Albums I’m Looking Forward To in 2018

It’s a slow week as far as album releases go so I’ve decided to take this week to talk about some albums I’m looking forward to hearing in the second half of 2018. I’ve picked three albums broken down into three sections. If all goes well, you should be seeing these reviews over the next few months.

Albums with Set Release Dates

Gioeli-Castronovo — July 13 (Frontiers)

Two original members of Hardline are back together with a new album to be released on July 13. I’m interested to see what this album sounds like. Gioeli did all the lead vocals on the Hardline records but Castronovo has an impressive resume of vocal work over the last two years. This could be a sneaky good record.

Mr. Big — Live In Milan — July 13 (Frontiers)

I still have no idea why Frontiers releases multiple albums on the same day instead of spreading them out, but I guess they have their reasons. I love live records and Mr. Big has a ton of them. But this one is special as it’s the last recording of Pat Torpey who passed away earlier this year. I have everything this band has ever released and I’m not going to stop now.

Third Eye Blind — Thanks For Everything — August 24

Another band that I absolutely love. This is a 7 song EP of cover songs, mostly from newer bands. This should be interesting as I’m not sure I’ve heard any of the original songs and I’m quite sure I wouldn’t like most of them. But if 3eb puts their own spin on these (which I’m sure they will) I will mostly likely enjoy them. I guess we’ll see.

Albums that should be out this summer/fall

Thrice

Another of my favorite bands. (There’s a theme going on here if you haven’t noticed). Thrice released a new single this month called The Grey (it’s amazing) and they are on tour. They haven’t announced the album details but they are touring the states soon so I’m guessing it’s a matter of days before we get some news. Their last record “To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere” was my favorite record of 2016 by far.

Tesla

This band is always on tour so the fact that they are on tour again isn’t really an indication that a new album is coming. But they have been in the studio with Phil Collen of Def Leppard and from what I’ve heard from Jack (who interviewed Troy earlier this year) the album is ready to go. Tesla is the first band I ever saw live and they’ve never put out a bad record.

Mae

Another band that just released a single (“5 Light Years”) this month and another of my personal favorites. A lot of folks don’t know Mae as they came out in the late 90s and were lumped in to the Emo scene. But I’ve seen them live multiple times and they rock. When I did my Top 365 Albums of all-time, their album The Everglow took the top spot (tied with Journey “Escape”). So needless to say, I’m very much looking forward to this record.

Albums that have been long rumored but very few details

Extreme

The only detail I’ve heard is Nuno saying they have a new record coming out this year. But I’ve been hearing that for a while. They just toured Australia recently with Mr. Big (a dream show for me) and seem like they are getting ready for another U.S. run. Usually bands release music right before a tour so hopefully that’s the case here. It’s been a decade since their last record so a record of new material is well past due.

Mick Mars/John Corabi

So this is more rumor than fact at this point. But the rumor is that as soon as Motley Crue ended Mick wasn’t ready to stop playing and contacted Corabi about doing a new project. Corabi has been pretty busy with The Dead Daisies but hopefully there’s enough time to put something together. The Crue record with Corabi is by far my favorite Crue record and Corabi sounds as good as ever with The Dead Daisies. Here’s hoping this rumor comes to fruition.

Steve Perry

This is the ultimate rumor that I’ve been hearing for years. Supposedly Steve has hundreds of songs that’s he’s written and recorded but never released. I’ve heard Nuno say he’s heard them. And just in the last month I heard Neal Schon say that Steve is working on a record that he’s going to put out this year. The last time Steve Perry released anything was in 1996 (Trial By Fire with Journey) so overdue is an understatement. A new Perry record really could go in any direction, but he could sing the phonebook and I’d be happy.

I’m guessing not all of these records will see the light of day in 2018, but if even half of them are released I’m in store for a great rest of 2018.