Thomas Blake

TRÚ point out that Eternity Near aims to look past endings to what lies beyond. It leaves room for both hope and mystery and is an admirably mature move for a band still near the beginning of what will undoubtedly be a distinguished career.

Make The World Anew attempts in a small but determined way to achieve the edict set out in its title, and it succeeds resoundingly. It is the Melrose Quartet’s most upbeat and accomplished album to date.

Adele H’s voice is dripping with passion and personality, and the transition to piano-based songs on Impermanence has allowed that voice to flourish. It is a wonderful work of art, brimming with confidence and bursting with important questions about womanhood, metaphysics and music.

On Dreamer Awake, Rachel Sermanni delivers surprising, touching and hopeful moments alongside darkly delicate, atmospheric folk songs and spellbinding experimentalism. Ultimately, it is the sound of a spectacularly gifted songwriter growing personally and artistically in the face of pain and difficulty.

Although there have only been six P.G. Six albums over a twenty-two-year period, they provide a definitive snapshot of the psych-folk genre. His latest, Murmurs & Whispers, is a nuanced, enthralling work that suggests this brilliant songwriter is hitting another career peak.

We chat with Rónán Ó Snodaigh & Myles O’Reilly about their new album, The Beautiful Road, a work of graft and craft as well as exceptional artistry: music like this isn’t just plucked out of the air; it is the result of a serious and well-defined working relationship, nurtured over a period of years.

Glenn Kimpton has quietly carved out a niche as one of the most inventive, intuitive and accomplished guitarists in the business. His latest offering, ‘Ruminate!’, is beautiful, even slightly intoxicating…another assured instalment in Glenn Kimpton’s increasingly impressive catalogue.

The Endless Coloured Ways is a brilliantly realised, perfectly sequenced tribute that, because of the sheer creative variety on show, never spills over into hagiography, and always prioritises Nick Drake’s musical heritage over the cult of his personal history.

Rónán Ó Snodaigh & Myles O’Reilly’s ‘The Beautiful Road’, is a calmative, a sonic balm in times of literal and metaphorical noise, but also a reminder of the verve and the life that can still exist in music. It’s an exceptional feat.

While ‘Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You’ is recognisably a Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy album, it is also a slight departure. These songs have a life-affirming quality, a willingness to exist in the present, and as a result, this is one of Will Oldham’s most rewarding albums.

Although it seems uncompassionate to describe someone’s difficult personal circumstances as artistically rewarding, with ‘The Greater Wings’, Julie Byrne has proved that music can be transformative and reinvigorating, as well as beautiful. There is hope here beneath the sadness, hope of the most life-affirming kind.

On Dream From The Deep Well, Brigid Mae Power has created a piece of art that resonates timelessly on a mythic level…a piece of art brimming with the joy and sadness that hides in plain sight, in the minutiae of everyday life.