The kids are coming up from behind.
Brixton’s Black Country, New Road – originally a Slint-type organism with a backing team of classical musicians – had shifted towards Orchestral and theatrical suites on the live album, Bush Hall, after the departure of lead vocalist and songwriter Isaac Wood. Forever Howlong signals the complete break from the band’s post-punk origins. Instead, it indulges … Read more
UK Octet Caroline fuse chamber-folk (a la Grizzly Bear) with slowcore and post-rock. The sophomore LP Caroline 2, self-produced by members of the band, is simultaneously more experimental than ita predecessor and more melodic. Each track is built around a mournful melody, immersed in cascades of instrumentation from bluegrass strings to dissonant horns to synthesiser … Read more
Wisconsin’s Bon Iver, ostensibly the project of solo singer-songwriter, Justin Vernon released their fifth studio album SABLE, fABLE, split between the earnest acoustic ballads on the first half and blue-eyed soul on the second half. The lyrics, which are largely romantic and optimistic, form a 180 with the heartbroken and tragic bard of the debut … Read more
Alex G, the project of lo-fi singer-songwriter Alexander Giannascoli, a consistent source of inventive melodic concoctions, released his major-label debut, Headlights,co-produced by Unknown Mortal Orchestra bass guitarist Jacob Portrait, following up one of his strongest records, God Save The Animals in 2022. The album opts for a more sedate and moody sound but also with … 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