Danny Neill

A shake-up in circumstances in tandem with a fresh wave of focus and inspiration has resulted in the strongest Nick Waterhouse album of his career so far; take my advice and go get yourself lost in the magical world of ‘The Fooler.’

On Onliness, Josienne Clarke re-explores material from her own back pages – those that were overlooked, or simply songs she felt were abandoned. As a result, her music in 2023 is alive and simmering.

One thing that keeps Dom Flemons engaged and inspired is his indelible belief in the magic and wonder of music. It is that spirit which rises to the fore so definitively on ‘Traveling Wildfire’, a deep and indispensable album.

We catch up with The Young’uns songwriter-in-chief Sean Cooney and chat about their new album ‘Tiny Notes’ – the songs and the stories behind them – and the growing appetite for folk music and songs.

When singing unaccompanied and in unison, The Young’uns make an elemental sound, and on ‘Tiny Notes’, it pins you to the wall; they have created an album that has the potential to become a benchmark classic in modern topical folk music.

If you know David Brewis primarily for his music with brother Peter in Field Music, you may not be prepared for the pastoral delight on offer with ‘The Soft Struggles.’ Featuring an abundance of guest players, it is an album emphatically worth spending some time with.

Recorded in a spirit of communal joy, Dougie Poole’s ‘The Rainbow Wheel Of Death’ positively struts into view…an album staring down dark moments with good (gallows) humour via the shared strength in music. 

Some albums simply deserve a vinyl edition, and Wes Tirey’s No Winner In The Blues is certainly one of those. All in all, this is a song writer deep in the big muddy, whose album has rightfully found its home on the vinyl range. 

With ‘All Of This Is Chance’, Lisa O’Neill lets her own creative wings spread, unleashing every ounce of elation, despair and love that her music emanates. An epic canyon of sense and sound… a timeless piece of work, wholly unbound by style or genre, a universal shot of medicinal magic.

Danny Neill selects his Top 10 Albums of 2022 including The Wave Pictures, Big Thief, Leyla McCalla, Molly Tuttle, Sharron Kraus, Kevin Morby, Kathryn Williams, Andrew Bird and more.

Singles is a very welcome, super-quality compilation release from the Smoke Fairies, who were the first UK band to sign with Jack White’s Third Man Records label.

It is on the forward-thinking ‘Theatre’ that Anna Mieke’s true artistic voice begins to emerge. It is a heady tangle of passing feelings, temporary thrills and vivid, heavy real-world matter all wrapped together in pure and lush acoustic folk. 

With ‘Out Of This Frame’ Rachel Taylor-Beales expresses large on a widescreen canvas that allows room for all her artistic faculties to breathe. This is an album that invites you in for a long ride, and it will not disappoint those who invest the time to get on board.

While tackling difficult subjects, Jeb Loy Nichols’s ‘The United States Of The Broken Hearted’ is ultimately a soother; he never loses sight of the restorative beauty in music and hope found in basic person-to-person interaction; these are things which still make life worth living.

Sun Ra Arkestra’s ‘Living Sky’ is so sublime, this is music to bathe in and soak it up as the intricacies and delicacies of the many layers of detail slowly unfold and shower the listener in pure interplanetary wonder.

Goat have risen and served notice of their return with ‘Oh Death’, the most earth-shakingly punchy album of their career so far. The effect these ten tracks leave on the listener is head-spinningly wonderful; lose yourself in the giddy delight of the experience.

Eliza Carthy’s Queen Of The Whirl is all top-drawer…the element that fires listeners up the most is that voice. As far as natural-born instruments go, it is one of the best and wow, does she know how to use it.

On ‘Edyf,’ Cerys Hafana’s sound is simultaneously ancient in feel yet intriguingly modern with a vital 21st-century edginess. On each listen, new layers reveal themselves…it doesn’t follow any recognisable path or template, but then aren’t these the records that endure the longest?