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Ishmael Ensemble
New album: Excellent, evocatively fluid follow-up to 2019’s A State of Flow by the Bristol band of Pete Cunningham and co whose mix of harp, saxophone, upright bass, vocals, percussion and more create a mesmeric mix of electronica, folk and jazz
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Animal is the second LUMP album by Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay
New album: With a suite of exquisite sounds from flutes to the soft thunk of bass and ethereal vocals, the second album by Laura Marling and Tunng’s Mike Lindsay is a little more stripped back than the first, but still brings otherworldly beauty
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Clairo’s new album - Sling
New album: Willow-the-wisp delicately soft and profoundly beautiful, this second LP by Massachusetts singer-songwriter Claire Cottrill, 22, has refined her bedroom indie pop of 2019’s acclaimed debut album Immunity for something more akin to Elliott Smith or Sufjan Stevens
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Stephen Fretwell is finally getting busy again …
New album: Very welcome fourth album by the Scunthorpe guitarist-singer-songwriter after a 14-year-old absence with a life “song cycle of sorts,” sensitive, quiet and eloquent exploring fatherhood, grief and rebirth
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MC Taylor aka Hiss Golden Messenger
New album: This LP of Bob Dylanesque country Americana by the North Carolina singer-songwriter MC Taylor offers a gentle set of songs that gentle protest about how society is tacitly controlled, but mixed with the desire and sweet moments of hope
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Squirrel Flower’s Planet (i)
New album: A powerful, dark, simmering, emotional new album by the Boston-born indie-folk artist Ella Williams titled as a love letter to disaster in every form imaginable and embracing a planet in ruin, on a journey of decay and healing
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Lucy Dacus
New album: Supremely sharp, personal and candid, this third solo album by the Virginia singer-songwriter and Boygenius member is a series of brilliant detailed diary entries with a dark, homicidal twist, and filled with ironic, killer lines
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Consequences is Joan Armatrading’s 20th studio album
New album: Now 70, her voice is as strong as ever, and this 20th studio album in a five-decade career is filled with strong songwriting, more in the style of her 80s pop than 70s folk, but with impressive moments of emotional power
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Peace or Love is KoC’s first album for 12 years
New album: The Norwegian duo of Eirik Glambek Bøe and Erlend Øye return with their first LP since 2009, and fourth in 20 years with a collection of beautiful indie acoustic guitar-based folk, perfectly blended voices and barely drumbeat to be heard
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Reason To Live by Lou Barlow
Album review: The veteran singer-songwriter, previously of Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion, returns with a melancholy but still joyously uplifting new solo album of lo-fi indie folk, acoustic guitar, jaunty and poignant numbers
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Beautiful and strange: Long Lost by Lord Huron
Album review: Serene, dreamy, beautifully melodic alt-country-folk by the Michigan-bred, LA-based group, their fourth and perhaps best yet album is awash with road imagery, rich cinematic inserts and classic retro guitar sounds
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Olivia Rodrigo is Sour about being a teenager and her her ex …
Album review: Brimful with anger, jealousy, and melancholy, an impressive debut LP by the 18-year-old American actress and singer-songwriter is startlingly mature, fuelled by a heartbreak, and mixes punk rage with power-ballad slow-boil spite
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Still growing: Flora Fauna is Billie Marten’s third album
Album review: We’ve previously highlighted her single, Garden of Eden, and the singer-songwriter from Ripon in Yorkshire’s third LP of folk-pop lives up it with its hushed, intimate vocals and an understated maturity that echoes Fiona Apple and Billie Eilish
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Declan O’Rourke’s seventh album, Arrivals
Album review: Released last month, and produced by Paul Weller, this gorgeous set of songs by the Irish folk singer-songwriter’s seventh album paints vivid pictures with superb musicianship and stories of personal narrative and protest
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Dodie’s debut album Build A Problem
Album review: Intimate, delicate, often whispered and candid, the debut album from the 25-year-old Essex singer-songwriter and YouTube star Dodie Clark magically minimal through subtle cinematic arrangements of strings, piano guitar and clarinet
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Angrusori: Live at Tou
Album review: An extraordinary album of traditional Romany songs and tragic ballads of migration by the Slovakian-Norwegian orchestra, performed with Bulgarian-style voices, strings and percussion with Hindustani to Yiddish echoes
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Beautiful emptiness: Will Graefe’s breakup album Marine Life
Album review: This fragile solo album of exquisite melancholy from the Brooklyn-based Okkervil River guitarist was written and recorded after a devastating breakup during Covid lockdown and echoes the sensitivity of Elliott Smith
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Superwolves by Matt Sweeney and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
Album review: Gorgeously sensitive and emotional collaborative album between old friends, guitarist and singer-songwriter of folk, Nashville country, Appalachian and some Malian in the mix with guest players
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Lady Dan’s debut I Am The Prophet
Album review: A strong, emotional debut by singer-songwriter Tyler Dozier from Alabama, in which she address a number of issues from a strict religious upbringing to escaping from a difficult, controlling relationship
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Invisible Music
Album review: A novel album in many ways, full of charm, narrative and a fresh perspective, this eighth album by the Cambridge singer-songwriter explores the folk interest of the writer with readings and songs exactly that are just as she describes the stories - “bizarre, grotesque and beautiful”
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