Back in 2009, the 20-year-old Jessica Lea Mayfield released her debut album With Blasphemy So Heartfelt. Dan Auerbach – Ohio’s own Jack White (minimalist blues-rock band – check, endless side-projects – check, taste for production – check) had championed her…
Category: Reviews
Album: Alexander – Alexander
The ‘Solo Career’ section of Alexander Ebert’s Wikipedia page states simply and coolly: “In 2010, Alexander began to dabble with a solo career.” Imagine this line as the last of a movie trailer – the line that tells us all…
Live: Ólöf Arnalds @ Vortex Jazz Club, 1 March
I first heard Ólöf Arnalds when her song ‘Surrender’ came on the radio and made my ears prick up. Eerily understated, it quickly gets under the skin. The music video, in which a haunted-looking Ólöf wanders in damp, gloomy forest, exploring…
Album: Firefly – Lightships
Sometimes you want music that’s happy in the background: tunes and rhythms into which you can snuggle down, safe and sound and comforted. This kind of music is highly necessary and vitally important to day-to-day life. Firefly do not make…
Album: Wye Oak – Civilian
Listening to Wye Oak’s third full-length release, one conclusion among many confusions is apparent: when they’re good, they’re great. For a so-called indie-folk duo, though, it’s maybe surprising that the key component of Civilian is its unrelenting tautness. It offers…
Album: The Unthanks – Last
While rustic music of an epic thrust becomes ever more popular, sending the likes of folk pretenders Mumford & Sons all the way to the Brit Awards, the Unthanks remain something of a niche outfit, maintaining a high standing among…
Album: James Vincent McMorrow – Early In The Morning
Be warned: the rise of smokey-timbre’d troubadour James Vincent McMorrow will be littered with Bon Iver comparisons. Certainly the breathy vocals, haunting harmonies, and woodsy themes in McMorrow’s debut invite such characterizations, but Early In The Morning is no brooding…
Album: The Son(s) – The Son(s)
Back in May, The Son(s) received a glowing write-up from the FFS New Bands Panel, with words such as “ethereal”, “majestic” and “achingly beautiful” being thrown around and an appearance on the end-of-year playlist ensuing – so hopes were high…
Album: Noah & the Whale – Last Night On Earth
Last year I went to see Noah & the Whale perform their second album First Days of Spring at the Camden Roundhouse. Their performance, like the album, was devastating. Half of the room was in tears. The gig could fairly…
Album: The Low Anthem – Smart Flesh
The Low Anthem are a band of two distinct worlds. Treading a line between traditional, perhaps even stereotypical, American country music and a more modern, indie-folk perspective, the band have manifested this schism in different forms over the years. 2008’s…