Albums

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.

Following a landmark year that saw his seminal 1980s band, The Loft, finally release their debut album, Everything Changes Everything Stays the Same, indie icon Pete Astor delves deeper into his personal archives with Unsent Letters (Home Recordings 1984-2024). Released on July 25th via Tapete Records, this new collection offers an intimate and unvarnished glimpse into a forty-year songwriting journey, a perfect companion piece to his band’s recent forward-facing return.

Emerging from dislocation and a traumatic break-up, Yoshika Colwell’s “On The Wing” is a raw, disturbed song cycle. This profoundly heartfelt and honest album explores challenging feelings with unflinching intensity. The elegant, baroque folk-pop, with echoes of Nick Drake, analyses a turbulent life chapter, allowing cracks of hopeful light to break through its elegant melancholy in a work that feels honest and real.

Cory Hanson delivers a rare combination: clever arrangements and emotional heft. ‘I Love People’ feels like a continuation of 2023’s Western Cum, conjuring up dusty roads and shimmering horizons with rolling country-rock and mature piano ballads. Nailing this many styles is tough, but Hanson’s surefooted songwriting weaves the disparate elements into a vivid, unapologetically American tapestry with an almost magical precision.

Recorded live in just three days, Sean Pratt’s Prairie Whistle Call captures a purity often lost in modern recording. With no bells and whistles, you get a recording of remarkable honesty. Pratt merges timeless sounds with modern sensibilities, speaking from the heart and distilling the wind of the plains into simple truths.