31.03.2024-GRACE CUMMINGS Storm Queen (ATO,2022)

 

INDIE FOLK

     On her self-produced second album, the Melbourne folk singer embellishes her stark, bluesy songwriting with symphonic touches that occasionally get in the way of her daring vocal performances.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/fd9smp

29.03.2024-GIVERS New Kingdom (Glassnote,2015)

 

INDIE POP

     Indie-pop with emphasis on the pop, these Louisianans play with an infectious dance feeling where guitars aren’t always necessary for an endless supply of harmony. While synth and effects are never in short supply, the vocal melodies are an integral part of the equation, and help illuminate the cultured folk and African percussion that separates Givers from their peers. Bright, polished, on the dark side and driving from beginning to end, this one’s all about big sounds and lots of fuzzy bass.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/26nm9g

26.03.2024-FABIENNE DELSOL Four (Damaged Goods,2019)

 

GARAGE ROCK / POP

     Fabienne DelSol’s fourth solo album Four is a modern psych maze of mirrors, bubbling with retro “freakbeat” garage-rock inspiration. Four is DelSol’s first release in nearly a decade and proved to be a strong comeback for the French-born/London-based singer. Before embarking on her solo works, DelSol was formerly known for her her involvement as frontwoman for garage-rock supergroup The Bristols.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/sr0h8c

24.03.2024-EMELI SANDE Our Version Of Events (Virgin,2012)

 

POP / SOUL

     Ultimately, as beautiful as it is in its more subdued moments, the album feels fully realised when her alternative and mainstream instincts find each other as they do on tracks like ‘Heaven’ and ‘Daddy’. It is obvious through her list of collaborators that she has mass appeal and with time, she will develop the savvy and world-weariness to make a true classic.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/i9nfvr

23.03.2024-LIZ LAWRENCE Pity Party (Second Breakfast,2019)

 

INDIE POP

     Seven years after her debut, Lawrence's sophomore release is an irresistable collection. She has a real ear for a pop hook, on both vocals and guitar, capable of still exciting after the tenth listen.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/z07m7o

22.03.2024-ECHO LAKE Era (No Pain In Pop,2015)

 

INDIE POP

     Following the release of their splendid debut album and the sudden death of drummer Peter Hayes in 2012, London-based band Echo Lake have returned with Era, a dense and mature bouquet of lush, layered guitar pop.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/bnhhwn

20.03.2024-LONG BEARD Sleepwalker (Team Love,2015)

 

INDIE ROCK / DREAM POP

     Long Beard is the moniker of New Brunswick’s Leslie Bear, who makes a melancholic brand of dream pop with the help of Stefan Koekemoer and Devin Silvers. The songs sound like the internal monologue (or dialogue? How do these things work?) you hold with yourself during late hours, when everything’s closed up and everyone else are in their beds, leaving you in your own little bubble of conscious, the only person on earth. Insecurity, hesitation and longing coalesce into something tangible, a simultaneous fear of- and pining for time or place that’s not yet quite clear.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/jm7r22

18.03.2024-MICHAEL KIWANUKA Kiwanuka (Polydor,2019)

 

INDIE ROCK / SOUL

     Looking ahead even as he evokes the work of greats as such as Bill Withers and Gil Scott-Heron, Michael Kiwanuka's bravura self-titled record sees him fiercely reclaim his identity.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/1093dl

16.03.2024-CIVIL WARS Live At Eddie's Attic (Sensibility,2009)

 

AMERICANA

   To a fan of the duo, “Live at Eddie’s Attic” is something of a time capsule. We crack it open to hear lighthearted stage banter and a teasing, loving approach to the show. While the music is not nearly as emotionally powerful as the later recorded work, (best heard on the amazing “The One That Got Away”) the glimpse into a better time into their relationship seems almost shocking.

   Highlights are “If I Didn’t Know You Better” and a cover of Sade’s “No Ordinary Love,” which burns with their trademark harmonies and seems prescient in light of later revelations.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/7fe5qb

15.03.2024-DISCLOSURE Alchemy (Apollo/AWAL,2023)

ELECTRONIC

     The A-list dance-pop duo returns to the club on a new record that’s fresher and more fun than the brothers have sounded in ages.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/0c1kp3

 

14.03.2024-YOUNG DREAMS Waves 2 You (Blanca,2018)

 

INDIE POP

     Norwegian band Young Dreams make atmospheric pop that balances '60s psychedelic guitar rock and more contemporary electronic dance music.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/dy1ewg

13.03.2024-ANGIE McMAHON Salt (Not On Label,2019)

 

FOLK / INDIE

     Angie McMahon is a tour-de-force, an artist demanding to be listened to and heard. She is a musician second, and a human first. She’s put her lived experiences into these tracks. There’s a special sentiment to be gained there. Salt is an album that in ten years time will be looked back on as being pivotal in the shaping of so many artists.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/5wnw58

11.03.2024 TO KILL A KING The Spiritual Dark Age (These Are My Bones,2018)

 

INDIE ROCK

     London five-piece To Kill A King have a really intriguing approach to writing songs.

     All of them can provide vocals, all are accomplished musicians. And lyrically they can throw some curve balls in their tales for our amusement.

     The jagged approach to guitars and keys mixes strands from the likes of Modest Mouse, Beck and Eels, while frontman Ralph Pelleymounter has a wonderful voice akin at times to Tom Odell or The Slow Show's Rob Goodwin. He has written before with Rag'n'Bone Man and this shines through here, too.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/yaejk5

08.03.2024-HISTORY OF APPLE PIE Out Of View (Marshall Teller,2013)

 

NOISE POP

     The London nostalgists' debut album appropriates the signature fuzzed-out rock sound of indie's golden years in much the same way as Best Coast and Real Estate recontextualized 1960s guitar pop. Strong songwriting tempers its potentially objectionable naivety.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/prn6dm

07.03.2024-MY BUBBA Big Bad Good (Tone Tree,2016)

 

FOLK

     My Bubba are a Scandinavian folk duo of Guðbjörg Tómasdóttir (known as Bubba) on guitar and My Larsdotter on lap harp. They both sing, sometimes taking turns singing lead, often harmonizing. The result is lovely, a quiet explosion of smouldering beauty that suggests both the intimate warmth of a campfire and the stark majestic beauty of a frozen lake.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/sn00uf

05.03.2024-DIRTY BEACHES Stateless (Zoo Music,2014)

 

INSTRUMENTAL / AMBIENT

     ‘Stateless’, comprises four instrumentals mixed by David Lynch collaborator Dean Hurley. ‘Displaced’ offers a jittery appetiser before the title-track – an 11-minute surge of piercing strings, brass and synthesiser. ‘Pacific Ocean’ is warmer but ‘Time Washes Away Everything’ creates an indelible bleak atmosphere for 15 minutes. ‘Stateless’ is impeccably executed, but also unsettling to the point of off-putting.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/d4n9sd

03.03.2024-JENS LEKMAN I Know What Love Isn't (Service,2012)

 

INDIE POP

     On I Know What Love Isn't, the Swedish pop savant refines his sound, enveloping the catchy, eccentric melodies in piano, strings, and the occasional sax solo — a beautifully melancholy folk-lounge blend. Lekman is one of indiedom's sharpest (and gentlest, and funniest) storytellers, whether proposing a sham marriage so the he can get Australian citizenship ("I've always liked the idea of it/A relationship that doesn't lie/About its intensions and shit"), or homing in on the devastating details of a love on the rocks (the girl who puts her hand in her pocket to avoid holding her boyfriend's hand). In the end, Lekman decides "a broken heart is not the end of the world" — a sensible conclusion, sung, of course, to a heartbreaking tune.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/nvklpq