Albums

Georgia Harmer’s new album, Eye of the Storm, is a powerful testament to emotional growth and self-discovery. This deeply personal sophomore release, recorded in intimate settings from living rooms to garages, offers a stripped-down sound that feels both raw and vulnerable. Harmer’s meticulous songwriting and production shine throughout.

Dean Johnson’s new album, I Hope We Can Still Be Friends, is a powerful testament to long-gestating artistry. The singer-songwriter’s raw vulnerability and sharp wit shine through a collection of songs that are both tender and biting. With a gentle musical touch, Johnson tackles themes of heartbreak, insecurity, and personal history in a memorable and deeply moving way.

C.R. Gillespie’s new album, Island Of Women, is a moving sonic tapestry woven from personal experience. Conceived during the pandemic, the album began as modern-classical demos that Gillespie meticulously transformed into a humanistic soundscape. Inspired by a family trip to Mexico’s Isla Mujeres, the record is a beautiful, balmy blend of organic textures, electronics, and field recordings that capture the profound experience of fatherhood and quiet isolation.

Marking their 11th Anniversary, International Anthem continue their reissue series with Angel Bat Dawid’s 2019 debut, The Oracle. Originally recorded and mixed on her cell phone, this influential album solidified Dawid as an essential voice in improvised music. The new IA11 edition features redesigned artwork and new liner notes by percussionist Asher Gamedze, celebrating the album’s powerful blend of emotive songs, free improvisation, and enduring magic.

Marissa Nadler is perhaps the most distinctive and gifted songwriter working in the nebulous realm of dark folk, and New Radiations feels like a perfect distillation of her unsettlingly graceful music: essential for long-time fans and ideal for newcomers. It could easily become a career-defining album. 

An open secret, Cass McCombs is a talent lauded by critics and peers but remains something of an outsider. On Interior Live Oak, he’s in predictably fine form, delivering one of his strongest collections of songs that showcase an easily worn, hard-won maturity, with a perfect balance between concision and variation. This satisfying and beguiling album leaves you hoping it will finally earn him the broader recognition he so deserves.

North Carolina’s Joseph Decosimo leans into the weird and psychedelic side of Old-time music on Fiery Gizzard. Traditional tunes are reimagined with a trusting, open-door policy for collaborators, which includes Stephanie Coleman, Matthew O’Connell, Jay Hammond and Andy Stack, blending fiddle and banjo with synth, electric guitar, and percussion. The result is an energetic, enchanting, and often joyful set that feels both timeless and otherworldly; it’s a truly delightful listen.

Chris Staples’ ‘Don’t Worry’ is a beautiful portrait of stillness, born from a welcome life gear change. Leaning further into his introspective Americana style, the record is warm and minimalist. Intimate songs with soothing pedal steel and subtle piano explore triumphs and regrets with personal, poetic lyrics, offering an uplifting rumination on the maturity gained with age and the sense of it all.

A new compilation from DJ and curator Edna Martinez celebrates Colombia’s Picó culture—the colossal, hand-painted sound systems at the heart of coastal street parties. As the culture faces pressure at home, it has found new life abroad, with authentic picós now being built as far as Australia. This album captures the raw, transatlantic sound of a local tradition that has gone global.

In the heart of Kyoto, a city renowned for its timeless beauty and rich artistic heritage, a singular musician is crafting a sound that is both deeply personal and daringly experimental. Kita Kouhei—a sound artist, composer, and master of the rare Array Mbira–builds immersive soundscapes that seamlessly blend the organic textures of live instruments with the limitless possibilities of electronic music, creating a world that is uniquely his own.

Fletcher Tucker’s ‘Kin’ is a more earthy, rather than a cosmic music; it genuinely sounds like nothing else, an album full of ritualistic sonic patterns and precisely detailed shifts in tone and mood, an album rooted less in a single landscape than in the very idea of landscape, and all the ancientness and weirdness that implies.

On Music for Writers, his first solo instrumental album, Steve Gunn masterfully blends guitars, synths, and field recordings from his travels. The album blurs the line between performance and nature, or life, resulting in music that ‘listens as much as it speaks.’ The pure, meditative sound features beautiful guitar parts that shift from innocent to anxious, creating an immersive experience that invites close listening and encourages stillness and calm.