Albums

Laura Jean’s ‘Amateurs’ is the work of a sincere professional, one who refuses to be bound by boxes or boundaries. She moves in directions where the weight of her work and the totality of her talent are vast and limitless.

Emboldened by the band’s incredible array of talent, The Magpie Arc’s Glamour In The Grey is an incredibly varied album which shows that there is nothing predictable or pedestrian about folk-rock. It’s a welcome shot in the arm and a wild ride.

With Escape That, Sam Sweeney has made his most personal record to date. His playing has never been more confident or fluid and the accompaniments are also stellar in their subtlety. It is gorgeous, joyous playing, possibly his best yet.

Produced by Jeff Tweedy, Alpenglow is Trampled by Turtles’ tenth album and is, without doubt, the band’s most contemplative album to date; one in which to immerse yourself.

Goat have risen and served notice of their return with ‘Oh Death’, the most earth-shakingly punchy album of their career so far. The effect these ten tracks leave on the listener is head-spinningly wonderful; lose yourself in the giddy delight of the experience.

A creative director, designer and photographer, at 40, Joseph Shipp is only now stepping out into a new career as a singer-songwriter with his debut album, ‘Free, For A While’; it’s unquestionably one of the year’s best.

Aoife Nessa Frances may have been caught in the wonder of the moment, trying to figure out where she fits in, yet Protector is a most generous gift, where she plays not to the crowd but to the sound and swirl of her own heart.

Only a few albums warrant being designated genre-defining and/or so important that they changed music…The Watersons’ Frost & Fire is one of them; it remains a revelatory and seminal album and this vinyl reissue by Topic Records is an essential purchase.

With A Tarot Of The Green Wood, Burd Ellen successfully tread entirely new ground. It is a suitably bewitching, disconcerting and often profoundly moving experience from the most innovative duo in folk music.

Eliza Carthy’s Queen Of The Whirl is all top-drawer…the element that fires listeners up the most is that voice. As far as natural-born instruments go, it is one of the best and wow, does she know how to use it.

Shot through with threads of resilience, Samuel James Taylor’s ‘Wild Tales and Broken Hearts’ is an album that reignited his love of music and songwriting.

On ‘Edyf,’ Cerys Hafana’s sound is simultaneously ancient in feel yet intriguingly modern with a vital 21st-century edginess. On each listen, new layers reveal themselves…it doesn’t follow any recognisable path or template, but then aren’t these the records that endure the longest?