Robin Trower – Come And Find Me (Provogue Records)
Sometimes it’s enough to be delighted to discover that little changes in the standard of a musician’s artistry. Such is the new and unexpected new offering from Robin Trower. “Who’d have thought” was my first reaction on hearing of the release. After all, Trower cancelled a tour last year due to serious ill-health. Then another […]
Taylor Rae – The Void (Missing Piece) (13th Floor Album Review)
Before diving into the introspective themes of her sophomore album The Void, singer-songwriter Taylor Rae had already established herself as a rising force in the Americana scene.
Julien Baker & Torres – Send a Prayer My Way (Matador)
Country music has always been a genre haunted by contradictions: tradition and rebellion, faith and doubt, community and exile. In Send a Prayer My Way, Julien Baker and TORRES (Mackenzie Scott) take those tensions and twist them into something stunningly new.
Valerie June – Owls, Omens and Oracles (Concord)
Valerie June just wants us all to just get along and the music she makes on this, her 8th album, might make that happen.
Bon Iver – Sable fable (Jagjaguwar) 13th Floor Album Review)
Bon Iver’s latest release, Sable, fable, arrives like a whisper in the dark—quiet, rich, and demanding your attention. Sonically, it returns to familiar folk roots while venturing outward, closing one chapter and tentatively opening another.
Black Country, New Road – Forever Howlong (Ninja Tune)
British band Black Country, New Road are a fairly recent phenomena, formed in Cambridge by a group of classically trained students in 2019 who released two albums before band leader/frontman and guitarist Isaac Wood abruptly departed four days before the release of their sophomore effort Ants From Up There.
The Waterboys – Life, Death And Dennis Hopper (Sun) (13th Floor Album Review)
Mike Scott and his current band of Waterboys take on the life and times of actor, director (and photographer) Dennis Hopper with a double album devoted to the “colourful” screen legend.
Elton John & Brandi Carlisle – Who Believes In Angels? (Island/EMI)
If this turns out to be Elton John’s final studio album, well, at least, he went out on a high note.
Marlon Williams – Te Whare Tīwekaweka (13th Floor Album Review)
Marlon Williams, of Ngāi Tahu and Ngāi Tai descent, skillfully weaves his Māori heritage with his diverse musical experiences in his fourth album, Te Whare Tīwekaweka.
The Nightingales – The Awful Truth (Fire) 13th Floor Album Review
The Nightingales have never been ones for nostalgia, but they’ve earned theirs. Formed in the embers of The Prefects, they emerged as part of the original UK punk explosion, appearing on the legendary White Riot tour in the late ’70s alongside The Slits, The Clash, and Subway Sect.
Mekons – Horror (Fire) 13th Floor Album Review
UK Punks The Mekons were born in 1976, during 1970s crisis Britain, their resistance narrative was steeped in Cultural Marxism (think Democratic Socialism in the 21st Century) and shaped by music, art and literature.
Lucy Dacus – Forever Is A Feeling (Geffen)
Lucy Dacus has never been one to shout. Over the course of her three previous albums, No Burden, Historian, and Home Video, she has mastered a quiet, clear-eyed form of storytelling, drawn from memories, contradictions, and restrained revelations.
Dean Wareham – That’s The Price of Loving Me (Carpark Records)
For some reason I have yet to fully fathom, Dean Wareham’s music strikes me as very seasonal.
Anglebox – Dark Days In The Sun (Self) (13th Floor EP Review)
Anglebox are a new band out of Christchurch, who, having released a little ditty called Undies On The Lawn, have now graced us with an EP titled Dark Days In The Sun.
Charlotte Yates – Winter’s Eye (13th Floor Album Review)
The best gifts can arrive in small packages. After seven solo albums, songwriter Charlotte Yates offers us Winter’s Eye, a sparkling EP. Replete with arresting lyrics, these songs take us places and serve as a reminder of the lyrical craft underlying the process of composition.
Mim Jensen – Shadow Of The Gift (13th Floor EP Review)
Since debuting in 2023 with the single Germaphobe, Mim Jensen has built a reputation for emotionally charged, lyrically introspective indie rock. Her second EP, Shadow of the Gift, is a confident and expansive release, building on the blend of raw vulnerability with moments of cathartic intensity found in 2024’s Emotional Affair.
Alison Krauss & Union Station – Arcadia (Down The Road Records)
After a 14-year hiatus, Alison Krauss & Union Station return with Arcadia, an album steeped in tradition, storytelling, and a deep sense of history.
Womb – One Is Always Heading Somewhere (Flying Nun)
One Is Always Heading Somewhere is a record that shimmers like light on water—fluid, reflective, and utterly immersive.
Swervedriver – The World’s Fair (Outer Battery Records)
The punkier darlings of the 90’s shoegaze underground, Swervedriver, who were formed in 1989 by schoolmates Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge, split in 1998, reformed in 2008, but haven’t released anything new since 2018’s Future Ruin, have gone back to their future.
Reb Fountain – How Love Bends (Fountain Records) 13th Floor Album Review
How Love Bends, the new album by Reb Fountain, is a haunting and immersive exploration of love in all its facets—its beauty, its pain, and its transformative power.