Albums

Jeremie Albino’s Our Time In The Sun, his first for Dan Auerbach’s label Easy Eye Sound, is the stuff of jukebox diners, a singalong soundtrack to nights of pain and passion…it’s also huge on melodic pleasantries. 

Karl Blau’s Vultures of Love is an album that deserves to be listened to all the way through: when taken together, the hectic elements that make up each individual song coalesce into something whole (and strangely wholesome), and that’s a beautiful thing to experience.

Past sounds have never sounded so thoroughly born of the present as they do on Jerron Paxton’s raw and wonderful ‘Things Done Changed’…a finely crafted album for today made oh so skilfully with the tools of yesterday.

On The Neon Gate, Nap Eyes songs drink deep at the wells of philosophy and literature, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it from a cursory listen. They seem to create a different niche for themselves with every new album; long may it continue.

Snowgoose’s third album, Descendant, is said to offer  “a reflection on the beauty and pain of impermanence”, but their intoxicating music is a far from transitory experience. Outstanding.

With strong, solid songwriting coupled with immaculate, eclectic music, all beautifully performed, Eric Bibb’s In the Real World comes with the strongest recommendation.

Jon Doran and The Northern Assembly’s debut EP gives clear notice that this impressive folk trio are overflowing with ideas for the production of imaginative, entertaining music – they hold great promise for the future.

Described by Hal Willner as a timeless album, Mary Lee Kortes’ stunning concept album, Will Anybody Know That I Was Here: The Songs of Beulah Rowley, is grounded in themes and emotions that are both universal and deeply personal.

‘You Are Not A Stranger Here’ is one of the highest peaks Danny & The Champions Of The World have attained thus far, and simply one of the best records you’ll hear this year.

Amy Speace’s ‘The American Dream’ is as universal as it is personal, it reminds us that while life may not get easier, we can become more resilient against its blows…she’s still one of the greatest artists in Americana today. Outstanding.

On More Break-Up Songs, Darren Hayman’s ‘New Starts’ debut, he weaves a personal mythology of love and loneliness. Capturing the minutiae of what happens in a relationship, the results are sometimes humorous, sometimes tear-jerking, and never less than entertaining.

The strength of Mairearad Green & Rachel Newton’s distinctive boundary-pushing “Anna Bhàn” doesn’t lie in nostalgia…it is history in the very living sense of the word, ripe and ardent, and not afraid to look forward.