Albums

Fueled by a traumatic breakup and the fragility of new beginnings, Valentine is Courtney Marie Andrews’ most vulnerable and sonically adventurous work to date. Drawing on influences like Tusk and Big Star, the album navigates emotional extremes through lush instrumentation and “nakedly exposed” vocals. It is a powerful reclamation of self-worth that uses music to transform dark-night-of-the-soul pain into transcendent art.

Fiona Lucia’s Phoenix Waltz is a strikingly intimate debut, blending folk, soul, and jazz with the adroit orchestration of Bjork or ANOHNI. Her voice—reminiscent of Billie Holiday’s restraint and Aretha’s punch—navigates themes of trauma and transcendence. From D’Angelo-esque harmonies to soaring, self-recorded strings, this is a heart-wrenching, hypnotic journey that pulses between quiet yearning and powerful, analogue soul.

John Blek’s tenth album, The Midnight Ache, is a sublime, lo-fi journey into vulnerability. The record balances melancholic “insomniac hours” with a hopeful move toward the light. Featuring lush strings and dreamlike arrangements, it’s a beautifully crafted transition from past shadows into a brighter, more domestic musical landscape.

Patience and elegance define Laura Baird’s “Under Blue,” a poignant exploration of loss and grief following her father’s passing. Utilising banjo, woodwind and his classical guitar, Baird crafts a minimal, deliberate soundscape that entwines with her serene vocals. It is a masterclass in restraint—a stripped-back, beautiful celebration of life that balances the innocence of nature with the inevitability of loss.

Jana Horn’s music creeps up on you; she occupies an in-between world where she works with such restraint and such a keen ear for the space at the centre of a song that it renders genre practically meaningless. She has the gift for breathing life and lived experience into her words, and this muted, wandering album is her best yet.   

Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore’s long-awaited collaboration, Tragic Magic, is a radiant masterpiece of experimental beauty. Utilising antique harps and vintage synths at the Philharmonie de Paris, the duo transcends “new age” tropes with dexterous, modernist compositions. From the futuristic sweep of “Stardust” to the poignant solace of “Melted Moon,” it is a confident, immersive album that lingers in the memory long after its last notes fade.   

Many Hands’ There are Moss Balls in Paradise is a decidedly earthy take on ambient music, rough at the edges and hauntingly human. Triggered by a child’s grief over a dead fish, Henderson’s restless, freewheeling vision treads the line between tranquillity and uncanny depth. It is a watery ode to humanity and our fragile relationship with the natural world.

Over two decades after their last release, Chicago supergroup Pullman returns with III, a “quietly kaleidoscopic” triumph. Recorded between 2016 and 2023 following drummer Tim Barnes’s early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis, the album is a poignant, abstract meditation on camaraderie. Moving from fuzz-heavy instrumentals to shimmering soundscapes, it is an elegant, deeply emotive record that rewards multiple listens with its meticulous, heartfelt composition.

New York/Berlin duo Church Car—Big Daddy Mugglestone and Ian Douglas-Moore—debut with Church Of, a remarkably coherent album that feels like traversing a surreal role-playing game. Blending analogue synth, zither, and field recordings, the pair shuttles between grainy psych minimalism and structured melodicism. It’s a puzzling, adventurous journey where improvisational noise and avant-rock sparring constantly evolve into something new and exciting.

Recorded in the rugged Northwest Arkansas wilderness, Chaz Knapp’s Winter Music is a haunting, solitary audio diary. By blending field recordings of whistling winds and rushing water with acoustic improvisation and weary vocals, Knapp captures the raw vulnerability of the elements. It is a powerful, “microfolk” masterpiece—a rudimentary yet accomplished immersion into the beautiful isolation of deep winter.

Ahead of her upcoming tours with Stereolab and Jane Weaver, Emma Tricca has released a new live album, Prisms of Winter. Recorded in Shoreditch with Simon Alpin, the collection captures the raw, fragile intimacy of her songwriting against a backdrop of East London street sounds. It’s a soulful reimagining of her catalogue, offering fans a beautifully unpolished, heartfelt experience.

Expertly curated by Nyahh Records, An Irish Almanac is a sprawling 32-track survey of Ireland’s avant-garde. Spanning two discs, it treats “noise” as a broad umbrella for everything from dark drones and “occult freak-folk” to playful vocal experiments. While no compilation of this kind could ever claim to be complete, this detailed panorama offers a transformative map of a shifting underground scene, bursting with grit, mystery, and playfulness.