Albums

Amalie Bruun successfully bridges the gap between Death Metal and acoustic folk making Folkesange an album you owe it to yourself to hear again and again.

Pavey Ark’s debut album tugs at the emotions with joy and sorrow in equal measure. Close Your Eyes And Think Of Nothing is, in a sense, a call to arms from a band that demands to be heard. It is a perfect antidote for these uncertain days.

Rattle on the Stovepipe’s “Through The Woods” is possibly even finer than their previous albums while Dave Arthur’s new release is a compilation of sorts, spanning the 15+ years of Dave’s tenure with the band he himself founded back in the early-noughties.

Downhill Uplift is the sort of album that will sound different every time you listen to it, and while it takes inspiration from a cluster of well-worn genres, the way those genres are meshed together seems entirely novel. The work of an extremely proficient musician and his band.

As debuts go, War to the Palaces is very impressive indeed. Recorded, mixed, produced and mastered by Ragged Trousers’ own David Hirst, it’s also a pretty accurate representation of what they offer live. So let’s have more please, lads – and soon!

On Prophecy Playground’s debut ‘Comfort Zone’ – elements of English bucolic poke through, swirl around with the sprites of the guitars, the subtle lush backdrops of strings, and with the lyrics that may mean something or may mean nothing.

There are few folk outfits working today as interesting and unpredictable as Canada’s Aerialists. Their new offering ‘Sienna’ is a masterfully performed collection of intriguing, often haunting material.

Boogieing with the best of them, Green Leaf Rustlers show why they are an uncontrollable force of nature. For those who have been lucky enough to see them, the memories will last a lifetime. For the rest of us, at least we have From Within Marin.

Joined by The Excess – Pete Flood on drums and Pete Thomas on bass – Benji Kirkpatrick delivers a glorious and powerful sound on Gold Has Worn Away, a persuasive and impressive album.

With Companion Rises, Chasny has done something even more intriguing than usual: by pushing the experimental envelope further than before he has somehow emerged with a collection of songs that are amongst the most immediately rewarding of his twenty-plus year career.

Nadia Reid has the temperament to say the things that often go unspoken, the things that bother us. On Out Of My Province, she has created an album of musical maturity and emotional depth. There can be no greater compliment.

This is music of uncommon grace and nuance…a gentle elixir. Under the guise of Cabane, Thomas Jean Henri has created a work that is never fragile, yet filled with beauty. Grande Est La Maison works its way into your heart and soul, like a rose. There are thorns, but without them would the flower be as beautiful?