Albums

Nothin’ Lastin’, the long-awaited new solo offering from Hal Cannon offers a song cycle that leads from the fear of impermanence to contemplating what we are missing – an exploration towards solid ground.

A more expansive album than her last, Loose Future marks something of a new journey and beginning for Courtney Marie Andrews.

Saltlines is a massive, ambitious and highly unusual project; the fact that it feels perfectly judged at every moment is down to the sheer excellence of Gigspanner Big Band’s musicianship and the touching, clear-eyed nature of everything Raynor Winn writes or speaks. It is a constant delight. 

Six Out Of Nine is a limited edition EP release from Julie Murphy in which she re-interprets three American standards…all are gems and peerless performances.

Impressively, with KIN, Sharron Kraus has managed to knit the two threads – seriousness and strangeness – together into one of the most rewarding, accomplished and unexpectedly moving albums of the year.

As well as being a clarion call and a beacon of defiance, Mali Obomsawin’s ‘Sweet Tooth’ is one of those albums that utterly defy expectation or convention – it occupies its own universe, arriving from leftfield to blow your mind.

Dwelling By The Weir is a striking debut that launches Ellie Gowers into the folk scene as a  fully-fledged contender for end-of-year awards and accolades.

Few things in life are a given but relying upon Blackbeard’s Tea Party to deliver raucous, dynamic, high-quality music that exudes fun is one of them. Batten down the hatches, Kick The Curb is set to make waves.

It’s rare to find a trio more musically matched than the members of Bonny Light Horseman, and their new album, Rolling Golden Holy, is a collaboration unlike any you’re likely to hear this year.

With a change to their lineup, The Magpies continue to plough their own furrow on ‘Undertow’, weaving their broad influences into songs and tunes that are indisputably their own including an unexpected cover…proof that they can successfully apply their unique polish to pretty much anything.

What Bróna McVittie has achieved on The Woman in the Moon is quite remarkable. She has found a way to focus the broad musical sound worlds that have inspired her, to reach listeners in new and unexpected ways.

‘The Space Between’ is the sound of a band that are cooking on heat; anyone who comes into the Bonfire Radicals’ orbit is going to be hard pushed not to be swept up by this blazing folk comet.