Category: Records

Album | House and Land – Across the Field

Creating a flowery aura that blossoms our airwaves, House and Land are a North Carolina based duo. Complimenting each other with their bold folk tapestry, multi-instrumentalist Sarah Louise and banjoist/fiddler Sally Anne Morgan are here with their second instalment. Beautiful…

Album | Matthew Milia – Alone At St.Hugo

This is a lovely sophomore album by Matthew Milia, former Frontier Ruckus frontman. Frontier Ruckus might not be a “thing” anymore but it’s alive and kicking in Alone At St. Hugo, easily the most carefully arranged and produced album in…

Album | Jamestown Revival – San Isabel

After four years on the road, Jamestown Revival needed some time off. They spent that time writing and reflecting on what they felt was important. Realising what they loved more than anything was harmonising led them down the road to…

Album | Bill Callahan – Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest

“It sure feels good to be singing again,” Bill Callahan’s earthy baritone grins on ‘Writing’, one of the countless gems on his first studio album since 2013’s Dream River. In the intervening period, the 53-year-old has been preoccupied with marriage, fatherhood…

Album | Calexico and Iron & Wine – Years To Burn

Fifteen years. So much changes in fifteen years. For Calexico and Iron & Wine, what’s changed is the nature of how they record. Years To Burn is a decidedly different beast than their 2005 collaboration In The Reins. There were…

Album | Neil Young & The Stray Gators – Tuscaloosa

Ten years previously, George Wallace infamously stood in the doorway of the University of Alabama in a doomed bid to prevent two black students from enrolling. Now here was Neil Young, on stage at the school’s auditorium in 1973, breaking…

Album | The Divine Comedy – Office Politics

This year sees the 30th anniversary of the Divine Comedy’s formation, Neil Hannon’s chamber pop ensemble with a revolving door policy on members. Twenty years on from the end of their greatest commercial successes, Office Politics is their twelfth studio…

Album | Mark Mulcahy – The Gus

Sometimes things hit you immediately, and sometimes they just smack across the face when you least expect it. The Gus by Mark Mulcahy is a case in point. I listened to it for the better part of a day and…

Album | Firefly Burning – Breathe Shallow

Take a deep breath, because Breathe Shallow by Firefly Burning is likely to take your breath away again and again. The staccato strings opening ‘It Won’t Be Long’ immediately inform listeners this record defies expectations. Attempts at categorisation are ultimately…

Album premiere | Tanbark – Tanbark

Laurel Canyon revivalists rejoice, for Tanbark are back with their second album. The duo, formed of Chloe Nelson and James Jannicelli, follow up 2014’s Write Soon with a self-titled sophomore released this week. It may be five years since their…