Mark Knight & The Unsung Heroes just dropped their brand-new album, ‘Sixth Time’s the Charm’, today on July 15, 2025 — marking Knight’s eleventh studio release and the fifth with The Unsung Heroes. All 11 tracks were written, demoed, and recorded while Knight’s daughter Lucy‑Bleu was living at home before her tragic passing a year ago now in July 2024. Knight describes the album as infused with both joy and the emotional weight of that period, with Lucy‑Bleu serving as his muse. The album was produced by Knight, mostly tracked in his Los Angeles home studio, with additional engineering by Adam Hamilton and a guest solo from Brian Forsythe on ‘Yaamava’ (a word whose native meaning is Spring or rebirth).
‘Best That We Can’ the first track on ‘Sixth Times the Charm’ opens with lilting guitar that could be Faces, could be Laurel Canyon or could just be a song that comes from deep within a broken heart. I must admit that I almost cried the first time I played it and heard the refrain: “Was I too hard on you? Was I not hard enough? Was it All just out of Love? Something we must Trust? ’cause in the end I guess we do the best we can” is one that resonates with anyone who has lost someone important to them. It’s a song brimming with understated emotion and one that is so incredibly powerful. By contrast ‘Back Out on the Run’ that follows it, tells the tale of past glories, bitter ends and faded dreams as well as the inescapable life of the artist and the musician.
The gently picked intro the ’11:11′ gently opens into a riff that almost echoes The Cars and forms the backbone of the longest song on the record, a contemplation on the frustrations of life against the haunting ‘11.11’ on the clock. It’s a song with an immediate connection – enough to be radio-bothering, if not for it’s length, and shot through with a wonderful solo that just might be one of Mark’s most beautiful. It’s an expansive song that even has a little of ‘The Strokes’ about it in there somewhere. It’s one of my favourite songs, not just on this album but of all of Mark’s records.
The Dylanesque ‘Right My Wrongs’ has more than a shot of Tom Petty, simply structured and beautifully sung it’s a wonderful change of pace. There’s a rockier aspect to ‘Might Be Lonely’ that comes hot on the heels. It’s a song with an upbeat countrified sound and inescapable refrain that can’t help get you moving. It’s one that’s going to sound really cool live, with more wonderful guitar and mid 70’s ‘Stones-like’ feel. ‘Another highlight for me, teh deceptively simply structured ‘Someplace Better’ is a beautifully woven contemplation on the need to find a way away from ‘here’. It’s lyrics seem to suggest that it’s a state of mind rather than a physical place that sometimes we just need to be in.
‘Triple 3’s’ is raw emotion, sadness that breaks your heart and asks why without expecting answers. It’s a tale of trying to do the best we can even if we don’t fully understand the intricacies and mysteries of another’s life. It’s a song of belief and understanding and human connection. It’s a powerful song, deceptively simple and wonderful sat next to ‘Truth Always Rises’ that follows, which is another rocker, that creeps and crawls around a circular riff and delivers a killer ride, with cool chorus and great drive. It’s another that will blow away the cobwebs played live.
‘Stranger of the Night’ is light musically but dark at the corners, it’s Knight at his storytelling best, relating a tale that he knows well against a raw refrain, some moonlit guitar and a well-heeled remembrance. It’s a tale of a fleeting moment and chance and almost has a sound that captures the beat of The Doors had they been more Laurel Canyon. It’s haunting and as intriguing and one I keep coming back to, a real original.
‘The Angels Cast a Light’ is broodier, darker and deeper than anything here, a contemplation on the injustice and vagaries of life and it sits perfectly placed asking more questions against a starker backdrop than we have heard before. It’s a powerful song tracking a father’s journey through grief, and towards healing and another moment that you might just shed a tear to.
‘Yaamava’ that closes just might be one of Mark’s best ever songs, a song that contemplates actions and consequences and with them new beginnings set against the life of a musician. There’s that nagging refrain “Did you ever wonder what she did it for? Did you ever think you would get that far. Did you ever wonder what the consequences are?” that keeps coming back an open question, and a guitar bust either side of that refrain that closes it that brings a perfect end to the record.
‘Sixth Time’s the Charm’ is undoubtedly a deeply personal milestone in Mark Knight’s journey as a musician and a song-writer. If you’ve loved his solo works and particularly the Unsung Heros material then this is a step that must have been incredibly difficult to take. It’s wonderful to think it was created with Lucy‑Bleu at home, and heartbreaking to realise that she isn’t here to hear it. Musically Mark has created the almost impossible, a masterwork of West Coast Americana (or ‘Californiana’) that is both honest and grounded, yet lyrically richer and more introspective than he has ever been.
If you love the raw emotion and authenticity of artists like Jason Isbell, Justin Townes Earle, and Larkin Poe and appreciate musical storytelling that holds space for both suffering and celebration, with reflections on family, love and loss — this album is definitely one you must hear. ‘Sixth Time’s the Charm’ is a wonderful document of a point in time, never forgotten or fading, anchored in Mark’s real-life story of love, loss, and growth. It’s the most powerful and incredible work Mark Knight has produced so far. For the uninitiated this may well be the best new discovery you will make all year.
9/10
