Danny Neill

With ‘Days of Shaking,’ M G Boulter takes a deep dive into the darkest corners and the toughest dreams and nightmares that visit during those nocturnal hours. Aiming high, he has taken time to create a full-length work that demands and rewards deep immersion.

Ship to Shore finds Richard Thompson enjoying the most vital of late golden periods, producing work to stand favourably alongside any from his previous fifty years.

Lemoncello is one of those records that has a binding sound all the way whilst boasting an incredible range of tones, moods, and textures within each individual song…an ethereal, harmonious, ever-shifting sheen of a topcoat gliding across a tense, grinding underbelly of distortion and vibration.

We catch up with Richard Thompson and mull over all things RT, including former band mates, surprising career break diversions, the writing process, guitar playing stamina, family and of course, the brand new album Ship to Shore.

With ‘Willson Williams,’ one might be tempted to conclude that Kathryn Williams and Dan Willson are bringing out the best in each other. Despite the melancholy that both typically lean into, there is a feeling of dual purpose and fun resonating through all these tracks.

On ‘Eternity Mongers’, Michael Feuerstack has deliberately pushed himself out of his comfort zone. There is so much bubbling on the peripheries of these songs that the only thing to do is go back and listen again, an undertaking as rewarding as it is pleasurable.

Niamh Bury’s ‘Yellow Roses’ is a record that can lead the charge for the Irish Folk scene at a time when the competition is fierce. This is no small accolade, for sure, but with an album this strong, it is an almost unavoidable statement.

Ac Sapphire is an artist ready and able to express herself through music in a wholly free and unbounded way, and December 32nd is a sensational album. Without a hint of hyperbole, something seriously good is going on here.

Cuckoo Storm is a deep dive into the farthest reaches of the minds and souls of Marry Waterson and Adrian Crowley – there is little doubt that this musical marriage has been a rich and bountiful success.

‘Little Sun’ is the first Charlie Parr album on which the hand of a producer is clearly evident. “A very welcome evolution… instantly classic-sounding songs”

Itasca’s Imitation of War is a record that sounds both rooted in history yet alive and breathing as it responds and feels a way through the present-day traumas that engulf us. It is an album overflowing in wonderous moments.

Snow from Yesterday is a shimmering album from the acclaimed Austrian composer Manu Delago featuring Mad About Lemon vocal ensemble. Mesmeric and fresh, it holds a hopeful candle to the human spirit.