Thomas Blake

On The Neon Gate, Nap Eyes songs drink deep at the wells of philosophy and literature, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it from a cursory listen. They seem to create a different niche for themselves with every new album; long may it continue.

On More Break-Up Songs, Darren Hayman’s ‘New Starts’ debut, he weaves a personal mythology of love and loneliness. Capturing the minutiae of what happens in a relationship, the results are sometimes humorous, sometimes tear-jerking, and never less than entertaining.

The strength of Mairearad Green & Rachel Newton’s distinctive boundary-pushing “Anna Bhàn” doesn’t lie in nostalgia…it is history in the very living sense of the word, ripe and ardent, and not afraid to look forward.

A Thousand Pokes is the most potent expression of Stick in the Wheel’s yet. Their songs ring with the joy of specificity and detail, the ferocious joy of marginalised voices making themselves heard, the angry joy of people reclaiming their heritage.

The Shovel Dance Collective, a kind of avant-folk supergroup, but without any of the hubris that term implies, once again demonstrate, through their new album ‘The Shovel Dance’, how they are changing the way folk music is created, and doing so with breathtakingly, potent tunes.

The latest Folklore Tapes Ceremonial Counties covers Cambridgeshire and London, with Ian Humberstone and Human Hand providing one of the most exciting and challenging instalments yet. 

There are so many elements to Naima Bock’s ‘Below a Massive Dark Land’ that it’s a wonder they can all work together, but wonder appears to be a common reaction to Bock’s music. That’s because she takes risks…it confirms her as a major songwriter.

It feels as if the songs on Constant Follower’s ‘The Smile You Send Out Returns To You’ have been nurtured, perhaps subconsciously, over the two decades it took to realise his musical ambitions, resulting in an incredibly moving and distinctive album.

Jon Boden & The Remnant Kings’ Parlour Ballads shines a light on an unfairly neglected part of musical history–a collection of beautifully performed, sad and compassionate songs brought to life by one of folk music’s premier performers.

Through OPHELIA, Angeline Morrison conjures a perfect, otherworldly landscape of hauntological folk music…imagine if Broadcast’s Trish Keenan had been kidnapped at birth by the Copper family and raised on a diet of Angela Carter’s fairy tales…

Scottish singer Kate Young’s solo debut Umbelliferæ is an album full of ambition, but Young never lets that ambition blind her to the importance of her message or the sheer delight of her songcraft. Umbelliferæ is the work of years: a wise, joyous epic.

John Patrick Elliott is an expert when it comes to making seemingly disharmonious concepts and radically disparate musical ideas work together, and My Role in the Show is the most perfectly realised example of that talent in his distinguished career.