken out through the hole they left in the prison fence…
Finally, for my tech heads, I’m picking the second single from Lari Basilio’s forthcoming album, Redemption – The Way Home. So many virtuoso types have a cut-glass touch, but Basilio does it with character. My favorite moments here are not the lightning runs, but the muted rhythmic work and verse section licks, which bring to mind the melodic phrasing of ’80s Steve Lukather. And that is far harder to pull off.
Matt Owen – News Editor
Okay, I’m cheating a little bit. Technically, Slimdan’s Problem Solver came out a while back, but the alt/indie songwriter recently re-released a version with Medium Build (whose own music dominated my playlists last month) and so I feel compelled – nay, duty bound – to include it here.
It’s got a ridiculously irresistible acoustic hook littered with some neat double-stop slides and edge-y bends, and when the banjos, backing guitars, and fuzz-y, bit-crushed electrics get poured into the mix, it makes for a very well-seasoned sonic soup of indie rock goodness.
Slow Joy’s Wound – another home run from the fast-rising emo rockers, which flits between twangy Strat hooks and visceral drop-tuned riffs – had a similar stronghold on my eardrums this month.
My ears were also at the mercy of The Crux, the latest studio record from Djo (AKA Joe Keery of Stranger Things fame), who put out his most accomplished body of musical work to date earlier this month.
Basic Being Basic and Delete Ya are particular highlights, but it’s Poison – a fingerstyle-driven piece that eerily evokes Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac – that will most appeal to broader guitar fans. Try getting that progression under your fingers.
Joe Bonamassa and Mike Dawes have also provided plenty of food for thought for me this month.
JoBo’s Breakthrough is yet another timely reminder of how important it is to keep your phrasing fresh – something that’s easier said than done – while Dawes’ mind-blowing cover of Sleep Token’s Euclid is an insight into how effective and inspirational it can be to take an unorthodox approach to different genres. Alternative metal reimagined for solo acoustic? The results are quite mesmerizing.
Janelle Borg – Staff Writer
In a month where my playlist was shaped by Pink Floyd’s Live at Pompeii and a heavy dose of post-rock (courtesy of my band supporting And So I Watch You From Afar and Maybe She Will), I still found time to go down internet rabbit holes in search of fresh new music. Here’s what that search led me to this month…
First off, Yukimi from Little Dragon’s album For You – a beautiful example of how production can support songwriting (not the other way around). Elinam, my track of choice, has R&B and neo-soul flavors that strike a perfect balance of soothing melancholia. The guitar and bass parts move in tandem with Yukimi’s lullaby-esque melody – never overshadowing the vocals, but still very much holding their own in this intimate track.
Speaking of neo-soul influences, I recently discovered Toshiki Soejima’s work thanks to an article I was writing about Eric Clapton naming him as one of his favorite contemporary Japanese players.
Lo and behold, I did a deep dive into Soejima, and I must say, his music has accompanied many a writing session over the past month. Persona – his latest track alongside Casablanca beatmaker and guitarist Saib, and Parisian jazz pianist Bastien Brison – is a pleasant interplay between guitar, beats, and keys, leveraging each collaborator’s strengths. Best of all, it features very tasteful use of wah, which adds an extra oomph to an otherwise laid-back track.
Salif Keita – the Malian singer-songwriter often referred to as the Golden Voice of Africa – delivers pure emotion and acoustic guitar brilliance in Aboubakrin, from his latest album, So Kono.
“Even in a crowd, if I don’t have a guitar, I feel alone,” Keita confesses – and his hypnotic playing is a testament to this ethos. He’s undoubtedly an intriguing artist: as an albino descendant of Emperor Sundiata Keita, he defied social norms by daring to sing, which led to his rejection by his family, leaving his village, and eventually living off his voice and a makeshift guitar. The album is the culmination of all these experiences and epitomizes a master at work.
My final pick, Je t’Aime, also comes by way of Mali – from Lamomali, the French-Malian group that includes several guitarists, most notably the French multi-instrumentalist -M-, Malian singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara, and, specifically on this track, the late Amadou Bagayoko – the renowned guitarist from Amadou & Mariam, who passed away earlier this month.
It’s a beautiful encapsulation of how contrasting cultures and musical backgrounds can lead to true artistic innovation…and some pretty tasty guitar parts and basslines.
