Being a singer-songwriter from Los Angeles will always draw comparisons with the early to mid-’70s, when the so-called golden age of California Sound ruled, well, the airwaves then. In the days of streaming the newer generations, one might not be sure what that means, but with his second album Cherry Picker, L.A. singer-songwriter Spencer Hoffman just might give them a very good hint what that sound can offer when it is both thoughtfully and carefully done.
What that would mean is have an individual, but at the same time a diversified sound that doesn’t simply stick to possible set formulas, even if there is inspiration from greats of the sound that are well-known (Jackson Browne) or not so well known (David Ackles).
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Country music used to be full of formulas that begged to be broken, and for a while now Americana and alternative country artists did a great job in doing so. Joining those ranks is Edmonton-based Métis artist, Kaeley Jade, who already made a mark with her debut album Turpentine, for which she won a Canadian Folk Music Award back in 2024 for Indigenous Songwriter of the Year.
Now Jade is back with The Great Unknown, confirming that she just might be the alt country artist to watch out for. As with her debut, two things set Jade apart here – her incredible vocal talent and some good to excellent songwriting which shine throughout the album. At the same time, Jade and her production…
Even on the first 30 seconds of Prism Shores’s debut EP the Montreal quartet’s preternatural gift for great guitar jangle is apparent. It’s all there: Crisply arpeggiated chords played with hints of echo and distortion, plus a heaping helping of melancholy — catchy, comforting, a cozy jacket with its collar upturned on an overcast day.
Thirty seconds does not a catalog make, of course, and Prism Shores have been gently pushing their sound outward ever since. Their debut full-length, 2022’s Inside My Diving Bell, added a bit of post-punk heft by turning up the rhythm section, while last year’s excellent Out from Underneath found the band building a sturdier wall of sound by bringing in additional voices, synths, and strings for texture, and some crunchy shoegaze swirl.
Italian composer and pianist Olivia Belli’s Daimon is comprised of three new works and lasts just under a gorgeous hour. With cellist Raphaela Gromes, violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing and saxophonist Jess Gillam, as well as the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin on the concerto, these compositions explore a neoclassical territory that hint at a vast variety of inspiration including Homer’s The Odyssey, J.S. Bach and Philip Glass.
The music plays more like a film score than anything else. It would fit well in a Jane Austen film or period drama. Belli is a delicate composer who fits well within the modern music scene while still retaining her own unique voice.
The release begins with the title piece, a concerto for piano and string orchestra. Comprised of…
Ambient techno comes in two forms. The first features steady, propulsive kick drums and mechanical disco hi-hats that are slathered in surface noise and field recordings. The second leans into the ambient, sounding more like one of those Environments CDs you’d listen to at a kiosk if you’re old enough to remember when malls existed; the sound of crashing waves or hissing cicadas occasionally interrupted by the steady thumpthumpthump heartbeat of a subtle beat. The Setting Sun, initially released in 2009 as the first record from Stephen Hitchell’s Variant project, goes even harder into the ambient, with nary a beat to be heard for almost two-thirds of its runtime. It’s a hypnotic, deeply immersive listen, meant mainly for opening third eyes and inner…
The odd, idiosyncratic music of Hans Reichel could be described as American primitive, but he was German and sophisticated. The songs collected on the two-disc compilation, Dalbergia Retusa, span a little under two decades and show Reichel in guitar-soli mode. Though he may be alone, the instruments he’s playing sometimes only tangentially resemble guitars.
A confederate of such German free jazz titans as Peter Brötzmann and Rüdiger Carl, Reichel, who died in 2011 at 62, often opted for a gentler approach than his peers, sticking to languid tempos and long, dwelling notes as opposed to corrosive blasts of sound. Yet his airy, even delicate songs have an inherent strangeness linking them to the world of the avant-garde.
Singer-songwriter Dorea cites the sea as inspiration for his sophomore release O Que Mais Você Quer Saber De Mim. More specifically, he draws on his experience as a lifelong resident of Salvador, on Brazil’s Atlantic coast.
It’s a place he loves, one that has clearly shaped not only his thoughts but the forms in which he expresses them. That’s a long way of saying that Dorea here sounds like the sea: alternately gentle and rough, always moving, and unpredictable. At the same time, there’s a true intimacy to this album. The ocean may be vast, but what we’re seeing is specifically Dorea’s view of it, and it’s the details he offers that are truly precious.
Dorea frames his album with a question: “What more do you want to know about me?”
…featuring two brand-new recordings of ‘So, So’ and ‘There Is a Stone’ from the ‘Gatherings’ sessions.
It’s been 20 years since the John Smith embarked on a career as a singer-songwriter, paying his dues opening for John Martyn, and to mark the occasion his new album, Gatherings, featuring Nick Pini on double bass, Jessica and Camilla Steveley-Taylor on backing vocals, alongside several very special guests, including Lisa Hannigan, The Staves, Siobhan Miller, Dan Mangan and more, sees him revisiting and reimaging songs – personal and audience favourites – from his first three studio albums.
Taking them chronologically, there are three numbers from his 2006 debut,…
Recorded at the Rockbonden Studio in the snow-covered forests of Sweden, Norway’s Ole Kirkeng stands trial under the Cowboy Lie Detector Machine. Kirkeng was a touring member of Courtney Marie Andres’ band, and has performed alongside Molly Tuttle, Bonny Light Horseman and S.G Goodman. The album is produced by Kirkeng with input from Dominic Billett and Bendik Brænne. It is lyrically clever, heartfelt and at times laugh-out-loud funny.
The first single released from the set, ‘Bare Minimum’, sets the tone. Initially, it feels like you have walked into the middle of something you shouldn’t have, and you are wrong for finding it amusing. Kirkeng is giving relationship advice in reverse. The lilting pedal steel…
Respected folk-blues musician Nathan Bell’s latest project, The Right Reverend Crow, is a formidable soul/blues trio committed to playing what Bell refers to as “anti-fascist, pro-justice songs”. Joining Bell are Alvino Bennett on drums and percussion and Frank Swart on bass. The genesis of the band occurred during the recording of Bell’s most recent release, 2021’s Red, White and American Blues, an album of politically charged songs that, in hindsight, only hinted at what was to come. With Demokracy Blues, Bell has upped the ante with a raw and unflinching look at the current state of American society.
If the album artwork and title were not clear enough, then the opening track quickly makes Bell’s intentions perfectly evident.
Ezra Collective’s Chapter 7, now celebrating its tenth anniversary, captured the restless energy of a young band finding its voice – spiritually curious, rhythmically fearless, committed to community as compass. Built on grooves made for sweat-slicked basements and late-night communion, its seven movements reveal a blueprint forming: jazz as a living expression of where you come from and who you stand with.
…Chapter 7 (10th Anniversary Edition) reissue revisits that formative statement from a band that would soon become trailblazers as both the first British jazz act to win the Mercury Prize, and then a BRIT Award. Remastered and expanded with new incarnations – live cuts from NPR’s Tiny Desk and the band’s landmark Royal Albert Hall…
After releasing an excellent full-length collaboration with Hudson Mohawke which came off like a surprisingly sincere tribute to everything great about dance music and club culture, Tiga seems to return to his usual bag of tricks with Hotlife, his first solo album since 2016. Like his first three efforts as a lead artist, he’s assisted by a raft of guest producers, this time including Boys Noize, Matthew Dear, Gesloten Cirkel, Paranoid London, and Priori. The 12 selections generally focus on steady electro-techno and house grooves, with Tiga’s suave vocals on top, though he seems selective about when he wants to turn his tracks into proper songs. Even when he delves into the cover versions that became his trademark early in his career, he tends to repeat…
An American Music Story: The Complete Studio Recordings 1979-1985 was a superb release in last year’s Record Store Day offerings, a comprehensive five LP overview of the Los Angeles roots-rock band’s career that immediately sold out. Rare Blasts: Studio Outtakes and Movie Music 1979-1985 was the fifth album and as with the other components, it is now available as a separate entity, released on CD and Cobalt blue vinyl. Both are fine of course, but vinyl is what suits the music best of all. Whilst many bands around this time were picking up on Magic Sam’s deep blues guitar lines and using them as the basis for longer solos, The Blasters open this release with his energetic, rockabilly-flavoured “21 Days In Jail,” all of two minutes and 16 seconds, deep echo on…
…this Record Store Day, April 18, 2026, Merge Records is reissuing ‘Words of Wisdom and Hope’, the 2002 album by Teenage Fanclub and Jad Fair. Includes two bonus tracks that were originally part of a limited 7-inch single “Always in My Heart” and “Rock Me Tonight.”
The line of musicians waiting to work with Jad Fair goes around the block. But you can see the line move; such is the prolific nature of the subdued dude. Words of Wisdom and Hope is, not surprisingly, exactly the sum of its parts. Teenage Fanclub is probably the purest pop act to get involved with Fair, and the result is easily the most straightforward album to have his name on it in some time, possibly ever. Please note, though, that this doesn’t mean it’s particularly…
The landmark 1996 album reconstructed from BBC sessions and live recordings! Suede’s commercial high watermark came in 1996 with Coming Up. The 1995 addition to the line-up of lead guitarist Richard Oakes and keyboard player Neil Codling had given the band a new impetus and focus. At the very pinnacle of ‘Britpop’ – a scene they’d helped inspire but fiercely operated outside of – roared back with an adrenalin rush of new Suede classics.
The first missive from ‘Coming Up’ was the trailblazing ‘Trash’, which reached No. 3 in the UK chart – a joint career-best for the band. That was followed into the Top 10 over the next twelve months by four more hit singles from the album – ‘Beautiful Ones’, ‘Lazy’, ‘Saturday Night’, and ‘Filmstar’.
Liberation Hall delivers a compelling archival release with Live ’81–’85, a double LP celebrating the legacy of Romeo Void for Record Store Day. The collection presents the band in its natural habitat on stage capturing performances across Ann Arbor, Albany, London, and Berlin.
The album functions as both a time capsule and a reaffirmation of Romeo Void’s distinct place in early 1980s new wave. Across its 17 tracks, Live ’81–’85 draws material from all phases of the band’s short but influential career, including It’s a Condition (1981), Nvr Say Nvr (1981), Benefactor (1982), and Instincts (1984). The performances feel immediate and unpolished in the best sense—raw, urgent, and driven by the band’s signature fusion of post-punk tension, saxophone accents…
Music has long served as a space where emotions can be expressed and explored without the pressure of resolution.
For listeners and composers alike, it offers a rare place to contend with grief, anxiety, or despair without requiring those feelings to go anywhere or even mean anything in particular.
Meadowsweet (redux) is a case in point – a 20th anniversary remaster and rerelease of Yann Novak’s 2006 album Meadowsweet. A tribute to a family member who had just passed, the album represents both Novak’s struggle with the silence that rushes in when someone is gone, and how he chose to live in that emptiness rather than flee it.
Meadowsweet was recorded in a single take, glitches and all, as a musical representation…
Frog were reclusive until they weren’t. The Americana band’s mastermind, Daniel Bateman, put the project on hold for four years before bringing his brother, Steve, into the previously one-man-band in 2023. The subsequent record, Grog, kicked off a prolific streak: Frog for Sale is the lo-fi alt-country duo’s third album in 14 months, a pseudo-sequel to 2025’s 1000 Variations on the Same Song. Playing with the textures of bossa nova, jangle pop, and twee folk in his signature falsetto, Bateman tears through a songwriting spree inspired by fellow creative compulsives, from Lil Wayne to Mozart, plunking away on piano, strumming guitar, and delivering goofy anecdotes like a homespun cabaret act. Getting lost in the whirlwind is half the fun.
The cover of Sean Solomon’s solo debut features humanlike cartoon animals, drawn by Solomon, who’s provided animation for videos by Odd Future and Run the Jewels, among others, in the style of children’s author Richard Scarry. Scarry’s work, of course, formed the basis of a ’90s cable cartoon show that imprinted the fictional metropolis of Busytown on the minds of Solomon’s generation. Solomon’s own animation style skews more toward the surreal and twisted — think Daniel Clowes mixed with Lisa Hanawalt — but with a covert whimsicality suggesting that the good-natured innocence of Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, and company is buried in there somewhere. As a singer-songwriter, the L.A.-based musician favors disillusion over delirium, but his…
There are live recordings that capture an engagement, and others that seem to revive an entirely vanished room. This newly unearthed Verve Records release from Detroit’s Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, recorded over five sets in August 1960, clearly falls into the latter category. More than just a historical curiosity, it reveals atmosphere, temperament, and mastery. The Oscar Peterson trio at full strength in a venue that knew how to listen, playing as if elegance and fire were not mutually exclusive virtues but twin responsibilities.
By the summer of 1960, Oscar Peterson had established himself as one of the leading pianists in modern jazz, yet what these performances reveal is that the celebrated “will to swing” often associated with him was never merely about…