Albums

Hailing from Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, through ‘Dark Island’, the folk-rock quartet Villages, deliver a musical love letter to their native homeland in all its wild beauty.

Recorded in 2022, Will Varley’s ‘Through The Lowlands’ is a live showcase of two decades worth of material…this album is a forceful reminder of the sort of power he brings to his performances, whatever the size of the stage.

If you know David Brewis primarily for his music with brother Peter in Field Music, you may not be prepared for the pastoral delight on offer with ‘The Soft Struggles.’ Featuring an abundance of guest players, it is an album emphatically worth spending some time with.

Ultimately, Emiliana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra’s ‘Racing the Storm’ represents collaboration in its richest form; and if there was ever an example that genre is dead in modern music (and that it can yield outstanding results), this is it.

Recorded in a spirit of communal joy, Dougie Poole’s ‘The Rainbow Wheel Of Death’ positively struts into view…an album staring down dark moments with good (gallows) humour via the shared strength in music. 

With ‘The Wedding Above in Glencree’, Daoirí Farrell confirms his stature as one of the finest Irish traditional singers. From the first note to the last, it is a gem of an album.

For those open to hearing Kologo sounds being taken down experimental routes, King Ayisoba’s frenetic Work Hard, as with his most recent releases, is worth the deep dive. 

Exhilarating right through to the very last downbeat, Tilham proves a brilliantly fiery and tremendously satisfying set that embodies par excellence, the “inimitable, driving, drone-based wall-of-sound“ that will forever be associated with the Blowzabella name.

The songs on Jonathan Day’s ‘Sakura’ are characterised by a profound philosophical insight and the importance of music and nature. But most of all, it is an album about love and the small but important connections between humans in a world that can feel overwhelmingly big.

With “Gum Card”, The Mining Co’s fifth album, Michael Gallagher returns to his normal haunts of folk, Americana and country while also illustrating that the path less taken is where the magic lies. 

Until The Rivers Run Dry is John Blek’s most romantic, relaxed and readily accessible work to date. It finds him at the peak of his powers, although we expect more great things to come.

Jaimee Harris’s 2020 Red Rescue was an auspicious debut, but Boomerang Town is a far stronger, more reflective, more emotional and masterful album that firmly announces her as both a voice and a writer of the finest grade.