The name If You Leave could suggest either anxiety or a threat, and this record’s songs explore fear in a very honest way, crawling inside the coccoons of anaemic, unready creatures, pulling them out, and putting them in the light.…
Category: Reviews
Live | Fairport Convention @ The Union Chapel, Islington
There are some abilities that all children of folkie parents have in common. Knowing the words to most of ‘Tempted and Tried’ by Steeleye Span. Being able to hold their own at a ceilidh. Having a favourite Christmas song that…
Album | Low – The Invisible Way
As if Low needed a selling point for their new record, they’ve got Jeff Tweedy on production duties. But if you’re expecting the sonic pallet of a Wilco experience a la Yankee Hotel Foxtrot you’re in the wrong place. Tweedy…
EP | Farewell J.R – Health
The most surprising fact about Farewell Jr’s debut Health EP is that it was recorded in part in Cambridge, Ireland and Australia. Surprising not for the fact that what began as Nick Rayner’s Cambridge-based solo project has so rapidly grown,…
EP | The Golden Troubadours – Beautiful Revolving Jane
You could spend a long time listening to the Golden Troubadours trying to figure out where they come from. In the space of this short EP, their second, they seem to go around the world with a mix of latin…
EP | I Said Yes – I Said Yes
Noel Gallagher can be a grumpy old git. Apparently, among the many things he has taken against – including Liam Gallagher, Christmas, and, perhaps justifiably, bands that say yes to charity gigs and then pull out – the music of…
Album | Clara Luzia – We Are Fish
If the name Clara Luzia doesn’t immediately mean much to you, you’re probably not alone on these shores. But in her native Austria, she’s something of a fixture as she returns with this, her fifth album. In 2008, after two…
Album | Mount Moriah – Miracle Temple
While many look down on country as an antiquated genre, meant for tapping cowboy boots and grizzly ranchers (though of course not here at FFS), Mount Moriah, with Miracle Temple, might well have created an album with just enough country…
Album | Larkin Poe and Thom Hell – The Sound of the Ocean Sound
If ever a genre was in need of a spark of new blood, it’s country music. Sometimes it can feel a little like a museum piece: all nods and winks to the past and rigid adherence to a pre-defined structure.…
Live | Emily Barker & the Red Clay Halo, London
Emily Barker previewed forthcoming album ‘Dear River’ for three nights in London this March, and FFS was there for every last one of them.