Hello there, and 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 July, and noted our personal highlights – the playing, tones, and songwriting that most set our six-string senses a-tingling.
Highlights this month include a ferociously technical new single from the future of shred, a piece of defiantly optimistic post-punk, a slice of “ecstasy for the ears” indie, and some irresistible jazz fusion (and not the ’70s kind).
All that and much more in our playlist below.
Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief
Track of the month: Baxty – Threshold (ft. Pierre Danel)
The future of shred is a 26-year-old Chilean by the name of Bastian Martinez – you might know him as Baxty. His latest missive, Threshold, proves that, yes, virtuosos can thrive outside the social media battlefield – of course, it helps if you’re able to fuse the celestial prog of Dream Theater with the djent-adjacent rhythmic trickery of Animals as Leaders, as he does here.
Baxty’s devastating alternate-picking is the song’s dramatic centerpiece, but his yearning bends have all the feel of golden-era Satriani. Then, as if the track needed yet more firepower, Novelists’ Pierre Danel solobombs in to drop some terrifyingly clean sweep passages. Modern technical guitar playing doesn’t get better than this.
Also playing:
- Steve Hackett and Steve Rothery – The Black Sea
- Queens of the Stone Age – Easy Street (ft. Nikki Lane)
- Emma Ruth Rundle – Enough
Matt Parker – Deputy Editor
Track of the month: Protomartyr – Sounds We Cannot Hear
There has been an awful lot of bleak, shouty post-punk made in the last decade, which does seem like a reasonable response to all the shouty bleakness. However, the first taster of Protomartyr’s new album, Hotel Usona, hints at a defiant optimism.
It certainly ain’t all sunshine and roses lyrically (opening line, “Another 81 dead since dawn”), but as Greg Ahee’s cacophonic guitar tone is periodically let off the leash, there’s a melody fighting its way through the mire. Interwoven with the brass and keys, it’s like a cavalry call. I don’t know if you’d call it hope, but it feels like something fresh… a new way to use noise.
Also playing:
- Devil Master – You Worms' Vain Delusions
- Steve Lacy – Doom
- Grandmas House – Blue Oblivion
Jackson Maxwell – Operations Editor
Track of the month: The Strokes – Going to Babble On
I'm not opposed to my beloved Strokes changing things up, I admire them for it, really. That said, I do feel like they're often meandering aimlessly in AutoTune-colored waters on Reality Awaits, their first new album in six years. But that said, the album does feature a gem in Going to Babble On, one of the rare moments on the album where the always underrated twin guitar attack of Albert Hammond Jr. and Nick Valensi gets to shine.
Saying “One of us is riffing and the other adds color!” in a two-guitar lineup is like saying “I need to breathe oxygen!”, but fuck if those two aren't so good at it – their riffs are always killer, and there are warbly leads, pretty arpeggios – and listen to that Thin Lizzy-like flourish at the end! Thin Lizzy always were punk at the end of the day...
Also playing:
- Billboard Style – Billboard Style
- The Linda Lindas – Closer (ft. Hayley Williams)
- Hermanos Gutiérrez – Los Ojos Del Cóndor
Matt Owen – News Editor
Track of the month: Hovvdy – You Will Go Far
As this month's playlist will attest, there's a lot of angsty, technical, heavy, and darn right loud music coming out at the moment. And that's great. Heck, I had Polyphia as my highlight last month. I ain't complaining.
But this month my repeat-listen has been something a bit... softer. You Will Go Far, the latest single from Hovvdy's fortcoming record, is ecstasy for the ears. Those melancholic acoustics are so smooth they'll have you feeling like you can float. An excellent progression to noodle and improvise over, I might add.
Also playing:
- beabadoobee – Switchblade
- Nothing But Thieves – Stray Dogs
- PRESIDENT – dark heaven
Janelle Borg – Staff Writer
Track of the month: Marla Kether – Reverse
You may have spotted Marla Kether being the queen of cool on stage, holding down the low end with acclaimed British rapper Little Simz. However, what you may not know is that Kether is a fully fledged artist in her own right.
Her new track, Reverse, is an oh-so-funky number that offers a glimpse of what to expect from her upcoming record, Luso.
Fusing Latin jazz and broken beat, the track is built around Kether's addictive bassline – brought to life via her Squier Jazz Bass, “Scout” – and establishes her as one of the most exciting voices in bass, not only in the UK but, dare I say, on the global jazz scene.
Also playing:
- Charli XCX – Camera
- Los Bitchos – Hang Up (Pt 2) ft. Sinkane & Adrian Quesada
- Toast – Two Hearts
