Thomas Blake

Archangel Hill is Shirley Collins’s third album since returning to the studio half a decade ago; this album and its two predecessors seem almost to relish their maturity and at 87, she continues to create some of the most exceptional music of her career.

The Declining Winter is an integral, if obscure, feature of the British musical landscape, like a stone circle hidden behind a housing estate and Adams’ latest offering, Really Early, Really Late, is an engrossing, sometimes playful, frequently pensive, and never less than captivating album.

‘Hold. Star. Return’ finds David A. Jaycock exploring more fully the world of antique electronica. A fuzzy, off-kilter melodicism pervades much of this weirdly beautiful album, which manages to be constantly aware of the past and yet never sentimental.

Maxine Funke’s output over the last few years has been consistently outstanding, and River Said shows her at her best and at her most varied. These are songs that gently demand attention, and longer compositions that are profound and moving and mysterious all at once.

From carefully observed vignettes to widescreen sonic explorations, Scott William Urquhart & Constant Follower’s ‘Even Days Dissolve’ is an immensely rewarding, sensual listen, ripe with understated strength. 

It may have taken a while, but with ‘We Are Only Sound’, Lucy Farrell has given us a bold debut album of rare sophistication, and a moving document of an emotional few years.

Yo La Tengo deliver two mammoth sets at Bristol’s SWX – including music from their new album This Stupid World – from urban kosmische to kraut-rock and all points in between – it’s an exhilarating and unforgettable evening from one of the world’s best live bands.

Amelia Baker, the singer, musician and writer behind Cinder Well, is disarmingly honest. But behind that honesty lies an intriguing depth and complexity. We chat with her about her new album ‘Cadence’; her Southern California roots and living in Ireland; and her influences and tastes, from Joni Mitchell to Lankum and Haruki Murakami.

Brìghde Chaimbeul’s ‘Carry Them with Us’, is an extraordinary experience that has slowly begun to resemble a series of strange, beautiful dream-stories, told with flair, nuance and incredible technical proficiency, but more importantly, with a real sense of ambition and innovation.

Emma Tricca is one of our most valuable and interesting songwriters, capable of strange and beautiful sonic flights of fancy and unexpected lyrical turns. Aspirin Sun is her best yet.

Cinder Well’s ‘Cadence’ is something of a journey. Meandering, non-linear, but full of care and wisdom, it is an astonishingly powerful piece of work that seems to have been conceived in uncertainty but realised with the supreme assurance of one of the most consummate songwriters around.

False Lankum is Lankum’s most uncompromising album to date which highlights their highly individual approach to music-making: a discourse between band and listener that is challenging, raw, brutally honest and always rewarding.