Albums

Big Thief’s Double Infinity was always going to be different. While it’s leaner than their last, its sonic range is wider. It is an album dedicated to corporeal impermanence, and to its flipside: love and its constant presence. It goes without saying that it’s big on ideas. It’s also big on melodic innovation and collaborative spirit. And most importantly, it’s a record with a gigantic heart.

Carson McHone’s third album, Pentimento, is a dense, multi-faceted tapestry, with fragments of poetry, spoken verse, field recordings, pastoral folk, guitar and chamber pop, amply demonstrating the benefits of a more collaborative approach on this audacious gem that also reveals a level of sophistication, demonstrating that there are no real limits to McHone’s ambition.

DUG, featuring Lorkin O’Reilly and Jonny Pickett, have created something that is both ancient and modern with “Have At It!,” a weird and wonderful album that takes traditional music and stands it on its ear. Their playing never falters, remaining decidedly unbeholden to the forms and functions of the past even as it plays its way through them in a blazing trail.

Featuring Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly and Joseph Westerlund, “at Public Records” is the latest live album from Setting, on which all four pieces stand out in very different ways, but together make a whole that is one hell of a listening experience. A worthy conclusion to a trio of live albums that feel as relevant and accomplished as their debut album, Shone a Rainbow Light On.

On “Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople”, the music and poetry exist symbiotically, growing out of the same physical and political landscape. Williams has a gift of kindling revolutionary thought through a sense of responsibility, to the land and to each other. It’s a message the world needs to hear, and on this beautiful, angry and groundbreaking live album, he gets that message across with unrivalled eloquence.

Taking its name from a street in Birmingham that a teenage Jon Wilks would busk, Needless Alley is described as a patchwork of memories and marks a more autobiographical approach to his writing after previous trad folk-inclined material. These songs from his mental attic are definitely worth exploring, and, as a guitarist, he fully deserves his place alongside names such as Jansch, Carthy, and Simpson.

Good Times is the latest offering from Alexei Shishkin. “…pop culture, poetics, psychology and philosophy are rolled into a surreal, lumpy ball and garnished with a palatable – and memorable – indie-pop melody.” Despite Shishkin’s lo-fi beginnings and his continuing willingness to drink from the well of slacker aesthetics, Good Times is a bold and – dare we say it – polished artistic statement.

“I Will Swim to You: A Tribute to Jason Molina” celebrates one of the most enduring and impactful songwriters of the last thirty years with twelve loving covers. Artists like MJ Lenderman, Horse Jumper of Love, and Hand Habits explore the raw, unvarnished truth of Molina’s music, reflecting on an artist who never shied away from desperation and who found a strange beauty in the struggle of modern life.

Gwenifer Raymond’s third album, Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark, fuses folk horror with the cosmic. From the complex guitar prowess of “Jack Parsons Blues” to the eerie sounds of “Banjo Players of Aleph One,” Raymond’s new work is a natural progression of her sound that raises the instrumental acoustic guitar album to new heights and delivers something new. It’s another banger from this excellent guitarist.

Here are ten new albums to dive into. From the psychedelic desert folk of Foot Ox and the soulful Americana of The Fishermen Three to the timeless duets of Tamar Korn and Kyle Morgan, this list offers a range of sounds. Explore the genre-bending jazz of Shrunken Elvis, the cosmic collaboration between Ivan The Tolerable & Hawksmoor, and the experimental folk-pop of Greg Jamie.

James Yorkston, Nina Persson, and Johanna Söderberg form the perfect trio on “Songs for Nina and Johanna,” creating a masterful blend of melancholy and some unexpected emotional uplift. They seem to have invigorated his work while he, in turn, has provided them with some of his most lyrically poignant songs.

Jens Kuross’s Crooked Songs is by far his warmest and most intimate-sounding yet. It plays out with the sound of Jens moving around in his kitchen; the teaspoon clinks against the cup; the floor creaks. It is the sound of life and a perfect way to end such a raw, bold set of songs that are quietly profound and powerful in their unvarnished delivery. This album is something special.