Hey Rocksmith fans!
A second WMG drop followed the first (plus a few arrangements for a handful of songs already available). This added not only new songs for some artists we got last patch, but a few new artists as well. All the WMG songs this time were new additions to the franchise, too, and many were exciting ones.
BASS
Alabama got four new songs in this drop, joining one of their hits Song of the South that’s been in the library since launch as well as another launch oddity, a random Christmas song. All of them are decent fun, but Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler) and She and I are bouncy country basslines with engaging variety throughout.
A huge amount of Cure songs were in this drop, but on bass the band tends to have only highs of clever, interesting new wave riffs and lows of singular root notes riffs. There’s a good handful of the latter alas, but there’s still some of the former. Let’s Go to Bed and A Forest are both very strong new wave riff bits, though the second gets stuck in the outro a bit. Meanwhile, Primary is fast and repetitive, but it still has enough variation to keep it fun, while The Lovecats is a curveball of a fun jazzy bass.
Sepultura got a handful more. Once again some of them hit for me less than they might for you, but still recommend Dead Embryotic Cells and Arise for their variety of metal riffs.
Type O Negative brings quality gothic rock bass once again, with Anesthesia and Be My Druidess built on the great riffs you’d expect from the band, though the second’s a bit slow in the outro but it’s still fun enough and doesn’t negate the even more fun parts before it.
Halestorm joins the Rocksmith+ library with a cover of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’s I Hate Myself for Loving You and a cover of Ride the Lightning, though nothing original just yet. Still, both additions are quite welcome, even if you might have to globetrot a little bit to find the latter.
Finally the original version of I Can’t Turn You Loose by Otis Redding offers quite a fun driving bass riff, while Twisted Sister’s The Fire Still Burns is surprisingly metal for what I know the band for, and the fun type too.
LEAD
Sepultura brings more of their sound and playstyle, which means fun metal riffs and fun solos most of the time. Dead Embryotic Cells is a blast throughout and has a particularly spammy solo, while Arise has a good main riff and a fun solo. Troops of Doom have a good solo and bridge, and Beneath Remains offers an interesting acoustic intro with yet another fun solo and bridge.
Twisted Sister brings four new songs, and surprisingly some variety to them. While I’ll Never Grow Up, Now! is in line with what you might expect from Twisted Sister based on We’re Not Gonna Take It and I Wanna Rock (glam metal), Sin After Sin and The Fire Still Burns push surprisingly close to metal in the vein of Maiden and I Am (I’m Me) has some classic rock vibes adjacent to Queen. They certainly don’t make up for the lack of those artists in the library, but it surprised me based on their biggest hits. And honestly, all four songs this drop are really fun in their own ways.
As mentioned in bass, Halestorm’s in now with two fun covers, and hopefully some originals coming soon too. I Hate Myself for Loving You is decent fun that’s not too challenging, though I felt like it was missing some lead last time I played it. And you’re not gonna believe this, but Ride the Lightning has a phenomenally fun solo sitting between a variety of metal riffs.
In the huge pile of Cure songs, there’s a few dreamy new wave riffs that stick out. A Letter to Elise, Fascination Street, and High all feel like they make great use of each one they have, but Fire in Cairo and Pictures of You are mostly fun as well.
New Order gets three songs this update. They’re layered new wave nonsense, and the charts take full advantage of this. Bizarre Love Triangle and Age of Consent have some absolutely goofy changes in what they’re playing along with, but it does rightfully keep them varied, I feel.
And then Alabama brings some fun country lead, with Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler), She and I, and High Cotton all being fun, though on the flipside of New Order I feel like these would actually be more fun if they didn’t awkwardly switch between some disparate parts.
In the remainder of WMG offerings, Crystal Ann by Annihilator brings an incredible piece in a classical guitar style, having both fun lead and rhythm(!) paths. The Crystal Fighters get two songs added in different veins of indie rock, and I feel like Plage is sufficiently varied and the single note riffs are fun, though the other might be more accessible soundwise.
That’s all for the Warner part of the drop, but while no new songs were added to the library, some arrangements were. A Song for Him by Henrietta Smith-Rolla is an enjoyable piano alt-chart (will it have a keys chart on the 24th then?), and Parlarti E Poi by Gigi D’Alessio is a fantastically diverse lead that is definitely worth a look, it’s pretty accessible on difficulty but will keep you engaged by how much variation it’s got going on.
OTHER VERSIONS IN THE LIBRARY
As mentioned above, I Hate Myself for Loving You is originally a Joan Jett and the Blackhearts song, which is the library already with authentic lead and bass, which are similarly fun as the cover.
New Order had a Bestival 2013 live version of Blue Monday already where the bass was not the synth (and therefore a bit more varied), but it’s great to get the studio versions of songs for sure as well as the synth bass part expected.
I Can’t Turn You Loose by Sly and the Family Stone has an authentic bass that’s pretty similar to the original.
And of course, there’s more death metal covers. Arise by Aborted has authentic bass and lead, as does Troops of Doom by Napalm Death with similarly fun lead, and breaking the Sepultura trend, a live cover of The Fire Still Burns by Cradle of Filth also has both very fun lead and bass. Playing that previously was actually my first exposure to the song, so discovering it was originally a Twisted Sister song this patch left me agog.
And of course before we had the studio versions, the live Bestival 2011 versions of Fascination Street and Lullaby had lead and bass, with the live versions being pretty similar to their non-live performancers, not too surprisingly.
In community charts, the same live Bestival 2011 versions of A Forest has rhythm and The Lovecats has bass. There’s also a community bass part for I Can’t Turn You Loose live at Woodstock that’s technically by Janis Joplin, though she just riffs for a bit before the song starts and lets another band member sing while she rests her voice.
In versions with no arrangements yet, there’s of course a few live Bestival 2011 Cure songs from this huge Cure drop: Let’s Go to Bed, Plainsong, Primary, The Caterpillar, and Why Can’t I Be You?.
Blue Monday has two other versions on opposite sides of the spectrum: A stripped down vocal and music box cover by Hannah Peel, and the Vandalism Remix which serves to make it more dancy. Oddly, the live Bestival 2012 version of Bizarre Love Triangle has been left untouched.
The Chamber Brothers’s cover of I Can’t Turn You Loose runs quite a bit a longer despite feeling not as driving, while a version by Sly and the Family Stone that has quite a different feel than the one with bass charted is waiting for attention.
Again most all of these covers have been in the library since launch, which always has me hoping these aren’t the only ones in this vein coming. We’ve been sitting on a ton of Thin Lizzy covers, for example, how much longer will we have to wait until the boys are back in-game.
Probably not with the piano drop, but hey, weirder things have happened, it is Rocksmith+.
