There’s something incredibly funny about how rock music in 2025 manages to exist in two parallel universes. In one, you’ve got aging stadium acts still charging the price of a used car for a ticket, playing the same setlist they’ve been running since 1983. In the other, you’ve got a wave of bands trying to reinvent rock as though it’s a science experiment: layering it with EDM drops, AI lyrics, and production so shiny you could use it as a mirror. And then, quietly in the middle of all this, comes the Geoff Abraham Band with their new single When Love Is At The Root. It’s not trying to save rock, it’s not trying to demolish it, and crucially, it’s not trying to sell you an NFT of a guitar solo. Geoff Abraham Band’s When Love Is At The Root is just a great song; plain and simple.
The first thing you notice is the guitar. It doesn’t sound like it’s been auto-tuned, EQ’d to death, or built in a lab somewhere in Los Angeles. It sounds like an actual human plugged into an amp, turned the volume up, and played something they cared about. It’s bluesy, it’s raw, but it’s got that swagger that keeps it from being dusty nostalgia. You can hear the ghosts of Keith Richards and Joe Walsh somewhere in there, or at least the part of them that isn’t cashing royalty checks. Add a pinch of Bonamassa’s showmanship, Marcus King’s soul, and Gary Clark Jr.’s “I make blues relevant again” energy, and you get the general idea. But it never collapses into tribute act territory. Abraham’s voice and playing keep it squarely in his lane.
In the wrong hands, it’s Hallmark-level platitudes set to guitar noodling. But here it works, partly because Geoff Abraham sings it with a grit that suggests he actually believes it. It doesn’t sound like a lecture. It sounds like a reminder.
What I love about this track is that nothing feels like it’s straining to be impressive. The rhythm section holds down the groove like it’s the most important job in the world (which it kind of is). The guitar solo doesn’t feel like an ego trip; it feels like part of the conversation the song’s already having with you. Everything is in service of the track, and in 2025, that’s almost radical.
By the time it’s over, you’re not just left humming a riff; you’re left thinking about why this style of music still works. Because when you strip away all the gimmicks, blues-driven rock has always been about honesty. And When Love Is At The Root is honest. Not groundbreaking, not reinventing the wheel; just honest in a way that sneaks up on you. The Geoff Abraham Band isn’t trying to chase algorithms. They’re trying to make music that still matters when the algorithm forgets you exist. And with When Love Is At The Root, they’ve done exactly that.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for various publications around the world, the former lead writer of review blogspace Atop The Treehouse and content creator for Manila Bulletin.
