Albums

Six years on from his death at the age of 74, this first posthumous release of new material is J J Cale proving that, as the title suggests, his music will indeed stick around. Watch the new animated video for Go Downtown.

With The Little Unsaid, John Elliott has carved out a niche as a poet of mental disintegration, a chronicler of very real and very difficult human emotions. But his songs are not without hope. Atomise is perhaps his darkest and most hopeful album to date. It is certainly his most expansive and fully realised.

Breathing fresh life into the acoustic tradition while staying true to its heritage, Michell is one of the brightest new names to have emerged full-grown on the country’s folk scene in recent years.

Songs of Our Native Daughters is a cultural landmark both for these extraordinary musicians and hopefully for others inspired by them, as well as those of us fortunate enough to hear their work.

Danny Neill revisits Davy Graham’s 1969 ‘Hat’ album which has been reissued and remastered, along with liner notes by David Fricke, via the Bread and Wine label, available on CD and Vinyl.

Philos, the new album from Park Jiha, creates a world not quite at ease with itself, calling for pauses and spaces to be moments of reflection, not for inaction. In this sense, it possesses a more substantial spirituality and timelessness, creating a distinct soundworld that is both heavy with memory and possibility.

The Askew Sisters return with an album that very few other musicians could have made. ‘Enclosure’ is both intimate and universal, steeped in history of place and society yet looking to the future, an album about captivity that revels in its own musical freedom.

Despite Dick Gaughan’s ‘Handful of Earth’ being released 38 years ago, these songs still reflect the times, still call out the oppressors and still support the oppressed.

We join Lucy Farrell, Rachel Newton, Emily Portman and Alasdair Roberts, otherwise known as The Furrow Collective, at the Liverpool Philharmonic Music Room for an evening of hushed appreciation and a homecoming of sorts, in Portman’s case.

Singing It All Back Home has all the passion and history of the characters that populate these stories; Naomi Bedford & Paul Simmonds paint them in a fascinating new light, while holding fast to their enduring heritage in an outstanding album.

Jo Mango & Friends offer a lament that simultaneously stirs action and offers a balm for the trauma of separation with her latest release, System Hold.

Wonderful Fairytale sees Bill Jones return in excellent form, with an exceptional album that fulfils the promise of her early career, and confirms that this gifted performer still has so much to offer.