Albums

This is up there with the very best of homegrown Americana and, if they could get some sort of national radio or TV play to provide the incentive to gig beyond their London stomping grounds, they would deservedly develop the following they assuredly warrant.

Drawing on a mass of musical influences from North and South American pop and folk to Gypsy Jazz & classical music, Elias Krell’s ‘As Eli’ is unquestionably one of the summer’s brightest gems.

Heirlooms & Hearsay Nomad Songs is more than a collection of songs, it’s a recording of possibilities, a showcase for what Roxanne de Bastion’s voice is capable of as they dance between modern folk and a more rock-tinged sound.

William Matheny makes his debut with Strange Constellations, a solid collection of roots rock and countrified pop. Read our review and listen to his cover of Jason Molina’s ‘Just Be Simple’, a bonus track on the UK digital edition.

The beauty of ‘An Idea in Everything’ lies in its unhurried and profoundly mundane messages. Challenging art this album may be, but it is high and beautiful and superb, unlike anything I’ve ever heard. A very impressive achievement.

Isembard’s Wheel’s debut album ‘Common Ground’ offers more of the band’s wild, inventive, visionary “folk and then some”, which proves both highly infectious and highly irresistible.

Idaho’s Hillfolk Noir return with Junkerpunch, a ramshackle rural clatter that is given life by guitar, double bass, banjo and washboard. All beautifully recorded by analogue wizard Mike Coykendall at his Blue room Studio in Portland, Oregon.

On Itinerant Arias, Christopher Paul Stelling sees the storm coming, but his songs, which come from a wide range of unlikely inspirations, are there to provide a bridge over troubled waters.

On Goths, the new instrumental background offers a way to hear the Mountain Goats afresh. It is an album about impermanence, the return to places, people, and songs, and knowing them again after the passing of time. Listen to the album in full.

At the end of the Scott Cook’s booklet for ‘Further Down the Line’ there is a preamble memoir in which he quotes Bruce Cockburn “Kick at the darkness ‘till it bleeds daylight.” This album kicks hard.

Solomon, the fifth album from Welsh group Calan, is an amazing album, it sounds wonderful, fresh and exciting from the very first listen and continues to enthral on every subsequent visit. Don’t hesitate in buying a copy.

Roving Crows’ Bury Me Naked presents a kaleidoscopic view into the past, the present and the future, in a glorious musical setting which is broad in diversity, rich in sound and high in energy.