Thomas Blake

Iron & Wine’s Hen’s Teeth is decidedly darker than its sibling album, admitting emotional ambiguity at every turn. Sam Beam knows that a lot can happen in the span of a single song, and here he leans ever further into the South’s musical traditions, surrounding himself with collaborators who double the vulnerability at the heart of his most open-hearted work in years.

Tōth has always been somewhat genre-slippery; it’s proof of his unwillingness to stay in one place for too long, and that’s something to be celebrated. There aren’t too many musicians making heart-on-sleeve emotional rollercoasters with this much control, poise and skill. ‘And The Voice Said’ moves in all directions at once, and ends up exactly where it should be.

Philadelphia/Chicago duo The Early have mastered a specific brand of improvised music that draws on jazz and hard-edged experimental rock. Across their latest EP, Cusp, and album, I Want to be Ready, Lewis and Nussbaum pass through landscapes, lighting them up and leaving them changed for the better. A resounding success.

The Wave Pictures fashion their touchstones into new shapes: rapid-fire surf-pop, sleazy garage blues, tender slow-burners full of weeping guitars. Tattersall’s playing remains immediately distinctive, incorporating desert rock and spiky proto-punk, sometimes sounding like both Television guitarists at once. From Proustian throbs of memory to blazing solos, “Gained/Lost” is accessible, varied, and endlessly rewarding—another bright star in their constellation.

My Days of 58 finds Bill Callahan embracing uncertainty — and it has made his songs wiser than ever. They are also funnier, sadder, deeper. Live energy, partly improvised performances, a spirit of collaboration: these are the things that make Callahan tick. Over three and a half decades into his career, he is still capable of adding more strings to his bow.

Almost Proustian in its relationship with memory, Proof Enough goes beyond mere nostalgic effect. Michael Cormier-O’Leary became a father while recording these six songs, and his writing is full of hopes and fears alongside the quiet determination to live well. He has become an exceptional songwriter, alchemising human concerns into low-key poetry and backing it with a nuanced, delightfully off-kilter grasp of song dynamics.

Buck Meek’s The Mirror is the work of a true American outsider, one who understands that creativity is always a collaboration and a lineage. Whether channelling dusty Texan country or something stranger and more introverted, Meek — aided by Big Thief bandmate James Krivchenia’s light-touch production — stretches these songs into unusual shapes without ever losing sight of their warm, beating hearts.

Very few come sprinkled with the kind of magic dust that coats the new album by Georgia Shackleton. A sense of history seeps into every corner of the recording. These songs are timeless and wise, bright and intricate, shot through with polar light and the glint of the sea. “From the Floorboards” is an album with a story behind it, and that story is worth telling.

Hen Ogledd’s third album, DISCOMBOBULATED, is fresh, weird, pranksterish, passionate and downright uncategorisable as we have come to expect. Their blend of freaky electronic folk-rock, politically charged psych-pop and modernist compositional techniques is elusive, bewildering and brilliant—music that seems to invent new colours. Admirably anti-bigotry, anti-corporate, anti-corruption. Their most consistent, relevant and boundary-pushing record yet.

Pefkin (Gayle Brogan) understands the fluidity and adaptability of ambient music better than most. Unfurling ranks among her most beautiful work, showcasing an exceptional understanding of timing, contrast, and texture. Its many drifts and folds are expertly curated, balanced perfectly between atavism and modernity. Though the component pieces are minimal, they are layered so subtly that they create complex musical tapestries.

From street-busking in Carlow to collaborating with Boygenius, Ye Vagabonds’ journey culminates in ‘All Tied Together.’ Releasing January 30, their fourth album swaps traditional covers for deeply personal original songwriting. Produced by Phil Weinrobe, it’s a masterful blend of earthy folk and experimental textures—shimmering synths and soaring strings—capturing the grit of their past and the warmth of home.

Lande Hekt’s Lucky Now marks a sophisticated evolution for twee pop. Blending the political optimism of Amelia Fletcher with the introspection of Sarah Records, Hekt expands the genre’s boundaries using 90s alt-rock grit and sparkling production. From the jangly title track to the sharp social commentary of “Circular,” these three-minute gems establish Hekt as a highly individual, accomplished artist.