Baroque Pop
Album review: E.R. Jurken – ‘I Stand Corrected’: a psych-folk debut full of catharsis and melody
E.R. Jurken’s first full missive into the world reveals quite the saddest tale at an angle, never telling, always hinting. It also shows an absolute grasp of songcraft, of melody, and an abiding love of British psych-pop and later American geniuses such as Neutral Milk Hotel and Elliott Smith
Willie J Healey – ‘Merry Christmas’: seasonal songcraft to end the year
OXFORDSHIRE songsmith and former amateur boxing champion Willie J Healey is finishing a year of deserved musical resurgence on a seasonal note, as he drops the classicism of “Merry Christmas” for us to raid the selection box to with a wee refresher. Watch below. Willie first glided into our minds back in 2017 when, after …
MEET: Louis Philippe
On the day London’s favourite adopted cult songwriter releases his excellent new album, Thunderclouds, we chat él, football songs, the state of the nation, Milton Nascimento and more
TRACK: Hear the pastoral loveliness of Louis Philippe & The Night Mail’s ‘The Mighty Owl’; live-streamed performance announced!
MASTERFUL musician Louis Philippe, él Records aesthete and scribe of the beautiful game, has been away far, far too long; which is why here at Backseat Mafia we’re damn excited for the release of his second album of the year, in cahoots with The Night Mail, Thunderclouds – not least because we gets to hear …
SEE: Patrick Watson – ‘Lost With You’: piano grace from the brilliant Canadian
CANADIAN songsmith Patrick Watson, who leads the band of the same name, somewhat flies under the radar on UK shores – and that’s bordering on criminal once you dive into his world of beautifully arranged music. You may know him as the man behind (well, the man upfront, since he composed, sang and played piano …
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 …
ALBUM REVIEW: Junkboy – ‘Sovereign Sky’: fraternal pastoral-psych excellence finally gains a proper issue
ONCE you’ve taken a listen to Junkboy’s Sovereign Sky – out on Fretsore on September 25th – you’ll have reason to thank label boss Ian Sephton. He signed the band, at whose heart are brothers Mik and Rich Hanscomb, and released their rather lovely album from last year: the baroque acoustic wondrousness of Trains, Trees, …
SEE: The beautiful noir diary of The Last Dinosaur’s ‘In The Belly Of The Whale’
A FEW weeks ago, yr humble scribe bet the farm a little bit while completely enraptured by The Last Dinosaur’s “Wholeness & The Implicate Order” (and anyway, isn’t this what we want from music? To transport us, elevate us, make us throw normal order to the wind?). The writer – and by the writer, I …
SEE: The Last Dinosaur’s ‘Wholeness & The Implicate Order’ now has a short film
THE LAST DINOSAUR is the musical nom-de-plume of Jamie Cameron, of whom we said the following when he first trailed “Wholeness & The Implicate Order” last month; and which we unashamedly reproduce herein. “THERE is out there, in the wide pantheon of pop, a neat little galaxy reserved for the absolute auteur, the sort of …
TRACK: Andy Shauf – ‘Judy’: low-key baroque folk brilliance
HE’S one of those gorgeous, nuanced, baroque-pop songwriters we could all do with spending a lot more time with, is Andy Shauf. Like fellow countryman Patrick Watson, he has this way with a beautiful pop arrangement that for me puts him firmly in a lineage that stretches back to The Left Banke and Emitt Rhodes: …