Albums

Nathan Bell’s Love > Fear is unquestionably one of the most important blue collar protest albums of our time, one which looks contemporary America unflinchingly in the eye and demands its listeners do the same.

Running chronologically, the songs and tunes on Decade perfectly illustrate the evolution of LAU’s music over the past ten years which has given rise to a totally unique sound. A great reminder of how unique and inventive they are.

Regardless of any societal constraints Molly Drake may have felt in her life, regardless of her unwillingness to publish her own material, she was a consummately gifted songwriter. And in The Unthanks, those songs have found their perfect outlet.

Though little known outside their native Canada and parts of Europe, The Road Ahead is Golden is Jon & Roys 7th album which finds them exploring areas outside their comfort zone, a very worthy listen.

Breda Mayock has the same ability to wrap her vocal around her own poetry that makes listening to Joni Mitchell such a compelling experience. A collection of intimate, absorbing vocal performances perfectly framed in compelling arrangements.

Luke Sital-Singh’s ‘Time is a Riddle’ is more of a rebirth than a follow-up, awash with emotion and tumultuous cathedrals of sound. A captivating experience that’s hard to resist falling for.

I first heard this Skipinnish line-up last year at Oban Live and was bowled over both by the music and the almost ecstatic reaction it produced in the audience. The Seventh Wave comes about as close as any studio album could to replicating this feeling.

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy pays tribute to Merle Haggard on ‘Best Troubador’, a timely reminder of the talents one of the most gifted of all the great American songwriters, delivered with grace and skill by a modern master.

Brisbane-based Angharad Drake has been quietly building a following among Australian folk fans for her gentle, poetic indie folk. Her debut album Ghost is an impressive, atmospheric debut album that deserves to gain her an audience far beyond Australia.

Little Lapin’s Wake up with the Sun is fresh (both musically and lyrically), personal (whilst also universal), simple (yet complex) and full of contrasting styles (both between and within songs). A delightful album.

When not serving as part of Steve Earle’s band The Dukes, husband and wife duo Chris Masterson and Eleanor Whitmore have their own career as The Mastersons. Transient Lullaby is their third album.

To mark the 50th anniversary of John Fahey’s Takoma label ‘Contemporary Guitar – Spring ’67’ the Tompkins Square label has issued The Music of Harry Taussig and Max Ochs. To their credit these are all new recordings.