Albums

With former band The Sixers on hold, Stephen Kellogg delivers an album of clever, literate song craft, packing a big emotional punch and in Thanksgiving possibly the song of the year.

Gill Sandell’s second solo album is an object lesson in the art and craft of songwriting; a shimmering tapestry of sound with a mesmerising beauty, Light The Boats must surely rank amongst the year’s best records.

Josephine Foster’s Little Life is a very welcome re-release, good on Fire Records for bringing it back into the fray. If you’re a fan, you need to add this to your collection.

At times sincere, at times slightly sinister, Lux Harmonium’s new recordings recall the golden age of British psych-folk without ever losing their modern focus and precision.

Rising For The Moon gets the deluxe re-issue treatment…the only studio legacy of what remains an excellent, if overlooked, Fairport Convention lineup.

Being left and leaving, Alela Diane goes house-haunting on her latest release ‘About Farewell’.

London / Newcastle-Upon-Tyne based band Crumbling Ghost’s latest album ‘II’ is original and unrestrained in its approach, an album of renewal not revivalism.

Galway based six-piece collective Cubs release a ten-track EP which is filled to the brim with psychedelic folk goodness. A delightful listen.

Choosing to write and sing in English because of the unique perspective using a foreign tongue brings, Croatian born, German Native Antun Opic has created a Gypsy folk delight.

New Hampshire folk artist Asa Irons returns with a new album Knife Gift Debt, a very welcome return which has been co-produced with Caleb Mulkerin and Micah Blue Smaldone.

Early morning aboard a CalMac ferry, three hours out from Oban and from a grey mist, a concrete jetty appears. Welcome to Tiree…read Johnny Whalley’s review of Tiree Music Festival.

Single Flame, the excellent new album from Lucy Ward shows growing maturity and confidence in her songwriting, setting up a film soundtrack, Folie A Deux to be broadcast in September on BBC 4.