Review: Virginia-raised singer Lucy Dacus' profile has been overshadowed by the gargantuan success of Boygenius bandmate Phoebe Bridgers, but this sounds like the album that's going to change all that overnight. The single 'Ankle' is a case in point: the string-laden number is a hypnotic, emotionally charged epic full of temperature-raising double-entendres. Elsewhere, on the tender ballad 'Limerence', Dacus sounds timeless, like we're in the company of a songwriter who's going to be around doing this music making thing for the rest of her life. An extraordinary talent.
Review: The Daily Flash originated in Seattle in 1965, and true to their name burned bright and fast for around three years before disbanding. Fronted by Steve Lalor and with Doug Hastings on guitar, it's also noticeable their drummer was Jon Keliehor, who has since had an accomplished career in ambient and experimental music. As a perfect embodiment of the original psychedelic wave when it was still relatively attached to 60s pop, The Daily Flash have been revisited in scattershot form over the years, but finally their outstanding archive of recordings has been gathered in one coherent compilation which covers their brief but brilliant tenure.
Review: In 1962, Karen convinced Richard Tucker to join her in Colorado where she was drawn by a healthier lifestyle and steady gigs at Boulder's folk club, The Attic. The duo bonded personally and professionally and spent time riding horses in the mountains and performing throughout Denver and Boulder. Stories of their spellbinding showsiand rumours of recordingsicirculated among friends, but no evidence surfaced until November 2018. Shuckin' Sugar is the miraculous result: three reel-to-reel tapes capturing two Attic shows from January 1963 and a CORE benefit in February. Featuring Karen's solo songs and duets, this release unveils a lost chapter that is filled with Karen's transcendent and hard to define artistry.
Review: It's not often we get next generation county, even less when it has such wild crossover appeal - both in terms of mainstream and more niche tastes. When Rolling Stone magazine spotlit Daniel Donato as a Hot Picker in 2023, the rock & roll bible explained how he had dazzled tourists with covers "in Music City's honky-tonks as a teenager," referring to his formative years playing around Nashville, and was now "eager to take fans on a psychedelic journey". Suffice to say, the Cosmic Country thing certainly fits the bill, although this is a case of surrealism playing second fiddle, or guitar, to the kind of soundtrack that feels destined to take this artist to the very top of the popular country list. Which isn't to say anything here is remotely throwaway - we're talking highly complex instrumentation. Nevertheless, it's impossible to imagine anyone walking away unhappy, so take from that what you will.
Goin' To Sit Down On The Banks Of The River (2:37)
Tryin' To Get Home (3:03)
Lo, I Be With You Always (0:41)
I Am The Light Of This World (4:10)
Lord, I Feel Like Just Goin' On (4:37)
Devil's Dream (bonus track) (4:13)
Review: The 1960 Harlem Street Singer LP by South Carolinian blues and gospel singer Blind Gary Davis comes reissued by Concord Jazz. Met with critical acclaim at the moment of its release, this forty-minute window into Davis' lonesome world is perhaps best known for its prime haunter, 'Death Don't Have No Mercy', a great, morbid song, and Davis' most popular. "He'll come to your house and he won't stay long / he'll look in your bed and somebody'll be gone / death don't have no mercy..." Such moribund topics never did deter the best of Blues artists, and of course, Davis might be said to have had "seen death" or at least known death personally, having been blind since infancy. Further raw and rusty blues numbers like 'Tryin' To Get Home' and 'Great Change' further extend Davis' image as a Harlem veteran crooner, who's seen a lot and knows many people - pitiless scythed spectres included.
Review: Ryan Davis has seen "sunsets through every shade of beer", but remains convinced we were not put here to rest on depressed laurels and wonder where it all went so wrong. Words only count for so much, though, but thankfully he's put money and energy where that mouth is. Frontman in delightfully disheveled rock troupe State Champion, figurehead behind Louisville's Cropped Out festival. Sophomore Lounge label boss. And now solo artist with plenty to say and the talent to warrant our attention. Dancing On the Edge is the kind of Americana the world wants to buy into - so culturally specific in sound and phraseology, yet universally relevant. This is country rock that has forgotten its rules, embracing elements of garage, and slacker skate. What's most remarkable, though, is the songwriting. A masterclass in conveying the hypocrisy of humanity. Constantly looking for redemption from our next sin.
Review: It's not just in the album title that Newcastle bard Richard Dawson is ahead of his time. His dark sense of humour and sweaty barroom gig sonics break through the noise, identifying, tackling but not seeking to solve the problems currently facing British society. What could be more post-modern than that? The UK right now is a fractured and somewhat broken island struggling to come to terms with its own place in the modern world. It's also filled with people struggling to come to terms with this reality. Focusing on portraits of those lost souls, it's poignant, cutting and lyrically hard-hitting. A bold and mammoth concept for an album, the instrumentation is even bigger, easing up on the blues and folk of his formative years to allow more room for pop to break through. The result is proof that in times of desperation a nation can at least rely on its artists to offer some hope that all is not completely lost.
Review: Another album from the prolific English folk singer-songwriter Richard Dawson provides the listener with simple laid-back songs inspired by his love for the films of Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu but using subject matter relating to family members for inspiration. Recent single 'Polytunnel' tells the story of a gardener dealing with illness whilst growing vegetables. Enlightening escapism or something darker and more sinister? Could be either This is a stripped-down collection of songs, drums hidden in the background, an occasional saxophone (see 'Boxing Day Sales') poling through the uplifting melodies, falsetto vocals and lyrics that can be interpreted in any way that the listener chooses. These nine songs '"zoom in quite close-up to try and explore a typical middle class English family home," Dawson said in a statement. "We're listening to the stories of people from three or four generations of perhaps the same family. But really, it's about how we break certain cycles. I think the family is a useful metaphor to examine how things are passed on generationally." Again, a passionate collection of songs telling stories we can't completely understand leaving the listener to interpret their meanings the best they can by themselves - which is, doubtless, at least half the fun.
Review: Described as an ecstatic ritual singer, pianist, and ambient composer, Maroulita de Kol demonstrates the rapturous breadth of her vision with Anasana, her latest LP on Phantom Limb. Channelling her Greek heritage into a fusion of Hellenic folk-musical traditions and cinematic electronic/ambient composition, this is an arresting catharsis in just five tracks, boasting classical piano mastery and huge attention to textural detail.
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