Musicians are a funny breed and putting several well known, well respected artists together is no sure sign of success. The chemistry involved in getting band members to gel is a fine science that can either shine and sparkle or fall flat and fizzle out. American supergroup Drink The Sea (featuring players from such luminaries as R.E.M., Screaming Trees, Queens Of The Stone Age) land very much in the former category and have shown their pedigree through two critically acclaimed albums (their first album was a double, comprising I and II) that rendered the band a contemporary force. The band solidify their position as saviours of rock n’ roll with their third long player (unsurprisingly titled III), delivering a selection of songs that side step easy categorisation and have a timeless quality that suggest they’ll sound fresh many years hence.

There’s an ethereal, otherworldly quality surrounding Drink The Sea’s sound and it’s very much apparent on opening track ‘Big Dirty’. Like stepping onto the set of a Tarantino film or taking a hit of mescaline, ‘Big Dirty’ (indeed, the whole album) seems to emanate from another dimension and it is from here that their songs attain that ageless quality, this record could have been released at any point in the last thirty years (or the coming thirty). Whilst Drink The Sea certainly have their own (signature) sound, they haven’t torn up their roots either and the shadow of The Doors casts it’s spell over ‘Big Dirty’ whilst the following ‘Sever’ doffs its cap to Berlin-era Bowie. However, any influences you may detect on this album are merely that; a springboard towards something new. Take ‘Between The Teeth’, for example; the riff has a jangly feel that recalls The Byrds or The Monkees, only it’s toughened up, muscular and sinewy, so that it becomes a song that could only belong to Drink The Sea. III is an album that’s in constant motion and never stays in one place for long with ‘It Makes The Rain Slow’ putting a new slant on the blues and ‘Parisian Voodoo’ being a piece of musical black magic with the instruments interacting like a plethora of ghostly voices at a séance.

III wends it’s way towards haunting closer ‘The Rubble King’, a song that digs its roots deep into the listener’s psyche, becoming part of your physiology, so much so that as the song fades into the ether, it’ll leave a hole in your life where this album once was…but don’t worry, you’ll soon be hitting “play” again.

• III is released on 2nd October 2026 (available here).
• Drink The Sea Official Website

Track List:

1. Big Dirty
2. Sever
3. Between The Teeth
4. Heal
5. Turn To Gold
6. I’ll Be Your Shelter
7. It Makes The Rain Slow
8. Oh Desire
9. Parisian Voodoo
10. Deep As The Sun
11. Becalmed
12. The Rubble King