Album Review: Emmy the Great – First Love

Here at For Folk’s Sake HQ, we are so excited about this release that we’ve had to change our collective trousers. Emmy the Great has been working the London gig circuit with her dark but charming brand of folk for ages and ages, and it’s proper wonderful that she’s finally putting an LP out into the world.

Album Review: Le Reno Amps – Tear It Open

Tear It Open is the forthcoming album from Scotland’s ‘Le Reno Amps’ – a band that, in its own words, tries “to write songs with all the fat cut off so you can savour their buttery goodness”. Ironic then that a band setting out such noble intentions should produce music that fails to either please or repell.

EP Review: Kevin Pearce – Light Song EP

There’s an ethereal quality to Kevin Pearce’s voice which penetrates even the foggiest of minds. Light Song, the singer’s first EP, is a short collection of carefully crafted songs which call on many influences. Pearce lists Tim Buckley, Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen amongst his favourites, and the soft religiosity created by the combination of his raw vocals and melancholy song-writing is sure to win him favour among fans of those artists.

Johnny Flynn plays One Drop this Sunday

Johnny Flynn has three weekends of gigs ahead of him in February, the first of which is a headline set at the One Drop launch event this Sunday in Clapham. Flynn is joined on the bill by just one other act, Left with Pictures, who joined Peggy Sue for a number of gigs last year.

Single: Jeremy Warmsley – If He Breaks Your Heart

First of all let me say you would not like Mr Warmsley to be your girlfriend’s brother. While the London singer songwriter may appear serene and twee, at the heart he is clearly an imbalanced individual. Or at least that is the case if you believe the unnerving lyrics of his latest effort, If He Breaks Your Heart, complete with menaces and threats aplenty served up in a beautiful melodic plate. Imagine the Krays asking for money while performing the Bolero and you’re close.