Albums

A set full of character, depth and textured music made with unpretentious skill and consideration, Under the Red Island Bakery is a special kind of album that doesn’t appear very often. An enduring treat that will be played to death, this one will stick to your stereo and make itself hard to forget.

Keep On Running is the debut offering from Joe Edwards who hails from Devizes in rural Wiltshire. While it’s a well-travelled path, it’s a well-played, engagingly sung and assured calling card for future progress.

Brian Ó hEadhra and Fiona MacKenzie return with Tuath…a tribute to the Gaelic Northlands and their peoples, an amalgam of their culture, their history and their mythologies. …a breath-taking and hugely enjoyable album.

Recorded at home during the lockdown, Howling at the Sun feels like the much-needed companion to a season of uncertainty and isolation: it is by turns sad, cheering and reflective, and full of the melodic inventiveness, the freshness and, ultimately, the positivity we have come to expect from Randolph’s Leap.

Steve Earle’s Ghosts of West Virginia draws on 2010’s Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion which, killing 29 miners, was one of the worst mining disasters in American history…The echoes of these ghosts haunt long after the album ends.

While Look Long reflects on the many changes in the world, Indigo Girls are still the bar-band they claim to be at heart, you really should grab a beer and celebrate their return to the saloon.

Long after the scent of patchouli has faded, Ripley Johnson’s Rose City Band is still able to provide the soundtrack for both old and new generations of cosmic travellers. With Summerlong he has proved that even in the dark days there is always hope for rebirth close at hand.

Released on Joe Boyd’s legendary Hannibal label, this reissue features a brilliant bonus LP of the “the 2nd album that never was”. The Eighteenth Day of May evoked a legendary era, and now they are a justifiably legendary band too.

On Stormweere, the new album from new Belgian band Spilar, they revel in their diversity sharing songs from their Flanders homeland alongside contemporary and self-written gems.

This month saw the release of Sam Carter’s new album ‘Home Waters’, in this special guest feature, Sam talks us through the story behind his song ‘Surprise View’ which is accompanied by a live performance filmed by Thom Atkinson.

There’s a sense of subtlety and grace to The Weight Of The Sun that only comes from a band that is confident in their ability to find the power in the music…a psychological camaraderie binds the band together.

Taking the road less travelled doesn’t mask the pain, it just makes the journey more real. For Lesley Barth, the learning process has begun. And that makes all the difference in the world.