Bruce Springsteen, the very guy who wrote “Glory Days” about folk who spend their adult years looking back to the time when they were in their prime and their star shone brightest, should probably have seen this time in his life and career coming. Maybe it’s a little bit easier to spot nostalgia in a…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 13 November 2020. Welsh musician Gwenifer Raymond’s 2018 debut album, You Never Were Much of a Dancer, introduced a new voice on acoustic guitar, receiving 5 stars in The Guardian, big spreads in MOJO and UNCUT, and airplay on…
Since their formation in 2016, Sydney’s psych-rock band Kimono Drag Queens have released a string of singles, and have been slowly leading up to finally releasing their debut, Songs of Worship. It’s taken the seven-piece two years to record but I believe it was worth the wait as Songs of Worship is full of surprising…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 6 November 2020. Ólafur Arnald’s new album – some kind of peace – was born out of the mantra: “we can’t control anything that happens to us. All we can do is control how we react to what life…
Kathleen Edwards, Canadian singer/songwriter, returns after 8 years of relative silence with another fine album of exemplary folk/pop songcraft. Edwards had built a solid following with four solid albums, including 2012’s Voyager, which was produced by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. Edwards left music after touring that album with Vernon, with whom she had a romantic…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 30 October 2020. The consistently brilliant Laura Veirs has released her 11th studio album, My Echo. The album features the previously released singles ‘Burn Too Bright’, ‘Turquoise Walls’ and ‘Another Space and Time’. Veirs’ world was turned upside down…
The Mountain Goats’ singer/songwriter John Darnielle may be thought of by some as the poet laureate of all things nerdy due to entire albums drawn from the world of wrestling (Beat the Champ), Dungeons & Dragons (In League With Dragons), 80’s post-punk art rock (Goths), and obscure Bible verses (The Life of the World to…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 23 October 2020. Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker has released two new albums, songs and instrumentals, out now through 4AD. songs and instrumentals are two distinct collections, both written and recorded in April after Big Thief’s March tour was abruptly…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 16 October 2020. The Messenger is Hélène Grimaud’s dialogue between Mozart and the Ukrainian-born contemporary composer Valentin Silvestrov. The recording sessions took place at the start of this year at an historic Mozart site in Salzburg, the Great Hall…
By now, fans of Sufjan Stevens have learned to approach each new project with an open mind. On his most successful effort to date, 2005’s Illinois, Stevens revealed the breadth of his musical interests, from indie folk to pop/rock all the way to showtunes with full orchestrations, and electronica. The Age of Adz (2010) turned…
