Dredging a solid furrow down America’s rock ’n’ roll highway, Cinema Stereo return with new single Expectations. Swirling vocals dance over a dark bassline and crashing blues guitars, conjuring days driving across desert highways and nights spent in whatever local dive bar will have you. It’s a deep dive into burning asphalt, bad decisions and the devil’s music.
Ian Rayha’s vocals owe more than a nod to Robert Plant at his most bombastic, prowling across the track as the power chords pile up and guitars threaten to disappear over the edge. Then somebody flips the switch. Swelling keyboards arrive like an escapee from 1978, hitching a ride and refusing to get out as the whole thing gathers momentum towards its inevitable, screeching climax.
This is rock as the Americans invented it: wild nights, blues riffs, bourbon and the nagging suspicion that something unpleasant might be waiting outside the motel room. It’s a tradition that can feel almost alien to Brits brought up on Beatles melodies, post-punk austerity and synth-pop futurism. There’s something darker here. Sleazier. Music picking at the underbelly of the American Dream and seeing what crawls out.
Because the great American rock ’n’ roll fantasy was never really about getting somewhere. It was about getting in the car and leaving. The highway stretching endlessly ahead. Neon disappearing in the rear-view mirror. Another town, another bar, another chance to outrun whatever was following you in the first place.
Expectations understands that mythology and happily pours another measure.
Grab a whiskey. Lie back. Turn it up.
Fill the space between your head and the horizon.
Photos © John Gilhooley
Expectations is out now on Spotify and all other streaming platforms. Cinema Stereo are currently on a world tour, rocking up for a series of dates across the UK in November 2027. Their debut album 12:34 drops at the start of October.
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