Courtney Barnett’s full debut arrives with high expectations – and rightly so, given the strength of the two EPs that came before it. Collected together in 2013 as The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, those records earned her…
Brandi Carlile has a firebrand of a voice. It has shades of country, pop and blues in its powerful range, a little like a female version of Ryan Adams. Her music is cut from the same cloth, a commercial take…
Mr Knopfler needs little introduction. Dire Straits were one of the biggest and best bands of the 80s, while his solo career has been far more than just a vanity project. He is of course one of the most gifted,…
Matthew E. White’s 2013 debut Big Inner was a cracker – a sublime work that appeared from nowhere. It encapsulated both old and new – Motown soul and pop, a touch of country, and lullaby vocals combined to produce one…
Kristin McClement arrives as a fully-formed artist with a debut album to prove it. The Wild Grips is elegant, spacious and beautifully presented. From the first notes, McClement spins the web of an expert storyteller and songwriter. And that is…
Jose Gonzalez is one of those artists you have heard before, whether you know it or not. His songs work their way into daily life and are beautiful little creatures that seem to live and breathe and take on a…
In the six years since Idlewild released Post Electric Blues, they’ve had a lengthy hiatus, put out a handful of solo projects, and ultimately realised that Idlewild was something worth holding on to. They’ve returned with a clear sense of…
Gretchen Peters’ Blackbirds is bookended by two songs of the same name. The opener is electric and confrontational, the closer a milder and softer reprise. Powered by Peters’ voice – lived-in, loaded, tainted with regret – the chorus of the…
The Unthanks’ latest album is filled to the brim with the epic, the grandiose, and the fairytale-Âesque. The finest moments of Mount The Air are perfect slices of modern folk, always with a nod to some of the genre’s greatest…
Duke Garwood’s Heavy Love opens with the dark, creepy electric blues of ‘Sometimes’. It’s muddy, sexy…and that’s before Garwood’s deep vocals kick in to create a dark fantasy. His bleak storytelling is captivating, with his music setting the scene and…