Tag: singer songwriter

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h.pruz – Arrival

h.pruz’s new album Red sky at morning is a stripped mix of folk songwriting and small, tactile electronic details. Co-producer Felix Walworth adds Wurlitzer, soft synth lines and loose percussion that drift under the vocals rather than lead them. The tracks feel like short scenes, each clearly shaped by specific moments and memories. The sound is quiet and spacious but warm, built on acoustic guitar, piano, sax and concise synth phrases, and calls to mind similarly reflective LPs by artists like Adrianne Lenker and Tomberlin.

https://hpruz.bandcamp.com/album/red-sky-at-morning

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Kate Bush – Under The Ivy

Despite my slight obsession with her, I don’t consider myself a Kate Bush completist: there’s quite a lot of her catalogue – and in one case, an entire album – that I can happily live without. However I’m still surprised that I’m hearing Under The Ivy for the first time today; or at least, it’s the first time I’ve properly paid attention to it.

Aficionados have long celebrated this as one of her hidden gems, tucked away as the B-Side for the vastly more celebrated Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) and previously unavailable on streaming services until the release of her Best Of The Other Sides compilation. It is, quite simply, one of her very best; a spiritual companion to The Man With The Child In His Eyes, and has already reduced me to tears, twice.

https://music.katebush.com/buy/best-of-the-other-sides/

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Léa Sen – lvl 3 EDGE OF THE MAP

Sultry, low-key r&b for you today from French-born, London-based singer-songwriter and producer Léa Sen who first came to prominence with a breathy, resonant vocal on Joy Orbison’s Better in 2021, quickly followed by collaborations with Sampha, Oscar Jerome, Wu‑Lu, and Vegyn. This is taken from her debut LP LEVELS which was co-produced with her brother Florian, with each track representing a different floor in a liminal hotel of memory and growth.

https://leasen.bandcamp.com/album/levels

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Adrienne Lenker – Already Lost

I run a little hot and cold on Big Thief – some of their work is incredible, some very meh – but I’m really enjoying Adrienne Lenker’s new solo album Bright Future, which is way more stripped down and even more contemplative, and even veers into Sufjan territory when she picks up the banjo. Track titles like Sadness As A Gift should give you an idea of the overall tone, but if you’re keen for some (arguably) self-indulgent introspection then it absolutely delivers. Already Lost is a highlight, including as it does some truly devastatingly poignant melodies.

https://adriannelenker.bandcamp.com/album/bright-future

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Sun Kil Moon – Mindy

Mark Kozelek goes full lounge on his latest single. It might be a joke, but I really like it.

https://www.sunkilmoon.com

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Helena Deland – Roadflower

Taken from Helena Deland’s second album Goodnight Summerland, Roadflower is quietly stunning. Written in the aftermath of the death of Deland’s mother, many – if not all – of the songs deal with death and its aftermath, with its tone similar to recent albums by Tomberlin: mournful, but exquisitely, cathartically so.

https://helenadeland.bandcamp.com/album/goodnight-summerland

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Beth Orton – Unwritten

I still strongly associate Beth Orton with the 90s. She’s released at least half a dozen albums since Trailer Park, but for me she will always be the soundtrack to hanging out in my friend’s kitchen, having dinner with his parents, waiting until we could go out and take drugs and listen to trance. I’ve not listened to a single album of hers since, but her latest Weather Alive was getting such amazing reviews, here we are. And it’s incredible from start to finish, culminating in the exquisitely devastating Unwritten, and arrives just in time to perfectly soundtrack the bleakness of winter ahead.

https://bethortonofficial.com

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Tomberlin – Wasted

Tomberlin’s 2018 debut album At Weddings is without doubt one of my favourite of the last few years, and one I go back to on a pretty much weekly basis. It’s stripped down, fairly mournful folk: utterly beautiful and almost unbearably sad in parts. By contrast, her latest single is positively upbeat, at least in its buoyant rhythm and big, open melodies. But lyrically there’s still that same sense of melancholy that makes her work so personal and unique: “I try to write it out / Make sure nothing sounds weird / Make sure it’s not half bad / Do you think this songs sad?” The answer? Yes, a little, and I’m very much looking forward to the new EP Projections which is due out 16 October via Saddle Creek. 

https://tomberlin.bandcamp.com/