New album: A sublimely beautiful, poetic, delicate and profound new LP by American singer-songwriter Will Oldham, his first since 2019’s I Made a Place and the collaborative albums of 2021 – Superwolves with Matt Sweeney and Blind Date Party with Bill Callahan
Read moreDot Allison: Consciousology
New album: With easily the most beautiful and delicate LP of the week, the Scottish singer-multi-instrumentalist returns with a gorgeous blend of psych-folk, her gentle voice poetically capturing nature’s patterns with threads of orchestral strings, electronica, and some guest guitar by Ride’s Andy Bell
Read morePalehound: Eye On The Bat
New album: Brooklyn’s El Kempner returns with a new selection of passionate, intelligent, punchy indie-folk with songs about illusions shattering, the before and after, raw nerves and propulsive instrumentation
Read moreSam Burton: Dear Departed
New album: Very much in the mould of late 60s/ early-70s Harry Nilsson or Glen Campbell – serene, gentle, melancholy, sometimes sublime songs in this second LP by the Utah-born, LA-based singer-songwriter
Read moreJulie Byrne: The Greater Wings
New album: Gorgeously delicate, serene, thoughtful, intimate acoustic folk by the ethereal, breathy-voiced New York singer-songwriter, her third studio album and first for six years capturing a variety of moods and emotions across times of isolation and change
Read moreVarious: The Endless Coloured Ways - The Songs of Nick Drake
New album: An enthralling collection of 23 cover versions of classic numbers by the legendary British folk singer who tragically died in 1974, featuring diverse artists including Fontaine’s D.C., Emeli Sandé, Aldous Harding, Guy Garvey and John Grant
Read morePJ Harvey: I Inside The Old Year Dying
New album: Seven years after The Hope Six Demolition Project album, Polly returns with mysterious, experimental, beautiful, alluring release in which she adapts poems from her book Orlam into songs immersed in the otherworld-underworld of her home Dorset countryside, laced with local dialect and unusual acoustic instruments
Read moreAngelo De Augustine: Toil and Trouble
New album: Beautiful, acoustic otherworldliness aplenty in this fourth album by the California singer-songwriter in a realm of tender songs of gentle fingerpicking ethereal, whispery falsetto, glass xylophone, flutes, mellotron, oddball sound effects and animation
Read moreBen Howard: Is It?
New album: Lush yet innovative, introspective folk-pop by English singer-songwriter and composer in his sixth album, influenced still by John Martyn, this LP is filled with unusual sounds, rhythms and effects and electronica to reflect his shock experience of two mini-strokes in 2022
Read moreGrian Chatten: Chaos For The Fly
New album: The Fontaines D.C. vocalist releases a strong, sensitive solo album leaning more towards gentle, wistful, reflective folk, including some echoes of Nick Drake but retaining his strong Dublin flavour, and produced by the brilliant and prolific Dan Carey
Read moreUrsa Major Moving Group: Ursa Major Moving Group
New album: A stellar, innovative and absorbing debut LP project by London multi-instrumentalist, composer and writer Ursula Russell fusing folk, chamber pop and gentle post-punk
Read moreThis Is The Kit: Careful Of Your Keepers
New album: Another peach of an LP from Kate Stables and band, whose voice especially with her acoustic alternative folk, effortlessly caresses the microphone with clarity, beauty, profundity and minimalism, and is produced by Gruff Rhys
Read moreThe Milk Carton Kids - I Only See The Moon
New album: The Grammy-nominated vocal harmonising duo of Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan from Eagle Rock, California, release a new collection of beautiful, bittersweet acoustic American folk of moving and vivid narratives
Read moreJames Howard: Peek-a-Boo
New album: Like a slow caress of wry beauty, a deliciously paced alt-folk-Americana debut by the English producer and multi-instrumentalist with a collection aptly described as 'twinkling like a glitterball in an abandoned dancehall’
Read moreFatoumata Diawara: London Ko
New album: The Mali star returns with an third LP, mixing Afro-futurism and feminism wassoulou traditions and western, but also celebrating her links the UK and and collaborations, notably with co-producer Damon Albarn, and other guest including Angie Stone and Roberto Fonseco
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 moreTiny Ruins: Ceremony
New album: Gorgeously intricate, beautifully paced experimental folk comes in this fourth LP by the band of New Zealand’s Hollie Fullbrook, with songs that are poignant, melancholy, but also intelligently uplifting
Read moreLucy Farrell: We Are Only Sound
New album: Another beautiful folk release, this the long-awaited full debut by established Kent-born Canada-based singer-songwriter who recorded this in the medieval walls of Wenlock Abbey, home to Nick Drake’s sister Gabrielle, who allowed us of her brother’s instruments
Read moreCinder Well: Cadence
New album: Beautifully stark, slow, vividly lyrical, bathed in warm resonator guitar with gentle percussion and violin, and the sensitive, resonant voice of Amelia Baker, whose folk songs are inspired by and capturing her Californian coast upbringing and beloved rural Ireland home
Read moreLael Neale: Star Eaters Delight
New album: The American singer-songwriter returns with a third album of ethereal alternative folk-pop, inspired by moving from the bright lights of LA to the calm of the family Virginia farm and polarities of country-city, humanity-technology, solitude- relationship
Read more