Shouse – Jaded

After 15 years without a release, Michael Shouse has returned with Jaded, an instrumental rock record that shows he never stopped thinking about the guitar. The Jackson, Kentucky musician pulls together an unlikely cast of players: Michael Angelo Batio, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Tony MacAlpine, Charlie Zeleny on drums, and James Amhelio Pulli on bass. The album was tracked partly in his home studio but also stretched across Germany, New York, Los Angeles, and Pasadena before landing in Nashville for the mix and master with Billy Decker.

What ties it together is Shouse’s writing. The title track alone carries more than 70 key changes, cycling between major and harmonic minor without falling apart. “Smiley Faced Emoji” plays like an internal challenge, locking him into major pentatonic lines he rarely touches. Even when guests step in with their own solos, the frame is his.

The drive behind Jaded is personal. Shouse’s path since his last album included a house fire, a breakup, years rebuilding a lake house, and finally retirement during Covid. Through that time he kept saving riffs and progressions until he could build them into full songs. The result doesn’t sound tentative or nostalgic. It sounds like an artist reasserting himself through structure and control.

Shouse still leans toward dramatic phrasing and fast turns, but there’s something special in how he arranges these tracks that sets them apart from shred for shred’s sake. Jaded reads less like a comeback stunt and more like a continuation: the kind of record that proves he never stopped being a composer first, guitarist second.

For sync, the album’s energy suits action films, gaming soundtracks, and sports edits where intensity and precision matter.