Posts Tagged ‘Bruce Springsteen’

Listen: ‘Hard Times’ by Ledfoot

Posted: 20 April 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Plain Simple Honesty is the eighth solo album by Gothic Blues exponent Ledfoot (aka Tim Scott McConnell) and is exactly what its title suggests: a collection of brutally honest songs straight from the heart. They tell small yet powerful stories, guiding listeners through the darker corners of the human psyche where setbacks are constant, yet his characters endure despite it all.

The themes explored on the album feel especially relevant in the unpredictable and often dark present, with the title track and songs such as new single ‘Hard Times’ painting an unsettlingly accurate picture of everyday life for many in 2025. “About forty years ago, I wrote a song called ‘High Hopes’ about being working class and trying to stay optimistic despite hard times,” says Ledfoot. “The hard times haven’t diminished….but maybe some of the optimism has.”

‘High Hopes’ has a famous back story, first released on the Tim Scott McConnell solo album High Lonesome Sound (1987), and then again on the 1990 debut album by his band The Havalinas, before Bruce Springsteen later released several versions of it, most notably as the title track of a solo album issued in 2014.

Listen to ‘Hard Times’ here:

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Listen: ‘Creep’ by Midas Fall

Posted: 12 February 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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As anyone who ever listened to the legendary BBC radio DJ John Peel will know, hearing a favourite artist re-interpret a familiar song by another artist can bring new insights into both, as well as being a lot of fun.

During a break from writing Midas Fall’s fifth album, Elizabeth Heaton took some ideas that had been incubating for a while and, along with bandmate Michael Hamilton, applied their own unique perspective to three well-loved songs by Bruce Springsteen (Dancing in the Dark), Radiohead (Creep) and Placebo (Every You Every Me).

Covers EP sees Springsteen’s driving rock anthem reimagined as a quieter, more introspective narrative, imbued with ‘80s synths and Heaton’s softly hopeful but uncertain vocals. Radiohead’s Creep is a dreamy, kaleidoscopic waltz that slowly builds to a raging climax. On Every You Every Me, the icy undertones of Placebo’s original version are magnified even further, evoking a bleak landscape cloaked in dark, haunting sounds.

For first single ‘Creep’ Liz from the band states,  “Creep, along with the other tracks on the upcoming EP were created during lockdown. We took some of our favourite tracks from growing up and gave them a different feel. As a teenager Radiohead were the first band to make me feel that music could be something more, so have been a massive influence to me musically, especially when I first started writing. I was listening to Creep and imagined it played in a waltz style time signature. With the aid of my keyboard and a glass of wine the vocals seemed to flow very easily and were captured in a single take. From there it grew arms and legs."

Listen here:

Covers EP will be released digitally worldwide by Monotreme Records on 7th April.

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