Despite announcing its arrival with a wave of lush waves, the latest album from Americana veterans Lambchop delivers understatement as a theme. From the descriptions of the banal realities of relationships (cleaning the coffee maker and avoiding ‘talking about seagulls’…
Category: Records
Album | Perfume Genius – Put Your Back N 2 It
Perfume Genius seemed to emerge from nowhere in June 2010 as debut LP Learning made a quiet but marked impact on those who heard it. Mike Hadreas’ stark and revealing lyrics came from an unsettling, dark place, and were coupled…
Blog | Gibson Bull, Blue Sky Archives & Marie Naffah
Few artists to have been covered by our New Bands Panel have brought about as good a reaction as Gibson Bull, so we were excited to hear a new track from him this week. The London singer-songwriter has started work…
EP | The Way Home – The Ship
Suffolk is rarely thought of as a centre of gospel and blues music but from this low-lying county come The Way Home, who seem as they might instead have been raised on the Mississippi Delta. On their debut release The…
Album | The Rosie Taylor Project – Twin Beds
From the offset, Twin Beds lulls you into a false sense of security. Chirruping percussion contrasts to a swirling and dreamy rhythm on opener ‘Twin Beds (one)’, before ‘For Esme’ opens with a blast of trumpet, giving birth to a…
Album | Anais Mitchell – Young Man In America
Anais Mitchell wrote one of my favourite albums of recent years, majestic folk opera Hadestown. When FFS spoke to her about that incredible album, she told us that her next project was to be an album of old folk songs. And…
Album | Friend of All The World – The Wild
There’s an underwhelming description of the Friend Of All The World on their website which suggests the Montreal band don’t fully understand their own strengths. As statements of intent go, “tunes that evoke the camaraderie of a kitchen party” hardly…
Album | The Soft Hills – The Bird Is Coming Down To Earth
For a city still tied intrinsically to its grunge history, Seattle might soon find itself identified as a centre of folk-pop. Fleet Foxes and Band of Horses are at the forefront, of course, but somewhere just behind them are the…
Album | Sharon Van Etten – Tramp
Much like St. Vincent prior to the release of her 2011 album Strange Mercy, Sharon Van Etten’s music has seemed to linger on the periphery of reaching a deservedly larger audience. This is despite her two previous albums, 2009’s Because…
Album | The Twilight Sad – No One Can Ever Know
There has never been a worse time for an ‘80s synth-pop album to come out than now. Even the ‘80s. As Simon Reynolds’ derisive term (and book) “Retromania” gets bandied about more and more, so too does the popularity of…