Albums

If you are a fan of Jez Lowe you will love this, as I did. If you are new to his work, then this will prove to be a great introduction and will certainly send you off looking for more.

It’s impossible not to fall a little bit in love with Hemet. Beautifully listenable and rich in some rather gorgeous melodies and emotive arrangements, it is an adept and utterly mesmerizing debut from Niamh Regan.

Allysen Callery’s “Ghost Folk” casts a mesmerising spell, impossible to resist, and yet also conjures subtleties and substance that demand your closer investigation.

Sophisticated songs for a sometimes saccharin season, A Midwinter Miscellany (featuring Ashley Hutchings, Becky Mills, Blair Dunlop and Judy Dunlop) is a Christmas album with a big dollop of class.

A terrific listen for a lockdown winter night, dreaming of a return to outside summer music, hopefully, next year. Make sure Merry Hell are playing where you go; I will be.

An album to savour and immerse in rather than seeking out immediate pleasures, at one point she sings “I’ll never be in season, I’m forever ripinin’”; a heady fruit indeed.

…regardless of the fact that as an atheist I cannot emotionally plug into much of the album’s lyrical content, speaking simply as a human being William Prince’s “Gospel First Nation” is probably the most relatable record I’ve heard all year.

Ovans has never failed to impress with his ability to either fire up the heart or cut to the emotional quick. Albums like this are the reason why some of us get out of bed in the morning.

Bonfrost leaps out of the speakers and demands attention, keeping the energetic and creative levels up throughout its twelve tracks. One to win your ears and heart once you surrender to its many charms.

It would take a stone to remain unmoved by its magic. The Wavy Bow Collection is a vital display of top-class Irish Traditional music played with skill and passion

Featuring a host of special guests including Martin Simpson, Nancy Kerr & James Fagan, Marc Block’s latest offering carries plenty of weight and substance and is well worth spending time with to discover its manifold riches.

David Ivar has made a record that sounds on first listen like it could have been recorded at any point in the last fifty years, but in reality is uniquely and intelligently current, an album of the year in every sense.