Albums

False Lankum is Lankum’s most uncompromising album to date which highlights their highly individual approach to music-making: a discourse between band and listener that is challenging, raw, brutally honest and always rewarding.

Music is rarely as rewarding as ‘Peggy’s Dream’, the new album from Martin Hayes & the Common Ground Ensemble. There really aren’t the superlatives available to do it justice.

Rura’s ‘Dusk Moon’ is an expertly crafted suite of new material that showcases both the compositional and performance prowess of all four band members; from moody musical landscapes to blowing up a storm that would get any audience on its feet and dancing, this album has it all.

Featuring a wealth of special guests, including Brenn Hill, Dom Flemons, Corb Lund, Pipp Gillette, Tom Russell, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Brigid Reedy, Waddie Mitchell, and Andy Wilkinson, Andy Hedges’ ‘Roll On’ Cowboys’ is a vital contribution to preserving the musical history and heritage of arguably the most iconic and defining quintessence of America. 

Through Irish traditional instruments and synthesizers, Gareth Quinn Redmond’s ambitious and innovative ‘Umcheol’ offers a unique and immersive perspective on the epic Irish legend of Cú Chulainn and Ferdiad.

“What Are We Trying To Say?” is Megson’s thirteenth album and their first studio recording in four years. Despite the title, they do know what they’re trying to say and do so entertainingly and pithily…seek it out.

At the heart of Roo Panes’ ‘The Summer Isles’ are nostalgic memories and wonder, bolstered by deceptively complex music with soft, subtle hues that frame images expressing romantic joy and beauty, and a road map to love.

Featuring one of the most striking songs I’ve heard this year, Songs For John Alfred marks the arrival of a conspicuous new voice on the folk-Americana circuit; a full album from Broken Harbours is eagerly awaited.

Salt House’s “Riverwoods” feels far more important and pertinent than a regular release. It is an album of stirringly gorgeous music that fully delivers its message about the importance of nature and its inherent beauty in our world, along with how we need to maintain it.

Hack-Poets Guild features three of the finest musical minds that the British folk scene has to offer, and on Blackletter Garland, an album that is more than the sum of its parts, they demonstrate the possible futures of folk music, all of them varied and vibrant.

Folk music has always been inextricably tied up with history, but rarely has the relationship been as mysterious and rewarding as it is here with Milkweed’s ‘The Mound People’.

With Almost a Sunset, Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman draw on traditional roots, refracted through a contemporary lens; this is not so much a sunset as the dawn of a glorious new chapter in their increasingly illustrious career.