When Mark Breingan started producing music for local artists in the Glasgow area of Scotland, he formed Giant Head Collective. During downtime, he'd start improvising on his original ideas, and musicians would start laying down tracks, and ideas would turn into songs.
Since its inception, the concept of a collective has evolved into a worldwide collaborative initiative, with musicians from all over the world offering their talents to an ever-growing library of music.
The music is always strongly rooted in the classic/southern rock genre, with aspects of Mark's Celtic guitar style thrown in for good measure. We already had a conversation with Mark a few weeks ago, click here if you missed the interview.
Today we are going to talk about the new album Pandora's Box, comprised of 15 songs for almost an hour of music. The album starts really well with the opener (and single) Without me, very radio-friendly and in between Pop and Classic Rock, with great vocals and great guitar solos. Great chorus (reminding me of U2) for The beauty of rain, while something different is Sin (Synth bass), the third track, changing a little the mood of the album we have listened to so far, with a slightly more direct and aggressive approach.
All to do was released as a single and it slows down a little bit in terms of BPM, maintaining the mood of the first two tracks and, again, featuring impressive vocals and guitar solos, for me the trademarks of Giant Head Collective. Among the other songs of this Pandora's box I particularly enjoyed the contagious chorus of Otherside of me, the country spirit of Lost Highway, the great guitar sound of Give me strength (influenced by The rolling stones), the double pedal and generally the great drums on Crashing down (present here also in an instrumental version). Also instrumentals are the last tracks of the album, where the highlight for me is From here, with smooth guitars and absolutely enjoyable start to finish.
Pandora's Box is a very enjoyable album and definitely good music, with a great sound and a great performance by all the musicians involved. Give it a go by clicking on the Spotify player below and don't forget to follow the band on social media.