Fresh Audio For Your Ears – Sundara Karma, Gone Is Gone, Dropkick Murphys, Halestorm and Dirty Projectors

I’ve already found my favorite new artist of 2017 – Sundara Karma. The Reading, England-based rock band released its debut album “Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect,” Friday, Jan. 6. Sundara Karma is a four-piece band bursting with a youthful indie-rock sound that helped propel The Killers, Mumford and Sons and Arcade Fire up the music charts. The production of the single “Flame,” makes my ears anticipate those pop beats drop at the chorus. The tracks like “Loveblood” and “Olympia” perfectly capture the anxiety of young love. Throughout the album you can hear the urgency to express those feelings. Get “Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect” from Sundara Karma, Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify and Tidal.

“Echolocation” fuses various forms of metal to create the first full-length album by Gone Is Gone released Friday, Jan. 6. Comprised of singer and bassist Troy Sanders of Mastodon, drummer Tony Hajjar from At the Drive-In,  Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, and film composer Mike Zarin, Gone Is Gone is less heavy metal and more heavy-handed production. Get a feel for the unique, metallic art project from the single “Gift” that blends rock, 90s grunge and early 00s nu metal. Get “Echolocation” from Gone Is Gone, Apple Music, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify and Tidal.

The ninth studio album by Dropkick Murphys is another anthem for blue collar Americans in its signature Boston brogue and Celtic-punk attitude. On “11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory” released Friday, Jan. 6, the band looks back on its youthful exploits on “Sandlot” and  tackles drug addiction on the track“Paying My Way.” The album also includes an intimate cover of “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” written by Rodgers and Hammerstein for the musical “Carousel.” See Dropkick Murphys Tuesday, Feb. 21 at the Sands Bethlehem Event Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Get “11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory” from Dropkick Murphys, Apple Music, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify and Tidal.

Pennsylvania-based rock band Halestorm returns with its third EP of cover songs, “ReAniMate 3.0,” released Friday, Jan. 6. It includes covers of Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning,” Soundgarden’s “Fell on Black Days,”  Whitesnake‘s “Still of the Night,” Joan Jett’s “I Hate Myself for Loving You,” “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover,” by Sophie B. Hawkins and, “Heathens” by Twenty One Pilots.” Stream the entire album on YouTube, or get it from Apple Music, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify and Tidal.

Dirty Projectors released “Little Bubble,” a methodically melodic song that “explores the metaphor of Earth itself as a fragile bubble of life in a cold, dead universe,” on Friday, Jan. 6. The band also released a correspondingly cold video that you can watch above. Get “Little Bubble” from Apple Music, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify and Tidal.

Listen to all the new releases on The High Note Spotify and Tidal playlists.