Desolate Stars sounds like it was recorded in your living room, with the musicians sat around your sofa. It’s personal, tender, easy to like – a rather beautiful little record. The sparse yet intricate instrumentation makes it feel like they…
Look no further, Julia Holter is in pole position for artist of the decade. Early promise has not only been realised but even surpassed on this her fourth album. Following on from 2013’s Loud City Song, this is her second…
It’s hard to mention Hansard without talking about his greatest moment to date - the film Once. It was a stunning film, a modern cult classic, and a perfect platform for Hansard and Marketa Irglova’s to display their musical and…
Gone are the loud guitars and feedback squalls of Hawley’s last album Standing At The Sky’s Edge and back is Hawley’s classic sound. His voice is ageing, beautifully – smoking may be taking its toll but somehow the damage done…
When I first heard The Lake Poets, otherwise known as the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Martin Longstaff, he was playing his guitar onstage at one of Newcastle’s best venues (in my humble opinion), the Cluny. The demo of ‘Windowsill’, which…
Having toured for much of the summer in support of their album Bonxie, released in April, Stornoway provide a matching bookend to close their travelling schedule by releasing a six-track acoustic companion piece shorn of the denser instrumentation and frequent…
Hitting middle age was always going to be a test for The Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn. Some 11 years after the barroom rock version of the E Street Band emerged from the wreckage of Lifter Puller, the now 44-year-old’s…
New York City based outfit Tall Firs took 16 years to get to its first album, after forming in 1990. Thankfully subsequent releases haven’t taken such a long time, and we now find ourselves addressing the matter of the act’s…
As scuzzed-up electronic drums heartbeat their way through the opening bars of Low’s 11th album there’s a thrilling realisation that this is not more of the same from the Minnesota minimalists. Replacing the floor-rug warmth of 2013’s The Invisible Way,…
Ortega’s nostalgic world of ‘Faded Gloryville’ looks back over her shoulder and contemplates what went before. Her fourth long player for Last Gang records reeks of class and is the sound of an artist at total peace with herself. It…