Much of what we welcome under the banner of folk music would have rejected the tag in the not-too-distant past, preferring instead to go by acoustic or indie or nu-something-or-other. The Big Eyes Family Players, though, are folk through and…
Category: Records
Compilation | Just Tell Me That You Want Me – A Fleetwood Mac Tribute
For a band with such an inspirational back catalogue, it is a crying shame that many of the young generations would not know ‘Tusk’ or ‘Go Your Own Way’ unless it appeared on an episode of Glee or Geordie Shore…
Will Oldham – An Appreciation
The word ‘legend’ is rarely as acutely appropriate to a musician as it is to Will Oldham. It is so useful not because of stature, but because of mythologizing, because of the whole hagiography, the deifying of the thing. In…
Album | James Yorkston – I Was A Cat From A Book
James Yorkston seems to be releasing music and gigging all the time, but this is actually his first self-penned record since ‘When the Haar Rolls In’ four years ago. From the first note, you realise how much you’ve missed him.…
Album | Cate Le Bon – CYRK II
While the national emblem of Wales might be the fierce red dragon, Cate Le Bon’s whimsical undercurrent of 70s laidback folk and Nico-embossed vocals paints a picture that counteracts this association. It was only April this year that Welsh lovely…
Album | Stealing Sheep – Into the Diamond Sun
Liverpudlian girl-trio Stealing Sheep are effortlessly fresh-faced, embracing psychedelic swoops and loops; they create a homespun hippyish vibe in a way that’s honest and fun rather than affectedly occult (I can see them dressing up in kaftans, but not faffing…
Album | Adrian McNally – Harbour of Songs
Metal and rock are, of course, both well-established as musical genres. Wood is less so, but the Unthanks’ Adrian McNally is out to change that. As part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, a boat constructed from wood donated by…
Album | Lianne La Havas – Is Your Love Big Enough
A gorgeous voice, fresh-faced good looks, a trailor load of youthful exuberance and an original songwriter to boot. The myriad of Cowell-sponsored TV talent shows could run for the next hundred years without turning up a little star like Lianne…
EP | Andrew Bird – Give it Away
If you haven’t watched the video for ‘Give it Away’, the lead track on Andrew Bird’s most recent EP of the same name, do it now. Immediately. It features a human piñata at a 1950’s-style kids birthday party, and a…
Album | Meursault – Something for the Weakened
It’s been clear from the outset that Meursault are a band that push outwards at all times. Their oft-changing line-up, unpredictable live shows and, most obviously, famously mercurial sound – which has seen them flicker constantly between the extreme end…