Peter Frampton – ‘Carry the Light’ album review: a welcome return for a classic rock veteran
After 16 years away from original material, Peter Frampton joins forces with his son, Julian, and eases into his elder statesman role in the rock world without just going through the motions with his latest LP, Carry the Light.
The Skinny: It’s a long enough time to charge the creative juices and take stock of the world spinning out of control. Aside from 2021’s Frampton Forgets the Words instrumental effort, there’s been a stark absence of Frampton’s bluesy rock wanderings, with Carry the Light standing as the longest wait for a proper album effort from the old Humble Pie guitarist.
Kicking back in the studio and sharing lyrical pens with your boy can only foster a pastoral, homespun atmosphere which holds the record a long way. Much like the glowing figure carrying a giant lightbulb on the cover, Carry the Light clamours for optimism’s radiant gleam to point the way for humanity even in the darkest chapters. There’s plenty of grim to go around for everybody in today’s world, which makes the opening title track’s reassuring arm all the more warming with its “we can’t keep repeating the same old, same old” line. Critics have bristled at its “listen to your elders” quip, but it’s hard not to interpret the sentiment as a ‘learn from our mistakes’ rather than a Boomer finger wag.
Sincerity is what beats at the heart of Carry the Light, the document of a vintage artist still able to tune in to his emotional antenna, be it at its most melancholic or fired up. Graham Nash joins vocal duties for the reflective ‘I’m Sorry Elle’, a moving ballad that tries to reach through the new, scary world of screens and tech anxieties his granddaughter will inherit, while urgently wishing for such uncertainties to be quashed on the insurgent ‘Lions at the Gate’, a riff monster keenly corralling some good old-fashioned people power in its hatchet against the political class, helped by the shredding heft of Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello.
There are detours into fairly humdrum guitar noodling like ‘At the End of the Day’, and the radio-friendly polish that largely coats the album can soften the more pissed-off attacks that could benefit from a harder punch, but there’s plenty in Carry the Light that shines bright among its ten cuts, the sound of a rock stalwart not content with resting on his laurels and ensuring his work has something pertinent to say.
Standout Track: ‘Lions at the Gate’
The Verdict: While remaining firmly planted in his melodic, blues-rock foundations, Carry the Light sees Frampton report on the contemporary with an urgency rarely wielded by his classic rock peers. With fire in his belly and his guitar still singing in the only way Frampton can conjure, here’s hoping father and son don’t take another 16 years for their LP follow-up.
Release Date: May 815th, 2026 | Producer: Peter Frampton, Julian Frampton, and Chuck Ainlay | Label: UMG
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