The kids are coming up from behind.
Pennsylvania’s singer-songwriter Hayden Anhedonia, aka Ethel Cain released (though earlier in the year, she released Perverts – an ambient album) her follow up to 2022’s impressive, southern-gothic rock opera, Preacher’s Daughter steeped in gloomy slowcore atmosphere. Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You retains the somnolent, oppressive atmospheres, furious subtext and lengthy tracks (nearly 80 minutes … Read more
Maryland DIY singer-songwriter Marcus Elliot Brown AKA Nourished By Time released the much-anticipated follow up to 2023’s Erotic Probiotic 2, The Passionate Ones, a unique singer-songwriter approach centred on a DIY aesthetic and a compositional style that blends the starry synth-pop of the 1980s and the vocal melodies of 90s New Jack Swing with icy … Read more
Chicago vocalist, guitarist and composer Hannah Frances followed up her breakout album in 2024 Keeper of the Shepherd, which put forward a set of eerie and baroque progressive folk tunes. With the help of Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear (and perhaps inspired by Rossen’s 2022 album You Belong There), Nested In Tangles expands further on … Read more
Mac Demarco further stripped his sound back on the melancholic folk-pop home recordings of Guitar, a series of lazy, relaxed meditations, reminiscent (as always) of John Lennon, barely 30 minutes in length. The shy delivery works best on the cute Shining and the solemn lament Home, where the melodies are given space to breathe. Terror, … Read more
LA singer and guitarist, Annahstasia debuted weith Tether in a subtle chamber folk style backed by several collaborators, particularly multi-instrumentalists, Hailey Niswanger and Aaron Liao. The standout feature is certainly the vocals, reminiscent of Nina Simone, Tracy Chapman and Anohni of Antony and the Johnsons. The delicate vibrato colors the songs with a vulnerable quality, … Read more
Seasoned singer-songwriter and talented vocalist of the early 00s alt-country scene, Neko Case returned after 6 years with Neon Grey Midnight Green, written with guitarist Paul Rigby and supported by lavish arrangements courtesy of the Denver-based PlainsSong Chamber Orchestra. They style remains typically whimsical and reminiscent of the theatrical philharmonic pop of the 50s but … Read more
Late bloomer, Ryan Davis who already played in several folk-rock bands since the late 2000s finally made a splash as Ryan Davis and the Roadhouse Band – actually, a solo effort with several contributors – reviving the Silver Jews’ verbose ‘alt-country’, perhaps distinguished by a more pensive tone. The sophomore album follows suit with 7 … Read more
Welsh singer Cate Le Bon continued in the dreamy hypnagogic disco vein on Michelangelo’s Dying after 2022’s Pompeii – perhaps inspired by her namesake Simon le Bon of Duran Duran fame. The album was recorded in the Joshua Tree desert. The main limitation is that the cybernetic mutant pop has been done before and the … Read more
Cameron Winter of the New York band Geese went solo on Heavy Metal, co-produced by drummer and composer Loren Humphrey. The album presents a unique musical persona backed by a dramatic vocal quality and homespun aural choreography. The lyrical style has a stream-of-consciousness quality – absurdist, comic and often meta. Musically, the album references a … Read more
Now a veteran progenitor of contemporary country music having bridged Ryan Adams and Zach Bryan, Jason Isbell continues his prolific decade with the entirely acoustic Foxes In The Snow – the antithesis of the more expansive approach taken on Weathervanes with the 400 Sound from 2023. As always, the primary highlights are lyrical though Isbell … Read more