Albums

Libby Rodenbough’s ‘Between the Blades’ is a deeply personal and creative exploration of emotions and ideas that are slowly arising in the public conscience. It is an offering of questions, not answers, questions…in the form of beautiful, catchy melodies, bringing hope in place of despair.

Following his 2006 Carolling & Crumpets, the English folk squeezebox maestro John Kirkpatrick delivers a midwinter treat with a new Christmas collection titled ‘Joy & Jubilation’. He is accompanied by members of the South Shropshire ‘Castle Carols’, and his son Benji also features.

Hiss Golden Messenger have stumbled upon a weird kind of alchemy; through their sense of magic, they are able to bind belief with reality in a way that lets you know there is only one choice: Jump for Joy.

An emotive blend of song and oratory, Blind Boys Of Alabama’s “Echoes of the South” seeks the core of Divine-human relationships. No simplistic pleas for salvation; these are stories of how we might live when facing hardship or the loss of hope.

Eliza Skelton’s The Lookerer is a haunting and beguiling album that entrances with its excitingly lush sound world. Her assured yet gentle and mysteriously captivating voice binds the disarmingly otherworldly vibe of the musical settings with the down-to-earth mysticality of her lyrical and philosophical vision.

With ‘Dandelion Breeze’, The Clements Brothers have delivered a terrific album that unassumingly and softly seeps into your soul and stakes its claim as one of the year’s best debuts.

A new mini-album showcases The Scrub Jay Orchestra – the name adopted by the well-matched Hot Vultures (Ian A. Anderson & Maggie Holland) and “wunderkind” guitarist Martin Simpson when touring in 1979.

Gregory Alan Isakov’s ‘Appaloosa Bones’ is an album suffused with enigmatic poetic imagery that complements the simple but exquisite contemplative arrangements…an album to absorb as you lay outside on a summer night gazing up at the stars.

As whimsy and reality converge, Stephen Steinbrink’s ‘Disappearing Coin’ is delightful and endearing, an album filled with playfulness and wonder… this coin should not disappear without a trace.

Finch and Blasucci seem to have a way of leaning into the sweet spots of each other’s work…while living in different cities, Mapache have found the musical moments that bind the two as a band. Swinging Stars continues to deliver sheer west coast magic.

Ballads of Seduction, Fertility And Ritual Slaughter is a wonderfully consistent, decidedly spooky re-imagining of The Wicker Man soundtrack. It is full of odd delights and is, almost certainly, best listened to sitting down. Shocks are, after all, so much better absorbed with knees bent.

What turned out to be Rab Noakes’ final album, ‘Should We Tell Him: Songs by Don Everly’ is a genuine labour of love that should be embraced by fans of Noakes, Brooks Williams and The Everlys alike.