It is hard to believe that Vanessa Peters is on album number seven, and after the much-acclaimed Christmas album released last year, many have been waiting on tenterhooks to see what Peters has got up her sleeve next. Well, rest-assured,…
Category: Records
Album | Moulettes – The Bear’s Revenge
From the opening notes of the frantic opening single, Sing Unto Me, the Moulettes sophomore release The Bear’ Revenge sweeps you up into a world of traditional sounds made suddenly fresh. Georgina Leach’s stunning violin playing, Hannah Miller’s cello, banjos,…
Album | Lawrence Arabia – The Sparrow
Lawrence Arabia, the moniker chosen by Kiwi James Milne, returns with a fantastic new album entitled The Sparrow. Previous album Look Like A Fool hinted at a Beck esque approach in his low-fi production effects but underlying this was a…
Album | Firefly Burning – Lightships
Firefly Burning remind me of Dirty Projectors in their musicianship and clear intention to do genre-bending things; sparks of piano, strings, metallic gamelan percussion and choral voices make this album implacably weird. Their experiments don’t always come off; songs self-sabotage…
Album | Annie Dressner – Strangers Who Knew Each Other’s Names
Annie Dressner’s debut album begins with ‘Fly‘, the premise of which is familiar enough – young adulthood as a kind of flight – but it feels fresh. Her sound has the atmosphere of a teenage film, veering from poppy to…
EP | Al Lewis – Our Lines Remain
Following on from last year’s In The Wake, North Wales singer-songwriter Al Lewis is preparing for the release of the follow-up later this year and has delivered the first taste in the shape of Our Lines Remain, a lovely little…
Album | Angus Stone – Broken Brights
Angus Stone, the brother contingent of brother and sister duo Angus and Julia Stone, makes his return to solo-dom this summer, and a rather lovely return it is. Both of the Stone siblings started out as solo acts, using each…
Album | Family of the Year – Loma Vista
I’m not a great believer in music being seasonal: after all, a good tune is still a good tune all year round. But there’s no denying that Loma Vista is a summer record. And when the sun’s shining, this is…
Album | Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
Swing Lo Magellan, the sixth studio album by Brooklyn-based Dirty Projectors, provides the latest look into the weird and wonderful musical mind of band leader Dave Longstreth, continuing his exploration for more obscure and eccentric sounds, counterbalanced with a sense…
Album | Jesca Hoop – The House That Jack Built
Championed by Tom Waits and Guy Garvey, California-born, Manchester-based singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop is back with a sumptuous third album. Infused with dark grief and surreal lyrics, the collection is beautifully balanced by full-blown quirky pop and imaginative dream-folk (not to…