Albums

Try to give the music a name if you will; acoustic-roots, folk-pop – labels don’t really matter and would certainly be difficult to apply. Serenity Sessions is, above everything else, great fun to listen to.

David Francey is one of those rare artists, of any genre, whose writing and performance skills are of such a consistently high standard that he never drops the ball. This fact is once again emphatically borne out with the release of his 11th album, Empty Train.

An exhaustively beautiful paean to place and time. We should perhaps listen to it in the same way that Moult conceived and recorded it: in stillness and solitude, with our minds at sea.

A Year In The Country have done an excellent job of rounding up many of hauntology’s leading lights and, despite the wide range of sounds represented, The Quietened Village sounds impressively coherent. If this the sound of the new epoch then we may not be condemned after all.

In Under The Cover Of Lightness Fraser Anderson takes us from warm summer love to cold, bleak loneliness. With Allen Ginsberg on one shoulder and John Martyn on the other, he shares hope and despondency in equal measure. And he makes us long to savour every drop.

Ichi is a welcome addition to the world of experimental music with a combination of childlike wonder, a wacky sense of humour and seemingly boundless creativity.

Sam Beam’s collaboration with Jesca Hoop is easily his best work in a while, and, on top of being a fine album, keeping his company will hopefully create a wider awareness of her charms too.

Cardboard Fox reveal themselves as more than the sum of their parts…top notch musicianship and singing coupled with songwriting excellence make Out of Mind a highly impressive debut.

‘The Things That We Are Made Of’ presents the listener with new songs that remind us of exactly why Carpenter is such a universally admired singer/song writer; just why again and again, we fall in love with her music.

This new EP clearly finds Said The Maiden coming of age, proudly displaying their great taste in covers and their uncanny aptitude for getting the deepest and best out of their chosen material.

Whilst ‘Long Road Home’ probably won’t find the exposure or the audience it deserves, with its heartfelt emotional lyrics and Simon Allen’s softly yearning vocals, it is assuredly worth seeking out.

Adam has gained confidence in his own ability and taken his music forward on Brighter Still. Not in a new direction, but off on a gentle tangent that explores what else can be achieved when the quality of the song writing leaves ample space for adventure.