Song of the Day: King Hannah - This Hotel Room/Look At Miss Ohio

December 30, 2025 Peter Kimpton

Song of the Day: Deliciously slow, rich, warm, bittersweet folk-country-Americana by the Liverpool duo of Hannah Merrick and Craig Whittle in this double A-side paired with a gorgeous number by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, out on City Slang

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New Albums …

Featured

Dec 18, 2025

Favourite albums of 2025 - Part Three

Dec 18, 2025

Welcome to the third and final part of Song Bar favourite albums of 2025. There is also Part One, and Part Two. 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

Dec 18, 2025

Dec 17, 2025

Favourite albums of 2025 - Part Two

Dec 17, 2025

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

Dec 17, 2025

Favourite albums of 2025 - Part 1 updated.jpg

Dec 16, 2025

Favourite albums of 2025 - Part One

Dec 16, 2025

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

Dec 16, 2025

Dec 16, 2025

Juliana Hatfield: Lightning Might Strike

Dec 16, 2025

New album: Personal upheaval, grief, powerlessness, trauma, sudden change inform the title and colour the lyrics of this latest LP by the seasoned Boston indie artist but her songs are packed with brutally honest, candid, concise reflections and warm, catchy, stirring riffs and melodies

Dec 16, 2025

Dec 9, 2025

Dove Ellis: Blizzard

Dec 9, 2025

New album: An extraordinarily mature, passionate, poetic, and outstandingly powerful debut by the Manchester-based Galway-born singer-songwriter, whose soaring delivery has instant echoes of Jeff Buckley and lyrics that go above and beyond

Dec 9, 2025

Dec 5, 2025

Ólöf Arnalds: Spíra

Dec 5, 2025

New album: A gorgeous, delicate, ethereal first release in a decade by the Icelandic singer-songwriter, acoustic instruments and her gentle, high, pure voice, all in her native language, caressing this listening experience like pure waters of some slowly trickling glacial stream

Dec 5, 2025

Melody's Echo Chamber: Unclouded

Dec 5, 2025

New album: A fourth album, here full of delicious uplifting, dreamily chic, psychedelic soul pop by the French musician Melody Prochet, with bright, upbeat, optimistic numbers and a title lifted from a quote by the acclaimed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, about achieving equilibrium

Dec 5, 2025

Devotion & The Black Divine by anaiis.jpeg

Dec 2, 2025

anaiis: Devotion & The Black Divine

Dec 2, 2025

New album: Following a summer Song of the Day - Deus Deus, a review of the autumn release and third LP by the London-based French-Senegalese singer-songwriter of resonantly beautiful, dynamic, sensual soul, gospel, R&B and experimental and chamber pop, with themes of new motherhood, uncertainty, religion, self-love and acceptance

Dec 2, 2025

Nov 26, 2025

De La Soul: Cabin In The Sky

Nov 26, 2025

New album: The hip-hop veterans return with their first without, yet including the voice of, and a tribute to, founding member Trugoy the Dove, AKA Dave Jolicoeur who passed away in 2023, alongside many hip-hop luminary guests, with trademark playful skits, and all themed around the afterlife

Nov 26, 2025

The Mountain Goats: Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan

Nov 26, 2025

New album: An evocative musical journey of a concept album by the indie-folk band from Claremont, California, fronted by singer-songwriter John Darnielle, based on a dream of his in 2023 about a voyage to a fictional island by the titular captain, charting adventure, wonder and tragedy

Nov 26, 2025

Allie X: Happiness Is Going To Get You

Nov 26, 2025

New album: A hugely entertaining, witty, droll, inventive, chamber and synth-pop fourth LP with a goth twist by the charismatic and theatrical Canadian artist Alexandra Hughes, who brings paradox and dark themes through sounds that include string quartet, harpsichord, classical and pure pop piano with killer lyrics

Nov 26, 2025

Nov 25, 2025

Tortoise: Touch

Nov 25, 2025

New album: A welcome return with a cinematic and mesmeric groove-filled first studio LP in nine years, and the eighth over all by the eclectic Chicago post-rock/jazz/krautrock multi-instrumentalists Dan Bitney, John Herndon, Douglas McCombs, John McEntire and Jeff Parker

Nov 25, 2025

What of Our Nature by Haley Heynderickx, Max García Conover.jpeg

Nov 24, 2025

Haley Heynderickx and Max García Conover: What of Our Nature

Nov 24, 2025

New album: Beautiful, precise, poignant and poetic new folk numbers inspired by the life and music style of Woody Guthrie as the Portland, Oregon and New Yorker, now Portland, Maine-based singer-songwriters bring a delicious duet album, alternating and sharing songs covering a variety of forever topical social issues

Nov 24, 2025

Tranquilizer by Oneohtrix Point Never.jpeg

Nov 24, 2025

Oneohtrix Point Never: Tranquilizer

Nov 24, 2025

New album: Ambient, otherworldly, cinematic, mesmeric, and at times very odd, the Brooklyn-based electronic artist and producer Daniel Lopatin returns with a new nostalgia-based concept – constructing tracks from lost-then-refound Y2K CDs of 1990s and early 2000s royalty-free sample electronic sounds

Nov 24, 2025

new songs …

Featured

Dec 31, 2025

Song of the Day: MEMORIALS - In The Weeds

Dec 31, 2025

Song of the Day: Canterbury’s innovative experimental pop duo Verity Susman and Matthew Simms return with a striking, quirky, restless folk/dub/krautrock/pop/electronica fusion about finding yourself bogged down and tangled in knots, out on Fire Records

Dec 31, 2025

Dec 30, 2025

Song of the Day: King Hannah - This Hotel Room/Look At Miss Ohio

Dec 30, 2025

Forever, I've Been Being Born by Jesse Sykes And The Sweet Hereafter.jpeg

Dec 29, 2025

Song of the Day: Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - Oh, My Sitter

Dec 29, 2025

Song of the Day: A beautiful, shimmering sound and reflective, poignant lyrics and by the Seattle-based alt-country singer-songwriter, joined on this track by Nashville’s Marissa Nadler, and taken from the recently released album Forever, I've Been Being Born, out on Ideologic Organ

Dec 29, 2025

Dec 23, 2025

Song of the Day: King Hüsky - December95

Dec 23, 2025

Song of the Day: Poignant, evocative, beautiful, vivid, alternative mandolin folk-pop about a severe winter at Christmas by Oslo’s Vidar Landa, who in this guise departs from his his usual role as as guitarist of Norwegian heavy metal band Kvelertak and indierock/powerpop band Beachheads, out on Hype City Music

Dec 23, 2025

Dec 22, 2025

Song of the Day: Yumi Zouma - 95

Dec 22, 2025

Song of the Day: A beautiful, gentle, reflective new single by the New Zealand experimental indie-pop band referencing the US east coast Maine to Miami interstate road about homesickness and more, heralding the new album No Love Lost to Kindness, out on 30 January, out on Nettwerk Music

Dec 22, 2025

Dec 19, 2025

Song of the Day: DEADLETTER - To The Brim

Dec 19, 2025

Song of the Day: A moody, mysterious minute-long intro with gentle bursts of brass and woodwind veils what becomes a punchy new lead single by the Leeds post-punk band heralding their second LP - Existence is Bliss out on 27 February via SO Recordings

Dec 19, 2025

Dec 18, 2025

Song of the Day: Greentea Peng - Prisoners Round

Dec 18, 2025

Song of the Day: Following March 2025’s acclaimed album, Tell Dem It’s Sunny, the south-east London artist (aka Aria Wells) returns with another smoky, dark, track with hues of blues, dub and soul and Portishead-esque trip-hop, focusing on the trappings and challenges of modern life

Dec 18, 2025

Kaitlyn Aurela Smith - I Miss The Way You Swim.jpg

Dec 17, 2025

Song of the Day: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - I Miss the Way You Swim

Dec 17, 2025

Song of the Day: Beautiful modular synths and intermingling orchestral sounds ripple in this work by the American composer, performer and producer in a piece shaped by loss of someone loved, taken from an upcoming instrumental album Thoughts On The Future, out on Nettwerk Music

Dec 17, 2025

Dec 16, 2025

Song of the Day: The Paper Kites - Change Of The Wind

Dec 16, 2025

Song of the Day: A beautiful, reflective number by the alternative folk-rock band from Melbourne fronted by Sam Bentley, heralding their seventh studio album If You Go There, I Hope You Find It, out on 23 January via Nettwerk Music Group

Dec 16, 2025

Dec 15, 2025

Song of the Day: Courtney Marie Andrews - Little Picture Of A Butterfly

Dec 15, 2025

Song of the Day: Beautiful, delicate, fluttering, eclectic, heartbreak folk and Americana by the singer-songwriter from Phoenix, Arizona, heralding her forthcoming new album, Valentine, out on 16 January via Loose Future

Dec 15, 2025

Peter Perrett - Proud To Be Self-Hating.jpeg

Dec 12, 2025

Song of the Day: Peter Perrett - PROUD TO BE SELF-HATING (irony and provocation)

Dec 12, 2025

Song of the Day: The veteran British artist, originally frontman of The Only Ones, and now with three solo albums, who actually has Jewish heritage, releases a gently powerful, nuanced, pro-Palestine acoustic number as a response to ongoing genocide by the Israeli government, out on Domino Records

Dec 12, 2025

Dec 11, 2025

Song of the Day: Maddie Ashman - Jaded

Dec 11, 2025

Song of the Day: Magical, delicate, eclectic, intricate, experimental microtonal music by the London musician and singer, released alongside a longer track, In Autumn My Heart Breaks

Dec 11, 2025

Word of the week

Featured

Dec 24, 2025

Word of the week: bellonion (or belloneon)

Dec 24, 2025

Word of the week: It sounds like a bulbous, multi-layered peeling vegetable, but this obscure mechanical musical instrument invented in 1812 in Dresden consisted of 24 trumpets and two kettle drums and, designed to mimic the sound of a marching band, might also make your eyes water

Dec 24, 2025

Dec 4, 2025

Word of the week: crapulence

Dec 4, 2025

Word of the week: A term that may apply regularly during Xmas party season, from the from the Latin crapula, in turn from the Greek kraipálē meaning "drunkenness" or "headache" pertains to sickness symptoms caused by excess in eating or drinking, or general intemperance and overindulgence

Dec 4, 2025

Nov 20, 2025

Word of the week: discalceate

Nov 20, 2025

Word of the week: A rarely used, but often practised verb, especially when arriving home, it means to take off your shoes, but is also a slightly more common adjective meaning barefoot or unshod, particularly for certain religious orders that wear sandals instead of shoes. But in what context does this come up in song?

Nov 20, 2025

Nov 6, 2025

Word of the week: erythrophyll

Nov 6, 2025

Word of the week: A seasonally topical word relating to the the red pigment of tree leaves, fruits and flowers, that appears particularly when changing in autumn, as opposed to the green effect of chlorophyll, from the Greek erythros for red, and phyll for leaves. But what of songs about this?

Nov 6, 2025

Oct 22, 2025

Word of the week: fennec

Oct 22, 2025

Word of the week: It’s a small pale-fawn nocturnal fox with unusually large, highly sensitive ears, that inhabits from African and Arab deserts areas from Western Sahara and Mauritania to the Sinai Peninsula. But has it ever been seen in a song?

Oct 22, 2025