Mama

This eponymous release from Irish hard rockers Mama's Boys was intended to cherry-pick the best tracks from the band's first years of independent activity (two albums and a handful of singles) as a means for new label, Jive Records, to introduce them to America. Problem was, Jive's notion of "best" actually translated as "most accessible," and this meant that many nuggets from Mama's Boys' wonderfully unassuming first album were passed over for unquestionably sleeker but creatively more pedestrian offerings from their second…

Preparation is overrated. Impulse is everything. Such was the rebellious wisdom that drove the sessions for Project Mama Earth's astonishing debut EP. In June 2017, five world-renowned musicians met in Devon England for a high-wire act unique in modern music. They had no songs. No chord charts. No game plan. No safety net. Nothing, in fact, but a plan to play and catch the sparks. Where a lesser band would have stumbled, the gauntlet was readily seized by the all-star Mama Earth lineup of Joss Stone (vocals), Nitin Sawhney (guitar), Jonathan Joseph (drums), Étienne M'Bappé (bass/guitar) and Jonathan Shorten (keyboards). "The possibility for catastrophe was huge," nods the drummer. "It could have completely tanked. But the minute everyone stood in the studio, before we even touched an instrument – I just knew."