singer-songwriter
ALBUM REVIEW: M. Ward – ‘Think Of You’: Portland guitar wonder seduces with Billie Holiday set
M. Ward’s pulled off quite a neat trick here. Think Of You has many of the appurtenances of a seasonal album without quite being one. It could be M. Ward’s best album in a good while, proving that all he really needs is some retro recording equipment and a guitar to be at his very best
SEE: MF Tomlinson – ‘Strange Time’: rising alt.folk talent announces debut album
MICHAEL TOMLINSON is the main man in the sorta-solo project MF Tomlinson, in which he plys a very neat line in indie folk/roots songcraft with a grainy bearhug of a voice. Australian by birth but based in London, Michael has just dropped the video for “Strange Time” a song very much about the upending of …
EP REVIEW: Sophie Jamieson – ‘Release’: a brilliant, introspective four tracker
Her voice and songwriting are so very strong; there’s no doubt Release is her best yet
ALBUM REVIEW: Hjalte Ross – ‘Waves Of Haste’: gorgeous, nuanced indie-folk hits you in the chest
Composed at an isolated lighthouse on the Lofoten Islands, Hjalte’s second reaches inside your chest and doesn’t stop squeezing. Truly lovely
NEWS: M. Ward announces Billie Holiday covers album; hear ‘For Heaven’s Sake’
YOUR humble scribe has loved Portland’s M. Ward since right back in the days of The Transfiguration of St Vincent – his beautiful 2003 album full of his mellifluous voice, incredible guitar skills (if you’ve ever seen him live, you can pay testament to him somehow being two or three guitarists at once) and songs …
SEE: Adam Beattie – ‘Lovers Old & Lovers New’: a sweet yearn for lost nightspots
ADAM BEATTIE is a musician with a deep, noir romance beating in his chest, a romance tinged with the sadness of what we have lost; and this is particularly illustrated on his lovely latest single drop, “Lovers Old & Lovers New” – evoking those brilliantly bleary, boozy times in night town at bars and music …
SEE: The brilliant papercut animation for Elvis Perkins’ ‘See Monkey’
ELVIS PERKINS has dropped a beautiful papercut video for “See Monkey”, a brilliantly wry, songwriting auteur cut from his latest album, Creation Myths, which you can watch below. “See Monkey” is a confection of mournful brass announcements, piano with the pacing of Father John Misty or just-solo Lennon, over which Elvis sets about with gnomic, …
NEWS: Martha Ffion to play live-streamed session this week – see “Rosalie”
LOST MAP’s smoothly sweet singer-songwriter Martha Ffion is pleased as punch to announce (as should we be) a live-streamed session this week. The live sesh has been commissioned by Lost Map as part of the label’s Postmap Club: a proper, old-fashioned club with real actual postcards, badges, first dibs on things, newsletters, remixes, exclusive tracks, …
TRACK: Phoebe Bridgers releases EP of orchestral reversions; hear ‘Kyoto’
LA’S lovely Phoebe Bridgers releases a new four-track EP, Copycat Killer, on Dead Oceans on December 4th; it features all-new recordings of songs from her critically acclaimed album Punisher from earlier this year. She’s given them a different spin from the Punisher versions, pulling them away from their adorable lo-fi roots and towards a cinematic, …
PREMIERE: See Daisy Coburn’s ‘Fire’: A flamin’ hot tune from new Austerity signing
BRIGHTON’S Austerity Records, the up and coming label home already to the dark-edged dream pop stylings of the lovely Winter Gardens, is pleased to announce another worthy addition to its roster: London solo artiste Daisy Coburn. Today at Backseat Mafia we’re premiering the flaming first fruits of this new partnership, with the video for the …