There’s a sense in Misty Coast’s fifth album Always Sun that the Norwegian band has opened the curtains a little. Just enough to let the light in more easily this time around.
The familiar elements are all still there, with arrangements that drift and blur their soft-edged melodies, but now they’re put together with more space and less gauze. It’s not a seismic shift in their sound, but it changes what it’s like to sit with: unusually textured, more gently outlined and, ultimately, not quite as intense.
That softer instinct has been there from the beginning of this project. Formed by Linn Frøkedal and Richard Myklebust after their time in The Megaphonic Thrift, Misty Coast has always worked by easing melody out from beneath…
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…includes the entirety of their ‘Moderate Air Quality’ EP as bonus tracks.
The British-American poet W. H. Auden, in his poem “The Age of Anxiety” (1947), highlights humanity’s isolation in an increasingly industrialized and failing world.
Nearly 80 years later, The Sick Man of Europe is picking up the threads of the same discussion: how to navigate in a world that is diametrically opposed to our needs? How not to lose your ipseity in a data-driven culture vying for your attention? Sick Man of Europe’s eponymous debut album is an exploration of these existential matters — and more.
Yeah, the Sick Man of Europe does not shy away from fundamental issues — does he?
Joe Martin describes himself as a “21st century Troubadour,” and has been likened to Lyle Lovett, a comparison which is hard to find on the opening song, ‘Hand Me Down Heart’. A driving piece of country rock which is closer to Tom Petty, with an added epic sweep and the bass guitar of Cornelius Webb (Jimmy Webb’s son) pushing the song along. Having been written and recorded in Nashville, you might be expecting a contemporary country-based record. Second tune ‘Checkmate’ confounds that with a pop/rock song which could as easily have emerged from his native Lancashire as the Midwest. Ben Jarrad adds some silky slide guitar.
The country folk of ‘Strangers to Lovers’ has a subtle percussion line from Cal Campbell (son of Glen), whose drum work throughout…
On Middle of Nowhere, Kacey Musgraves doesn’t so much return to her roots as redraw the map entirely — one where solitude isn’t a pit stop between relationships but the destination itself. Written in the aftermath of a breakup and shaped by long stretches of intentional aloneness, her seventh LP and debut for Lost Highway finds her toggling between self-sufficiency, mischief and the occasional bout of well-earned chaos.
The opening title track sets the tone within seconds: sunlit acoustic strums, a low-end thump and Musgraves calmly declaring, “It’s just me and me and that’s all I need.” It’s both a mission statement and, as the record unfolds, a thesis she keeps testing. Because even in the wide-open emotional space she’s carved out, desire…
It can take years to develop the kind of band chemistry you can hear straight away, the kind that’s all over mildred’s debut album Fenceline.
It’s not just that the Oakland four-piece write and sing democratically, it’s that their shared authorship feels like a genuine meeting of ideas passed around the room rather than delivered from any one fixed point. What could have felt piecemeal instead feels companionable and lived-in. There’s real warmth in that, and trust too. These are people you want to be friends with: unselfconscious, generous and together because they like the sound of each other’s instincts.
Opener “UPS Brown” gets that across beautifully. A low violin drone runs under guitars that feel both worn and careful, with crunchy…
Peggy Suicide Cope’s Notes #8 could be the killer: the downfall of Margaret Thatcher against the rise of Julian Cope through New Age thought, fierce London cycling, and a total obsession with capturing the essence of Rave, On-the-One Soul, and the compelling Baggy Beat of his youthful UK contemporaries.
Read through gales of laughter as Cope’s fights with his record company extract from him the most potent music of his career thus far. 52 pages of autobiographical exactitude place Peggy Suicide into the bizarre UK context of early ’90s New Age agitated city-dweller vexation: Ecstasy, riots, dolphins, crop circles – it’s all here.
Then there’s the 39-minute accompanying CD. Highlights include five songs of early ‘pre-enlightened’ material, and Cope’s wonderful ‘A Poll Tax Serenade’ medley.
The biggest Cope’s Notes yet, this fabulous and handsomely bound…
Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds – Live Trax Vol. 73: Branscomb Memorial Auditorium, Lakeland, FL (2026)
Dave Matthews Band dug deep into their archives for Live Trax Vol. 73: 2/10/1997 Branscomb Memorial Auditorium, which features a previously uncirculated recording of a 1997 Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds show.
Dave & Tim’s stop at Branscomb Memorial Auditorium in Lakeland, Florida came as part of a 25-show winter tour. The concert was the last missing piece from the tour as the only show that had never circulated.
While setlists didn’t change much from night to night that winter, there are a few songs on Live Trax Vol. 73 that weren’t played at the previous show (issued as Live Trax Vol. 24 in 2012). Matthews & Reynolds fit their first cover of Daniel Lanois’ “The Maker” into the setlist in Lakeland.
Glissandro 70 is a Canadian experimental duo consisting of Sandro Perri (Polmo Polpo, formerly of Great Lake Swimmers) and Craig Dunsmuir (Kanada 70, Dun Dun Band). They issued their self-titled first album, Glissandro 70, on Constellation in 2006, and its five songs are generally spacious and hypnotic, exploring areas related to Afrobeat, minimalism, abstract pop, and even techno (one song quotes Model 500’s “No UFO’s”). The two musicians continued working together over the years, with both eventually releasing a trio of albums as part of the ensemble Off World. G70 2: Bones of Dundasa arrived two decades after Glissandro 70, and it’s less a brand-new album and more of a collection of additional material the duo created over the years, some of…
John Dwyer launches Heathen Axe, a stripped-back trio built on immediacy, volume and instinct. Written and recorded in quick succession, these tracks were captured live to cassette four-track with minimal takes, leaning into spontaneity and rough-edged energy.
Joined by Tom Dolas and John Hodge, Dwyer drives a set of unpolished, high-intensity recordings where riffs unravel into noise and structure gives way to momentum. The approach is deliberately loose and overdriven, with everything pushed into the red.
Echoing the blown-out psychedelia and underground rock of Mainliner, High Rise and Comets on Fire, Heathen Axe trades precision for impact—direct, chaotic and built to be played loud.
A tribute to a tribute? During the final mix sessions for Peggy Suicide, Cope invited some musicians to Ramport Studio to celebrate the album’s completion. He called this late-night-party recording session E-Man Groovin’ – a tribute to the Jimmy Castor Bunch song of the same name, and the album’s mascot. Since Cope’s old digital tapes were damaged, this new tribute was created using recycled loops and samples from the original. Fifteen grooves imbued with the distinctive Peggy Suicide spirit – Kraut, Baggie, On-the-One – rescued from the archives of Oblivion! Yowzah!
Tracklist shows 15 tracks. However, CD only has 14 tracks. This is due to two of the tracks segueing together as one track. Track 12 is 5:55 long. “Rizla Deutschland” actually lasts…
Maisy Owen, a Nashville native, has been surrounded by music and the art of songcraft just about all her life. First came the viola at age nine, then guitar where she embraced fingerpicking, soaking in influences from Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, Mazzy Star and David Olney. Maisy’s unique sound, musical truth and stirring vocals inhabit Dark On a Sunny Day, her debut album, produced by Robin Eaton (known for his work with Jill Sobule and co-writer of “I Kissed a Girl”)
…Lead single, ‘My Youth Is All for You’, is a perfect opening track. Delicate finger-picked folk guitar and Owen’s lilting, crooning, whispering vocal immediately invite you into her world. “I cannot bear the weight of your affection / I cannot walk with all these shadows behind me”.
Jacklyn records is famed among soul record collectors as the home of three great Darrow Fletcher 45s issued on the label in the mid-60s. The imprint was owned and run by his father, Johnny Haygood, and though it served as a stepping stone in Fletcher’s extensive career, it was launched for a different artist and provided Chicago soul fans with several great discs over its seven-year existence.
A teenage shop assistant who worked in Haygood’s record store called Paul Smith launched the label, following in the footsteps of the young Fletcher who had begun his career a couple of years previously. Though Smith only had two 45 releases, the three sides on them revealed a great voice and writing talent worthy of a much bigger stage.
On her Blue Note debut, 2026’s Diavola, vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa conjures a glowing, dream-like intimacy. The winner of the 2021 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, Cavassa has a soft, dusky voice in the Billie Holiday and Chet Baker style. She’s a torch singer in the classic sense, but with a spare, direct soulfulness all her own. It’s a style that helped make saxophonist Joshua Redman’s 2023 and 2024 albums where are we and Words Fall Short particularly memorable additions to his catalog. Redman returns the favor here, co-producing (and occasionally playing) alongside label president Don Was. Also on board is a truly all-star ensemble of jazz luminaries, including guitarist Jeff Parker, pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Larry Grenadier, and…
From the very first note, Modern Woman make it clear they play by their own rules, fusing post-punk grit with bold, experimental flair. Their debut EP, Dogs Fighting in My Dream (2021), hinted at brilliance, and their 2023 stream-of-consciousness single “Achtung” cemented it. You might have wondered whether that brilliance could carry over to a full album. By this point, the Sprechgesang bubble was in danger of bursting, clogged with pugnacious, shouty, puce-faced blokes in sweaty vests, while artists like Dry Cleaning often seemed to overstretch the concept, trapping themselves in a miasma of spoken-word ennui. Modern Woman, however, are no one-trick pony. On their debut album, Johnny’s Dreamworld, frontwoman Sophie Harris’ delivery brims with sharp…
Toadies’ eighth studio album continues the band’s throwback alt-rock sound and stays true to the raw, aggressive roots of their early work. The Charmer was one of the last albums produced by the late Steve Albini, with whom the band had always wanted to work. As is typical with Albini albums, The Charmer has a no-frills sound and an uncompromising intensity. It was recorded in an analog style, as a live band with minimal overdubs, to capture the band’s aggressive live sound. For the most part, it works.
Most of the album was written during the COVID lockdown, and for the first time ever, Toadies went into the studio with completed songs. The material has that familiar Toadies feel – aggressive punk-rock energy paired with classic-rock riffs…
Treasury box-set contains six solo albums by Bill, recorded across a fifty-year span, beginning 1974. Each of the first six discs contains bonus material such as 7-inch and 12-inch single mixes, plus demo recordings, while the final disc features 12 new demo recordings of songs that Bill has written in that time, but never released – until now.
The first two discs contain the albums Monkey Grip (from 1974) and Stone Alone (1976), both originally issued on Rolling Stones Records, and made with a staggering line-up of musical friends including Lowell George, Dr John, Joe Walsh, Van Morrison, the Pointer Sisters, Danny Kortchmar, Dallas Taylor, Leon Russell, Bob Welch and Nicky Hopkins. The eponymous Bill Wyman album from 1981 was home to the Top 40 singles…
They tell you not to judge a book by its cover, but what if that cover tells you what it is? In the concrete poem that adorns the vinyl sleeve of Ben Vida’s Oblivion Seekers, three lines pretty much summarise what to expect: “Muttering ambient language / cutting into the past / with the future spilling out around us”. Because that’s just what you get across the album’s four protracted, slackened tracks, where duologues of spoken word paint an abstract, absurd picture of living, communicating and feeling, broken up into poetic fragments set to music.
But before I scare you off, let me first say: this is a beautiful album, and that, it seems, is part of the point. Oblivion Seekers continues Vida’s move to a more analogue way of thinking…
…these songs resonate as loudly as when they were first created” – MOJO
When they were young, members of Cabaret Voltaire used to walk up to strangers at bus stops in Sheffield and spray them with sounds from reel-to-reel tape recorders. They wanted to liven up everyday life in a Northern industrial town, and observe what would happened when people were jolted out of familiar habits. This pranksterism sticks in the memory, not just because it speaks to the DIY graft that’s part of Cabs’ origin story, but because spending hours splicing sounds onto tape and then blasting them out for a few seconds touches upon a question lurking over the live performance of electronic music as whole: if all the work takes place in the studio…
In 2012 he recorded several solo albums and began touring as a solo artist in Europe and the USA with his own band. Martin’s approach to live performances has seen him perform as an acoustic trio with Dan Crisp (vocals, guitar) and Alan Thomson (bass, guitar) and as an electric band with Terl Bryant also joining on drums, with both incarnations meeting with praise from both fans and critics.
This new album features a wonderful performance by Martin’s acoustic band recorded on 19 April 2025 at The Center For The Arts, Homer, New York and a marvellous set by his electric band recorded at the Woodstock Forever Festival in Germany in August 2024. Both performances feature Martin’s solo work and Jethro Tull classics.
Continuing the acclaimed series of UFO reissues, The Wild, The Willing & The Innocent returns in a stunning 2026 remastered deluxe edition.
Originally released in 1981, this pivotal album captures the band at a creative high point, blending soaring melodies, powerful performances, and Phil Mogg’s unmistakable voice.
Newly remastered from the original tape transfers, the album now sounds more dynamic and detailed than ever, reaffirming its place as one of UFO’s most accomplished works.
This deluxe edition also includes a brand-new mix of the previously unreleased Live at the Hammersmith Odeon, recorded on 29th January 1981, by Brian Kehew, offering an electrifying snapshot of UFO’s energy on stage.