Albums

As you may have gathered from the title, The Man Who Built Christmas is an early musical tinsel treat from Charlie Dore…anyone would be well-pleased to find this EP in their stocking.

Devin Hoff pays tribute to Anne Briggs through a series of dramatic but somehow faithful rearrangements. Featuring a stellar cast of like-minded Briggs fans, Voices From the Empty Moor looks backwards for inspiration but is entirely contemporary in feel.

On his latest album, Minimum Wages, Robb Johnson adds more chapters to his contemporary history of the UK that emphasise the tragic, the desperate and the inequality. Crisp, clear and excellent.

Let What’s In, Out, is the long-awaited new release from accordionist Amy Thatcher. Over four tracks, with not a word to be heard, she conveys moments of serenity and emotional turbulence through top-class musicianship and imparts some food for thought along the way. She is in a class of her own.

Featuring a number of special guests, “1960” is one of the most personal albums Martyn Joseph as ever made. Quoting a line from one of the lyrics he describes “1960” as a soul taking stock, of looking inwards and finding acceptance. It’s an album of the year.

Playful, tender, thoughtful and moving, An Honest Effort is another reminder that Patershuk is one of the finest songwriters around, it’s an A for effort and accomplishment all the way around.

The serene beauty of An Overview on Phenomenal Nature was precisely what many of us needed during lockdown, now Cassandra Jenkins offers a similar respite while taking her album on tour.

On ‘Three Generations of Leaving’, Single Girl, Married Girl chronicle the tribulations of three generations of women – an assuredly crafted and highly rewarding listen.

Calumet Queen is an outstanding debut from Kiely Connell, written and sung with wisdom, insights and experience of a life-seasoned artist – a late in the year contender for the best-of lists.

Abby Posner’s ‘Kisbee Ring’ is a gently beguiling album about overcoming trials and tribulations on which her lyrics percolate around themes of depression, racial oppression, healing and rescue.

Janet Batch’s day job is a landscape gardener; as a singer-songwriter she’s a veritable country Capability Brown as attests on her second album ‘You Be The Wolf’.

Throughout Sleeping Spirals, the debut album from Hannah James and Toby Kuhn, distinct threads of travel, place and self-discovery come together to form a complex but unified whole. It is a journey you will want to take again and again.