The Latest
Carson McHone’s third album, Pentimento, is a dense, multi-faceted tapestry, with fragments of poetry, spoken verse, field recordings, pastoral folk, guitar and chamber pop, amply demonstrating the benefits of a more collaborative approach on this audacious gem that also reveals a level of sophistication, demonstrating that there are no real limits to McHone’s ambition.
DUG, featuring Lorkin O’Reilly and Jonny Pickett, have created something that is both ancient and modern with “Have At It!,” a weird and wonderful album that takes traditional music and stands it on its ear. Their playing never falters, remaining decidedly unbeholden to the forms and functions of the past even as it plays its way through them in a blazing trail.
Featuring Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly and Joseph Westerlund, “at Public Records” is the latest live album from Setting, on which all four pieces stand out in very different ways, but together make a whole that is one hell of a listening experience. A worthy conclusion to a trio of live albums that feel as relevant and accomplished as their debut album, Shone a Rainbow Light On.
Chicago boogie-rockers Glyders announce their signing to Drag City and a new album, ‘Forever’, out November 21, 2025. The new power-trio, now featuring drummer Joe Seger, celebrates with the release of their first single and video, “Stone Shadow,” a T-Rex and new wave-influenced track promising a high-energy, good time.
With photography by Sophie Reichert, Danny Neill reports back from End of the Road, a brilliantly curated festival that still gets it right. Some of the shining highlights from a fully packed four days include Bug Club, Emma-Jean Thackray, Lisa O’Neill, Broadside Hacks & Mike Heron, Katy J Pearson, Jerron Paxton, Sharon Van Etten, Rosali, Scott Lavene, Muireann Bradley, Yoshika Cowell, Throwing Muses, Stewart Lee, Father John Misty and more.
New York-based collective toso toso announce their self-titled debut album, and share “lluvia de meteoritos”, a lead single that upholds their album promise of an avant-pop sound that blurs the lines between structured composition and free improvisation, blending moments of furious energy with tender intimacy.
On “Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople”, the music and poetry exist symbiotically, growing out of the same physical and political landscape. Williams has a gift of kindling revolutionary thought through a sense of responsibility, to the land and to each other. It’s a message the world needs to hear, and on this beautiful, angry and groundbreaking live album, he gets that message across with unrivalled eloquence.
Taking its name from a street in Birmingham that a teenage Jon Wilks would busk, Needless Alley is described as a patchwork of memories and marks a more autobiographical approach to his writing after previous trad folk-inclined material. These songs from his mental attic are definitely worth exploring, and, as a guitarist, he fully deserves his place alongside names such as Jansch, Carthy, and Simpson.
Good Times is the latest offering from Alexei Shishkin. “…pop culture, poetics, psychology and philosophy are rolled into a surreal, lumpy ball and garnished with a palatable – and memorable – indie-pop melody.” Despite Shishkin’s lo-fi beginnings and his continuing willingness to drink from the well of slacker aesthetics, Good Times is a bold and – dare we say it – polished artistic statement.
This week’s Monday Morning Brew Playlist features Yo La Tengo, White Magic, Jeanne-Marie Sens, Xylouris White, Les Filles de Illighadad, Gossimer, Keto, Mary Ocher & Julia Kent, The Owl Service, Sarah Louise, Josephine Foster, Grand Veymont, Buck Curran, Monde UFO, Young Marble Giants, Ed Askew, Maxine Funke, Mess Esque, Dave Deporis, Myriam Gendron, and Peixe e Limão.