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Marisa Anderson: The Anthology Of UnAmerican Folk Music
New album: Beautifully evocative instrumental interpretations of older folk tunes from Southeast Asia, the USSR and the Arabic and Islamic regions of the world, all areas subject to US conflict since 1970s, brought by by the American guitarist from the private 78rpm archive of the late Harry Smith
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Sam Grassie: Where Two Hawks Fly
New album: Beautiful debut LP by the London-based Glaswegian fingerstyle folk guitarist and singer-songwriter, with added saxophone, double bass, flute, clairsach and clarinet in a release of mostly the traditional, covers, sung or instrumental, and supported by the Bert Jansch Foundation
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Hukwe Zawose Foundation: Asili ya Mama
New album: Wonderfully evocative field recordings release of Wagogo, Waluguru and Wasambaa Tanzanian women singing traditional songs in their villages, rarely heard outside of their own circles, the title is translated as The Origin of Mother, rich in stories and capturing the place where song is first learned, first felt, first shared
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Tinariwen: Hoggar
New album: After 2023’s Amatssou, the collective of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara region of southern Algeria and of northern Mali return with a 10th LP iteration of their signature desert blues style sung in Tamasheq, and joined this time by younger younger musicians from the bands Imarhan and Terakaft, as well as guests José González and Sulafa Elyas
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War Child: HELP(2) follows 1995’s first compilation with another impressive range of music and artists
New album: Not only a timely and topical milestone charity record following the first in 1995 to help bring aid and wide variety of support to children in war zones around he world, but an impressive double-LP array of stellar British and international talent and powerful, poignant 23 songs from Arctic Monkeys to Young Fathers
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Hedera: Hedera
New album: A beautiful, delicate, minimalist debut of finely crafted chamber folk by the Bristol quintet of Lulu Austin, Maisie Brett, Tamsin Elliott, Beth Roberts and Isis Wolf-Light mixing originals and the traditional with flavours and influences from England to Egypt, Bulgaria to Bali, Afrikaans to Arabic, Ireland to Georgia
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Ye Vagabonds: All Tied Together
New album: Beautiful, evocative, poetic and profound original folk numbers with a traditional style by Irish brothers Brían and Diarmuid Mac Gloinn in their fourth LP, recorded live in a Galway house with acclaimed producer Philip Weinrobe (Big Thief, Adrianne Lenker), and vivid lyrical themes of home and memory
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Part Two favourite albums of 2025 collage
Welcome to the second part of Song Bar favourite albums of 2025. There is also a first part and a third part this week. There is no countdown nor describing these necessarily as “best” albums of the year, but they are chosen by their quality, originality and reader popularity
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First selection of 25 favourite albums in no particular order …
Welcome to the first part of Song Bar favourite albums of 2025. There will also be a second and third part this week. There is no countdown nor describing these necessarily as “best” albums of the year, but they are chosen by their quality, originality and reader popularity
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Brògeal: Tuesday Paper Club
New album: Raw yet refined, raucous yet emotional, following two EPs, a stirring, boisterous melodic debut LP by the Falkirk band, who bring a strong, Scottish flavour to the folk-punk style and energy reminiscent of the Pogues, but also sounds reminiscent of the indie jangled guitars of Teenage Fanclub, Stone Roses and The Smiths
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Robert Plant: Saving Grace
New album: The Led Zeppelin singer, after successful albums and touring with collaborators such as Alison Krauss, completes a project started in 2019 with a covers collection of traditional folk, blues, Americana and other sources, working here with singer Suzi Dian, and tight band comprising Oli Jefferson, Tony Kelsey, Barney Morse-Brown, and Matt Worley
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Falle Nioke: Love From The Sea
New album: The Guinea-born, Margate-based singer and multi-instrumentalist brings a beautiful debut blend of West African sounds fused with electronica, stories and emotions, variously singing in French, English, Susu, Fulani, Malinke and Coniagui, with collaborators including Ghost Culture, Johan Hugo, Hiro Ama, Mike Lindsay (of Tunng and LUMP), and TaliaBle
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Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark by Gwenifer Raymond
New album: A truly evocative and extraordinarily skilled instrumental album by the Wales-born steel string folk guitarist and banjoist whose finger-picking weaves intricate aural stories inspired by tales from occult folk horror, space, science fiction, and the tangled undergrowth of various landscapes
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Africa Express Presents ... Bahidorà
New album: The collective that brought Blur’s Damon Albarn together with Malian musicians 20 years ago now assembles artists from four continents, though particularly plants the roots of this superb 21-track double album in Mexico, with a feast of numbers spanning cumbia, hip-hop, kuduro, soul, salsa, pop, reggaeton and more
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Poor Creature: All Smiles Tonight
New album: Mixing tradition and the contemporary with a transportive, striking sound and delivery, ancient, emotional elegiac folk numbers are revived and revitalised in this stirring, stylish debut LP by Irish musicians Ruth Clinton, Cormac MacDiarmada and John Dermody (from the bands Landless and Lankum respectively), produced by John ‘Spud’ Murphy
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Bruce Springsteen: Tracks II - The Lost Albums
New albums: Not bootlegs, B-sides or omitted songs from past albums (as in the 1998 Tracks outtakes release), this veritable mountain of unreleased gems – a whopping seven LPs spanning 1983–2018 with 82 unreleased songs and over five hours in a treasure trove of discovery for devoted and new fans
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Juan Wauters: MVD LUV
New album: An oddly charming, touching, gently humorous seventh LP by the Queens, NY-based singer-songwriter, returning to his birthplace of Montevideo, Uruguay, to record a tribute set of song to the place where he grew up and capturing a sense of dual identity – immigrant and native son
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Van Morrison: Remembering Now
New album: After a series of cover albums, Belfast’s legendarily brilliant but also difficult, controversial, moody and mercurial singer-songwriter returns with an LP of love-song originals, full of much of the soulful warmth, tenderness, nuance and mellow fluidity many of his past classics
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Alan Sparhawk: With Trampled By Turtles
New album: Suffused with a warmth, tenderness and powerful, grieving melancholy, this second solo album by the Low co-founder since the death in 2022 of his wife and lifelong creative Mimi Parker joins him with the fabulous fellow Duluth, Minnesota bluegrass and folk band Trampled By Turtles
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Zoé Basha: Gamble
New album: A sparkling, delightful, charming, polished and witty self-released debut by the Dublin-based French-American singer and guitarist who mixes folk, country, jazz, blues, French chanson and Appalachian with crisply performed covers and originals
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