Albums

Slither, Soar and Disappear is a triumph of considered, elegant playing and arranging, working on many levels to create something far more than the sum of its parts.

One Town Over makes you connect with that it means to be human, to have friends, lovers, children, dreams and a heart that can beat as well as be bruised.

While it contrasts Merry Hell’s more rousing, crowd singalong material, it is no less fuelled by the same heart and humanity and equally warrants a place in your collection.

In its journey from wreckage to rebirth, it reaches deep into what Yeats termed the rag and bone shop of the heart, and finds treasure within. One of her best.

Bells in the Ruins is a collection that requires both care and consideration. While the thorns outnumber the roses, both are necessary, one cannot exist without the other.

Playing on your expectations, Z Berg paints a series of pastels and watercolours that form a new vision of how to engage with your surroundings.

If Rory Butler keeps up the sort of quality evidenced here, he’ll not be looking back on a career where anything was wasted. Go and buy it.

Dark and yet cleansing, while the skies that Cinder well sings of may be overcast, there is a light that shines through this album that warms the chill in the soul.

Samantha Crain’s most personal album to date, crafted to reflect how her life changed over the past three years, focusing not on the past but a brighter future.

Expanding contributions and embracing The Jayhawks’ broader influences, XOXO’s wide-ranging musical moods reaches out to a wider audience while never disappointing the faithful.

Sofia Talvik revisits Paws of a Bear for a stripped-back rework featuring just voice and guitar, all one take re-recordings that bring an added intimacy to the pervasive melancholia.

In many ways this could be seen as a companion piece to 13 Rivers – it should find a home amongst any music collection belonging to lovers of rich, melodic, song composition.