New album: The London indie trio of singer/guitarist Soph Nathan, drummer Lauren Wilson and bassist Joshua Tyler’s new LP has a beautiful warmth of sound and optimistic honesty in lyric, borne from a theme of celebrating of determination against difficulty
Read moreMercury Rev: Born Horses
New album: The experimental rock band from Buffalo, New York return with their sixth LP, bringing an expansive, ethereal but also familiar sound, a grandeur and sensitivity through psycho-geography inspired by the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson Valley
Read morePom Poko: Champion
New album: Vibrant, joyful, frenzied musicianship simply flies out of this third LP by of Norwegian indie quartet whose style has some parallels with the prog-postpunk of Deerhoof, but with their own eccentric twists
Read moreJohn Grant: The Art Of The Lie
New album: The Iceland-based American returns with his seventh LP, a mixture of catchy funk and disco with slow-burn, simmering, contemplative electronica where dark humour stirs along with candid emotions and a sorrowful look at rising fascism in the US
Read moreConchúr White: Swirling Violets
New album: Gorgeously sensitive, intimate, uplifting, grounded but dream-like folk-pop debut by the singer-songwriter from County Armagh, with blissful but pointed songs of a mystical, spiritual, existential and relatable nature
Read moreFavourite albums of 2023 Part 1: Anna B Savage to Young Fathers
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 1, and Part 2 is also out here. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order. This is all about quality and innovation …
Read moreHarp: Albion
New album: Ethereal, evocative, alternative folk, bathed in flutes and acoustic guitars, in this beautiful debut by the former Midlake singer Tim Smith and his wife Kathi Zung, covering a range of emotions, and bucolic, mountain images
Read moreRaze Regal & White Denim: Raze Regal & White Denim Inc
New album: The virtuoso experimental Texas rock band fronted by James Petralli join old friend and singer/ guitarist formerly of Oakland’s Once and Future Band in a pacy tapestry of cleverly interwoven psych, prog, funk, jazz and rock, with added echoes of Steely Dan
Read moreModern Nature: No Fixed Point In Space
New album: Following 2021/22’s music and art project Island of Noise, another release of lovely simmering stillness by Jack Cooper and his Cambridge-based band, one that with delicate instrumentation captures nature’s processes “like the sound of roots, branches, mycelium, the intricacies of a dawn chorus, neurons firing, and the unknown”
Read moreLaura Groves: Radio Red
New album: Soaring, delicately innovative, beautiful piano-based soft-sheen pop and electronica by the London artist in her debut under her own name, with some flavours of 70s Karen Carpenter and a dash of early Kate Bush, and themed around types of communication
Read moreLanterns on the Lake: Versions of Us
New album: Sumptuous sounds, passionate lyrics and dynamic musicianship by guitarist Paul Gregory and co in the indie Newcastle-upon-Tyne band fronted by superb singer-songwriter Hazel Wilde with an album about self-definition, identity and “existential meditations examining life’s possibilities” in a troubled world
Read moreBC Camplight: The Last Rotation of Earth
New album: Sublimity and tragedy meet once again in this brilliantly beautiful, darkly humorous sixth album by Manchester-based US singer-songwriter Brian Christinzio, charting his latest disaster – after nine years, the sudden breakup with his fiancée
Read moreSusanne Sundfør: Blómi
New album: Strange and strikingly beautiful, the sixth album by the Norwegian singer-songwriter is a mix of classic 70s piano-pop and alternative folk, with echoes everything from Karen Carpenter to Rufus Wainwright
Read moreEmilíana Torrini and The Colorist Orchestra: Racing The Storm
New album: Charming, beautifully arranged acoustic intricacy in this crisp collaboration between the clear-voiced Icelandic-Italian singer-songwriter and Belgian multi-instrumentalist duo Aarich Jespers and Kobe Proesmans and friends
Read moreLowly: Keep Up The Good Work
New album: On a smaller, more intimate scale than previous album Hifalutin, as previewed on Song of the Day, Seasons, the Danish experimental quintet’s new album is filled sensitive, vulnerable, textured, beautifully building electro-folk-pop
Read morePhilip Selway: Strange Dance
New album: The Radiohead drummer’s third solo studio LP is awash with slow, cinematic, lush orchestration, his almost whispered voice with a steady flow of sensitive, melancholy but also hope-filled songs
Read moreComplete Mountain Almanac: Complete Mountain Almanac
New album: A uniquely beautiful, complex, layered project of 12 monthly releases created by Stockholm-based singer/songwriter Rebekka Karijord and the poet, artist and dancer Jessica Dessner, who also brings her younger brothers Aaron and Bryce of The National
Read moreLeila Moss: Internal Working Model
New album: Passionate, powerful, eloquent, elegant and reflective, filled with beautiful musical texture, the former Duke Spirit singer’s third solo album ponders themes over society’s potential empathy against self-seeking global economics, and includes guests Gary Newman and Jehnny Beth
Read moreTim Burgess: Typical Music
New album: One of music’s most positive, self-effacing and affable characters – as frontman of The Charlatans and host of Twitter Listening Parties – returns with a inventive, richly adventurous new solo LP of 22 tracks recorded over 30 days with a classy mix of catchy pop, rock and psychedelia
Read moreEzra Furman: All Of Us Flames
New album: The sixth LP by the brilliant, visceral, angelic American is perhaps the finest to date, an impassioned, tour de force, Springsteen-esque cri de coeur for the LGBTQ and Jewish communities, but also stirs hearts of all who feel oppressed or alienated
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