Featured Albums of the Month

After a tantalising introduction to Curse of Lono last year, their debut album ‘Severed’ is finally here. It plays like an album from a band who have been developing their performance for many years and it’s one they can be immensely proud of.

Cracks in the Room makes the most impressive use yet of Twelfth Day’s winning way with a lyrical hook and their quite exceptional instrumental skills. It is one of the most rewarding listening experiences to be placed before an audience this year.

Ritual Land, Uncommon Ground is a quietly huge endeavour, a labour of love, full of valuable knowledge, surprising stylistic breadth and exquisite songwriting.

Artistic statements like The Gathering…are symptoms of change, and they are also its catalysts. Toby Hay’s album is a stunning turning point in what we have come to call folk music. A beautiful, frank and mysterious statement.

On ‘The Other Side,’ Adaya successfully reimagines folk music through the bright window of intelligent songcraft and genuinely experimental arrangements. It is an intensely varied and often mesmerising release from a unique voice.

With ‘Making Waves,’ Luke Daniels bridges the gap between traditional music and its contemporary descendants (ft. John Doyle, Mike McGoldrick and Aidan O’Rourke) and emerges with his reputation as an instrumentalist, a composer and an innovator considerably enhanced. An outstanding album.

Copenhagen fulfils the promise of Benjamin Folke Thomas’s live shows and his two earlier albums. It also represents a bold step forward as a song writer and an important progression as a studio artist. It is, without a doubt, his best album yet.

Neil McSweeney’s latest offering ‘A Coat Worth Wearing’ is reminiscent of the romantic poets Wordsworth or Shelley, but like Blake, he has a darker side, a rebellious streak and a decisive need to push for positive change. It is a rare songwriter that can combine these elements over the course of an album or even a career. McSweeney often manages to do it in the space of a single song.

Éilís Kennedy’s new solo album ‘Westward’ features the finest songs from all over the British Isles and from across the Atlantic. The connections Éilís enjoys with her collaborators have helped her share those songs in a memorable and truly enjoyable setting. An exceptional album from one of Ireland’s finest voices.

Chris Foster has the uncanny ability to make everything he does appear easy, assembling or arranging songs like an artisan builds a drystone wall. And like drystone walls, Hadelin is sure to stand the test of time. The album features Jim Moray, Jackie Oates, John Kirkpatrick, Jim Causley & more.

Robin Morton’s admiration for the Battlefield Band in all its many incarnations has driven the assembly of this collection; snapshots of 40 years of musical development that so effectively chart the band’s evolution. The Producer’s Choice is a superbly fitting celebration of it.

Flood & Burn is Sean Taylor’s eighth album in just over ten years, and he continues to get better and better. It is a highly accomplished and well-rounded addition to what is already a hugely impressive body of work, and Taylor has quietly become one of our most valuable and unique songwriters.