Sharon Van Etten’s sixth album – ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’ – is a record designed to be listened to in its entirety. None of the songs on it were shared ahead of the release and they find Sharon musing on how all the key moments in life – parenthood, partnerships, the past…
Chester trio Peaness finally release their debut album ‘World Full of Worry’ on 6 May through their own Totally Snick Records label. The release follows numerous EPs, tours and a live session with Marc Riley on 6 Music and lives up to its title with a steely determination to get through the mundanity of modern…
‘When It Comes’ finds Canadian-Serbian artist Dana Gavanski splicing her love of music from the 1950s to the ’70s with mythology and trying to find herself: ‘In many ways, this record feels like it is my first. When I could use my voice, I had to focus so there is an urgency and greater emotional…
Sarah Beth Tomberlin follows up 2018’s ‘At Weddings’ and 2020’s ‘Projections’ EP with her second album ‘i don’t know who needs to hear this…’, a record that she says is designed ‘to examine, hold space (and) make an altar for the feelings’. Making use of pedal steel, old acoustic guitars and synths – but in…
Fatherson return with ‘Normal Fears’, their first album in three years. The band have toured with everyone from Lewis Capaldi to Enter Shikari and this new record finds them embracing a new, more melodic sound. They also structured the songs in a different way to before with samples of a Kilmarnock river and 30 ping…
Los Angeles-based artist Chelsea Rose has shared new single ‘Let Go’ ahead of the release of debut album ‘Truth or Consequences’ via Paul is Dead Records later this year. The new single is ‘About the moment of bliss and fear when you take a big leap of faith. It’s the thrill that comes with trusting…
Stars have shared two new songs – ‘Patterns’ and ‘Build A Fire’ – ahead of the release of their upcoming ninth album ‘From Capelton Hill’ on 27 May. These two new songs showcase very different sides to the Montreal band with ‘Patterns’ celebrating the power of friendship and ‘Build a Fire’ (‘Written in a fever…
The Hold Steady’s frontman Craig Finn has shared new single ‘Messing With the Settings’ ahead of the release of his fifth solo album, ‘A Legacy of Rentals’ on 20 May via Positive James/Thirty Tigers. The opening song on the new album, Craig says: ‘This song is literally a eulogy. It’s delivered by someone who has…
Muttering have shared the Ben Pollard-directed video for ‘Soap Box’, the title track of their latest EP (out now on Beth Shalom Records). The trio say the song is ‘About feeling out of touch with the world, and being completely unsure of yourself’ and this is summed up by its opening lyrics: ‘I don’t think…
Spielbergs have announced they’ve signed to Big Scary Monsters and Scandinavian label Fysisk Format and shared new single ‘Brother of Mine’ to celebrate this news. A song that has been years in the making, it opens with a vibrant burst of Japandroids-style guitar and intense drumming as Mads Baklien looks back on being 25 and…
Hailing from Fort Wayne, Indiana, Calder have shared new single ‘Dandelions’ ahead of the release of an as-yet untitled new album. The single has a jaunty and breezy sound that recalls acts like Whitney and My Morning Jacket while the pared-down drums expertly complement short blasts of Buck Meek-style guitar. Meanwhile, the delivery of the…
Storytelling troubadour Salvation Bill (aka Ollie Thomas) returns with ‘Has Had It’ – a collection of seven songs that touch upon everything from financial struggles to the imminent and constant threat of death, although there’s some lightness along the way. The album opens with ‘Well Wishers’ and its slightly menacing and repeated mantra of ‘All…
Placebo’s ‘Never Let Me Go’ – the duo’s eight album and first in almost a decade’ finds them trying to make sense of a world that is full of intolerance, division, over-reliance on technology and imminent environmental disaster… The album opens with ‘Forever Chemicals’ and it’s a distorted yet wonky industrial riff-driven piece with Brian…
Specialise Subject signings Don’t Worry – a duo made up of Ronan Van Kehoe and Samuel Watson – offer their take on the foibles of modern life on their new album ‘Remorseless Swing’. Opening with the jangly Wave Pictures-esque indie pop of ‘Head’s Chocka’, the album finds the duo in a hopelessly romantic and nostalgic…
Kevin Devine returns with his tenth (!) solo album, ‘Nothing’s Real, So Nothing’s Wrong’. It’s a record that finds Kevin in reflective mood as he tries to stay empathetic in a world that embraces both chaos and order. ‘Laurel Leaf (Anhedonia)’ opens the album in ambient yet disconcerting style with spoken-word samples being taken over…
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