singer-songwriter
TRACK: Marie Bashiru – ‘Joyride’: a little Afrofolk-soul sun to help us through
DEARLY beloved, gathered here today: let’s let a little smooth Afrosoul sun into our lives to keep the harsh bite of Lockdown 2: The Return at bay. And what better antidote for crawling those winter isolation walls than the first taste of what we have to come from Marie Bashiru, a singer-songwriter who has signed …
TRACK: The Dawdler – ‘Sign Of Growth’: a sad, cruciverbalist shoegaze rush
THE DAWDLER is the low-key musical alias of Tyneside singer-songwriter John Edgar, who describes himself on his Twitter profile as “Ambient pop. Sad.” He’s more than made us sit up to attention with the brace of songs he’s released since signing to London indie Akira Records: the heart-wrenchingly sad “Lava Lamps”, about the collection of …
SEE: Ailsa Tully’s ‘Drive’: sweet bass-driven folk-pop from the Welsh borders
DALLIANCE RECORDINGS, the boutique label that’s already garnered the loveliness of Gia Margaret and Common Holly to its hearthside, has hit a triple score on singer-songwriters by adding Welsh border country talent Ailsa Tully to its roster. Ailsa’s been plying her line in confessional pop a little while now – you may have been lucky …
TRACK: Lizzie Reid – ‘Seamless’: a sweet tale of heartbreak from Glasgow
LIZZIE REID is a Glaswegian singer-songwriter with an unflinching eye for detailing the rawer side of our emotional lives. She’s just signed for Essex indie Seven Four Seven Six and in doing so brings a whole new set of initials to a label that’s also home to fellow rising talents Matilda Mann and Matt Maltese; …
NEWS: Billy Bragg announces tour dates for autumn ’21
THE BARD of Barking, conscious songwriter and lyricist extraordinaire, provider of mushroom biryanis to John Peel, and a steadfast political commentator: national treasure Billy Bragg has announced an 22-date tour of Britain and Ireland for autumn 2021. It’s a way away, but that’s got to be something to look forward to. Billy says: “In these challenging …
ALBUM REVIEW: Kevin Morby – ‘Sundowner’: simple acoustic truths deliver great profundity
Sundowner is a much more bucolic work than last year’s Oh My God. in Kansas he’s explored the simple complexity of the 60s’ folk-troubadour aesthetic and pulls it off, admirably. It’s a damn lovely record.
SEE: Andy Shauf – ‘Clove Cigarette’: A Proustian moment captured in baroque pop; live stream news
ANTI-‘S lovely baroque-pop song sculptor Andy Shauf has just released the video for “Clove Cigarette”, one of the standout tracks from January’s The Neon Skyline. Watch with us; it’s 184 seconds of Proustian recall set across gorgeous acoustic melodies, with a brilliant, digitally treated video courtesy Colin Medley and Jared Raab, with added animated spice …
TRACK: Crawford Mack – ‘A Love I Can’t Live Up To’
CRAWFORD MACK is back with a new single, “A Love I Can’t Live Up To”, following his brace of recent single releases, “Depends On Where You Stand’ and “Firing Squad” Again mixing his influences across the musical spectrum from jazz to pristine pop to classical, he’s once more crafted a song which is both effortlessly …
SEE: the sweet dreaminess of Tom Joshua’s ‘Undergrowth’
TOM JOSHUA, the singer who first broke into our collective consciousness with “Meteor Showers”, has just released a teaser single, the sweet pop harmonising of “Undergrowth” ahead of an EP of the same name, which will be with us come October 9th. The new song – watch the surreal imagery of the video, which we’ve …
ALBUM REVIEW: Matt Costa – ‘Yellow Coat’: an affair of a decade made song
TO BREATHE a little life into an old cliche, I bet my bottom dollar you’d find Matt Costa in the kitchen at parties. He’s that kinda guy. (And this is, of course, totally a compliment). He’s supremely interesting and interested, you can tell; would charm a small and randomly corkscrew-searching bunch of just-mets with wit …