Taking a break from the day job, Arbouretum leader Dave Heumann wanders in a number of different directions on his debut solo album. The feel is less strident though not a million miles from his mother-band with Heumann displaying a…
“The glory of God is man fully alive” – Saint Irenaeus, 2nd century Bruce Cockburn, at 70, is fully alive. Although slightly bent by age, the Canadian troubadour remains a cult concern for his fans, who turn out in numbers…
As scuzzed-up electronic drums heartbeat their way through the opening bars of Low’s 11th album there’s a thrilling realisation that this is not more of the same from the Minnesota minimalists. Replacing the floor-rug warmth of 2013’s The Invisible Way,…
One of my favourite Yo La Tengo tracks is ‘Gentle Hour’, a hushed, drony love song from 2009’s Dark Was The Night compilation. I realised this week that it’s not theirs, but was originally recorded by New Zealand’s Snapper. That’s…
Chicago’s Erik Hall took four years to make his second album, racking up thousands of miles travelling between his home studio and the Michigan farmhouse where he also recorded – giving the album its name, Driver. And as opener ‘Bawl,…
Michigan artist Ben Schneider’s debut album as Lord Huron, Lonesome Dreams, was all about wide open spaces, its cover depicting a lone rider peering into a starless desert night. Based on a Western pulp fiction concept it found our hero…
Josh Rouse approached The Embers of Time, his 11th studio album, at something of a turning point. Facing a mid-life crisis after ten years as an ex-pat in his adopted Spanish homeland coupled with the strains of raising a young…
There’s an air of playful, potential finality to Bruce Cockburn’s 38th studio album. It’s his first LP proper since 2017’s Bone On Bone, if you don’t include 2019’s instrumental Crowing Ignites. The influential Canadian troubadour may be a cult concern on our…
Josh Rouse has always been pretty prolific but it seems that lockdown proved a particularly fertile period for the Nebraskan songwriter. Following one of the most delightful Christmas albums of recent years (The Holiday Sounds Of Josh Rouse), it led to last year’s electronic…
For his second solo album since time was called on Sheffield’s Slow Club, Charles Watson seems in a bucolic mood. Gone are the woozy layers of 2018’s Now That I’m A River, replaced by a bright straight-forwardness. Yes is a perfect…