The Answer is to Listen to The Answer’s New Album Solas

The Answer’s new album Solas sure is different. So different that I had to make sure I was listening to the right band.

I went in expecting a melange of bluesy classic rock, somewhere in the nexus of AC/DC, The Black Crowes and Led Zeppelin, so I checked YouTube for some of the band’s older tracks to make sure I wasn’t mixing up The Answer with someone else. It’d been a while since I listened to these guys, after all.

But, nope, this is definitely the same The Answer I remember! Their old stuff checks out. And then I looked at the press release announcing the new full album stream, which explains everything:

A decade into the band’s career, ‘Solas’ marks a significant turning point for The Answer as they turned inwards to their culture, musical heritage and deep-rooted sense of ‘Irishness’. The album is a hugely varied body of work encompassing elements of their Celtic background as well as their renowned trademark guitar attack.

Solas sure is a “significant turning point”… from its very first note. And, if you ask me, that’s a good thing — you can only get so far permuting E, A and D chords 40 years after it was in vogue to do so. The Answer’s new form is a whole lot more dynamic and interesting than anything they’ve been before — I certainly hear the “Irishness” they reference in the press copy, but the whole thing is also just way more eclectic — and it’s a lot more rewarding and involved of a listen than I was expecting.

Stream Solas below via PopMatters.com. It comes out this Friday, October 28th, and can be pre-ordered here via Napalm Records.