Category Archives: Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 20th October 2025

Arima Ederra – Heard What You Said

Announcing the next chapter of her career, this is LA based musician Arima Ederra who, having released a pair of songs at the end of a tumultuous 2024, is now restored and inspired with the impression being that this is the first sighting of much exciting new music to come. Her critically acclaimed 2022 debut album ‘An Orange Colored Day’ landed after a four year period in which Arima fine tuned her craft behind the scenes. Now, in the artists own words, this new track is about “the strange grief of losing someone who was never really there. When shared memories become questions and years of connection dissolve into misunderstanding”. It is a deep, heavy soul sound on show here, packed with sonic drama and sung with pulchritudinous feeling, it whets the appetite with expectation for more to come. Watch out for Arima Ederra.

Emma Pollock – Future Tree

Best known as a key member of Scottish indie heroes and Peel favourites The Delgados, Emma Pollock has returned with her first solo material in almost a decade. The album ‘Begging The Night To Take Hold’ is already a 2025 favourite here and this track is one of the many highlights. She always seemed to have an adroit grasp of sweeping chamber pop in her old band and that expressive slant is very much at the forefront with this new release, it overflows with tone, tempo and colourful brush strokes across the whole record. ‘Future Tree’ is especially buoyant with those pounding, building keys and that craving voice but as always with Emma, there is a delicious undercurrent of melancholy to even things out. This is well worth a listen.

Love Spells – Wish I Didn’t Love You

If the previous tune instigated a little melancholy then this one will amplify the reverie and lock you down in that space for a further few minutes of longing, floating and wistfully sighing resignation. This is a newly released slice of haunting, dreamy pop written by Sir Taegen Harris (originally from Houston, it would appear that Love Spells is his creative outlet although information is a little sketchy) and produced by Alex Craig. In spite of the obvious yearning and desire evident in the lyric, this tune hovers around the territory of classic, dangerous obsession songs with lyrics like “I wish your name meant nothing but it lingers everywhere”.

Robin Ross & The TW Howlers – Walk With Me

This is one of the tracks from this outfits latest EP which also happens to be their debut release. It is a collaboration between singer songwriters Robin Ross and TW Howell, both from Pennsylvania, which presents five original compositions co-written and recorded in the early months of 2025. This is a fantastically ramshackle country come-on of a song, inviting the listener to “walk with me” as our seasoned narrator exudes an unfaded thirst for curiosity and exploration. The bending of guitar strings and soulful rough edges in the playing all add-up to a track with the kind of analogue warmth that many strive for but not all can achieve. But then Robin Ross can boast an audio engineering degree and was heavily involved in the opening of several recording studios, including Triple R Studios and Sound Complex, so he does know what he is about when it comes to audio.

Iraina Mancini – Running For Your Life

There is no new album from Iraina Mancini just yet but this new track did appear earlier this year, along with news that a follow up to her ‘Undo The Blue’ debut album was in the works. Whenever that does appear it promises to be a gem, especially if this release is anything to go by. Co-written with Mark Neary, ‘Running For Your Life’ hold on to all the vital elements that made Iraina stand out from the crowd in the first place; the steadfast dedication to classic song-writing standards, vintage productions values combined with a glossy modern sheen and a stylish, dramatic vocal presence that really pushes the Mancini music to the forefront with conviction and purpose. There should be a lot more to come from this corner of the pop world.

Laura Jurd – You Again

My recent feature on the late double bass maestro Danny Thompson also highlighted how little the worlds of jazz and folk have intersected, at least to the high standards that Danny hit on his solo jazz releases that pulled on the folk world he knew so well to stunning effect. Well, with her newly released album ‘Rites And Revelations’, trumpeter and composer Laura Jurd has added to this rather hidden lineage quite superbly. She is no stranger to cross pollination of the genres but this new album, featuring a freshly assembled quartet, has a singular focus towards folk lineage with a collection of compositions built around a simple, folk inspired melodies. As always, once Laura has established the framework, her playing and arranging results in fireworks abounding between all the musicians. Just listen to this live rendition and marvel at the explosive way the music erupts when that distorted electric guitar kicks in. There can be no doubt about it, in the year 2025 it is often the jazzers who are showing us the way forward.

Standard
Old Fruit

Old Fruit 17th October 2025

Deradoorian – A Beautiful Woman

This week’s vintage selection of tunes jumps back exactly ten years this month and re-investigates some of the new music Fruit Tree Records was getting excited about in October 2015. Top of the pile back then was this debut release by a former member of the Dirty Projectors. Working under the solo name Deradoorian, this genre surfing experimental art-rock artist had released her first album ‘The Expanding Flower Planet’ and, just as that title was a self-proclaimed attempt to represent “the expansion of consciousness”, so too did the music display a bold visionary leap into the realms of multi-layered exploration and spiritual open minded release. The hypnotising opening track is performed live here in a stunning video highlighting the artists sense of sonic purpose and clever mix of technology and soul.

John Howard & The Night Mail – Intact & Smiling

It wasn’t all just young sonic space cadets making the most musically satisfying sounds this month a decade ago. I was also thrilled by a new release from the legendary Pretty Things as well as this slice of late (two decades late) period Britpop from John Howard. His career had begun in the seventies with the debut album ‘Kid In A Big World’ on CBS being regarded as a bit of a cult classic. This track from the then new album with the Night Mail was released on Tapete Records and it sat well in the catalogue of a label known for its support of artists crafting intelligent pop and song writing. Having at one time retired from performing, the album was a key part of his second act and he continues to release new music to this day.

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – S.O.B.

The opening pair of tunes this week were top drawer musically but they remained decidedly underground in 2015. This one on the other hand was a major breakthrough for the artist and enjoyed some major exposure on mainstream TV (as seen in this Jools Holland clip here but the big one for Nathaniel in 2015 was probably his Jimmy Fallon performance of the song) as well as numerous commercials and TV shows including ‘Fargo’, ‘Brockmire’ and ‘Two Doors Down’. It also represented a significant shift stylistically for Nathaniel whose previous work had leaned into more of a folk style but here, on his bands full length debut, they grabbed this gospel referencing soulful groove with both hands and ran with it to memorable, shoe-shuffling effect.

Widowspeak – All Yours

This dreamy dose of Americana sounds like a cross between Mazzy Star and The Cranberries which is no bad thing. Widowspeak are a duo comprising Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas and this was a tune featured on their third album ‘Captured Tracks’ released in 2015 representing a shift in their creative process towards a more organic style of writing and playing. They managed to exude both an intimacy and a grand expressiveness with their sound; the former is clear enough in the emotive manner Molly brings to the reflective lyric but the latter is evident too in the depth of the sound and those echoes of vintage rock ‘n’ roll heard in the sumptuously twanging guitar.

La Luz – You Disappear

It is no surprise upon returning to this track to recognise that La Luz and their main woman Shana Cleveland have become firm Fruit Tree Records favourites over the last ten years. Everything I rate about the bands sound was already on display here, those heavy sunset sonics in the keys and melodies combined with the organic rough edges of their garage band aesthetic. They were also writing some damn fine pop songs which appeared on the second La Luz album ‘Weirdo Shrine’ that year, a record that undoubtedly found the right producer in the shape of 21st century garage rock king Ty Segall. If you haven’t woken up to them already, then just ride the waves of those surf-sounding guitars and let this sensational band take you there.

Timo Lassy – Hip Or Not

It was not just acts with garage band sensibilities summoning up the echoes of sixties vintage music in 2015. This track has all the elements of a funk-infused sixties Blue Note jazz classic waiting to be heard in its grooves. ‘Hip Or Not’ is from the album ‘Love Bullet’ released by the Finnish saxophonist Timo Lassy and whilst it does conjure thoughts of a golden era, it can also claim to possess a timelessness and true class in the production. This was Lassy’s fifth studio album and it was to be a record he regarded as a reaction to a few colourful years of his life, which maybe accounts for the inviting intimacy of the music in tandem with its infectious warm grooving. This one, as have the other selections this week, has been a welcome resurrection and is ripe for rediscovery, so dig in.

Standard
Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 13th October 2025

Flock Of Dimes – Long After Midnight

We begin this week with a delightfully simple video idea that is startlingly effective alongside the lyrical premise of the song. In ‘Long After Midnight’ singer Jenn Wasner is caressing a gentle acoustic ballad in which the narrator is willingly giving everything she owns in an unshakeable loyal commitment to an ailing loved one. Viewed here, we see her offering these caring gestures whilst behind her the room is stripped bare, piece by piece, of belongings and furnishings. Jenn’s Flock Of Dimes project, which she has maintained alongside her indie duo Wye Oak, has long been a font for personal and musically bold exploration and so the new album from which this comes, ‘The Life You Save’ out now on Sub Pop Records, brings a sonically warm and personable new chapter to the project and is well worth a deep listen.

David Byrne – Everybody Laughs

David Byrne’s post Talking Heads solo career has seen many sudden gear shifts and changes in direction. His art-rock leanings have ensured he would remain an artist uncomfortable with sitting still or falling into a repetitive routine. Despite this though, he cannot shake that knack of his for creating a slice of celebratory, genre-defying and downright catchy pop such as this. It is to be found on the essential new album, his first in seven years, ‘Who Is The Sky?’ Every now and then in the career of an art rocker (I’m thinking of albums like Peter Gabriel’s ‘So’ or David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’) they put out an album with the intention of catching some mainstream attention, these are often surprisingly pleasurable listens. David Byrne may just have pulled that punch here, for the album is overflowing with melodious ideas and electrifying musings. That is what we hear on this one, an insistently bouncy number that runs through a shopping list framework of shared human experiences.

Walter Trout – Sign Of The Times

In a career that spans five decades Walter Trout has deservedly earned a reputation as one of the electric juggernauts of blues music. With a deep solo catalogue but also an impressive collaborative CV that has seen him shine during stints with Canned Heat and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (stepping into shoes previously filled by legends Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor), Trout deserves his place in the pantheon of modern day blues elder statesmen. That firecracker style of his is still blazing as it takes aim at the disconnect in a modern day society with their heads buried in screens, apparently oblivious to the wider world around. This is also the title track from Walter’s newly released album which is one of the strongest collection of new songs you will find in 2025. It features lyric writing contributions from his wife Marie all of which help shape an emotional core in tracks responding to the external chaos and internal battles we all feel living in these modern times.

Wednesday – Bitter Everyday

It is not only the older generation who are feeling disillusionment these days. Now already up to their sixth album, the newly released ‘Bleeds’, Wednesday sound typically punch drunk and cheesed off on this crunching highlight from the record. Frontwoman Karly Hartzman does seem to have definitively found her writing voice on the last two Wednesday albums and it is with good reason their “Wednesday creek rock” sound is beginning to win some wider acclaim and recognition. Still, the band are not without inner turmoil with some line-up changes; they were possibly a little wrong footed by the rising solo career of MJ Lenderman over the past couple of years. He remains a studio member but will no longer be touring with the band. Still, despite these bumps in the road, they sound more determined and likely than ever to break on through.

The Onlies – You Climb The Mountain

There is swingin’ old-time string band action aplenty from the US right now too, here in the hands of some lively young pickers, pluckers and slashers named Vivian Leva, Leo Shannon, Riley Calcagno, and Sami Braman. ‘You Climb The Mountain’ is the bands fourth album, although the first two were recorded before they could drive. They are all 27 years old now but got their start twenty years ago, with Vivian drafted in on guitar ten years later, as a kid band; this might be a clue as to why their playing is so tight and infused with passion and feel, what with two decades of practice and refinement behind them. The bands Riley says that “there’s a careful balance between crazy intensity and melancholic peace, I like that both of those exist on the album.” This pulsating, string-laden steam train of a modern folk and bluegrass album is out now.

Jalen Ngonda – All About Me

Finally this week are some sumptuous new laid-back vintage reggae vibes from soul singing supremo Jalen Ngonda, released on Daptone Records. He is joined by veteran keyboardist and producer Victor Axelrod and the pair wrote the lyrics then recorded the vocals all in one night. It already has the aura of a reggae classic to it, the song is a direct pitch for entry into the catalogue for bragging and self-aggrandisement songs. With lyrics like “I may cloud up your day, yet I light up your night and by the morning I make you feel alright” there is no modest humility being portrayed by Jalen here, it is a peacocking strut in every sense and he nails it with his vocal. The genius in the performance is appearing in the final verse, for all his posturing and bravado, there is a little crack in Ngonda’s voice that tells you, he really wants this. This may well be a new route away from the Motown sophistication Jalen has previously shown, but it is no less wonderful for it, so dig in.

Standard
Old Fruit

Old Fruit 10th October 2025

John Lennon – Come Together

It would have been John Lennon’s 85th birthday yesterday and so in honour of his enduring legacy, alongside the newly remastered release of his 1972 Madison Square Gardens concert which accompanies the restored footage that appeared in the film ‘One To One: John & Yoko’ released earlier this year, this weeks selection of older music clips is a John Lennon special. We begin with one of the few occasions he revisited his Beatles catalogue on a concert stage (the one other notable example was during his guest appearance with Elton John in 1974) and the revitalised footage certainly unleashes the rocking power of the performance. This is from that 1972 concert, tragically the only time John would ever play a full solo show based around his own songs. Other occasions were either of an avant garde nature with Yoko or with the ad-hoc Plastic Ono bands he would occasionally show up with mainly doing rock ‘n’ roll covers. So, for rarity alone but also for its conviction, this is a special moment.

The Beatles – You Can’t Do That

The first years of The Beatles worldwide invasion were largely propelled by the raw attack of John Lennon’s thick Liverpudlian rock ‘n’ roll voice. Of course, over the years, the musicality of McCartney has been evaluated to properly acknowledge the genius that he is to this day, but the primal force of John Lennon remains undeniable and probably still the element that gets people into The Beatles in the first place. That is on display here on a lesser celebrated number but no less wonderful for that.

John Lennon & The Dirty Mac – Yer Blues

The Dirty Mac were a one off supergroup formed for the 1968 Rolling Stones picture ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus’. The film would sit in the vaults for years because the Stones were unhappy with some aspects of it (possibly that they were outshone by the other acts invited to appear) but this four piece featuring Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Mitch Mitchell and John earned their place in music folklore thanks to the status, if nothing else, of providing a mega-rare filmed live performance of a Beatle performing a track from ‘The White Album’ in the year it was released.

The Beatles – I Am The Walrus

John Lennon was the Beatle that embraced English psychedelia to the full and with this track, ‘A Day In The Life’ and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ in particular, wrote some of the movements most enduring pieces of work. Not only that, but this track and accompanying film sequence alone rescue the Beatles much maligned ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ film from the realms of the inessential.

John Lennon – Instant Karma

One thing that gets repeated by many who worked with him about John Lennon, is that he was lacking in patience and he loved the thrill of the instant hit and spontaneity. ‘Instant Karma’ was a non-album single from 1970 that epitomised this working approach and even this ‘Top Of The Pops’ appearance, after the single had charted, clearly shows John buzzing off the energy of having written, recorded and released a track in the space of two weeks. In fact he said of it that they “wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we’re putting it out for dinner”

John Lennon – Imagine

And we end back at that 1972 concert with a heartfelt rendition of the classic and then still only recently released title track from John’s second solo album. This is the latest of many restored and dynamically revived pieces of film footage we have enjoyed relating to John and the Beatles in recent years and once again, despite being relatively well known amongst Lennon fans, it does have the glossy sheen of something new.

Standard
Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 6th October 2025

Hannah Frances – Surviving You

This is taken from Hannah’s new album ‘Nested In Tangles’ which is out this week via Fire Talk. Having already caught the eye in 2024 with a stunning debut album ‘Keeper Of The Shepherd’ this immediate follow up continues to dazzle and amaze. No mere confessional folky, Hannah has a free flowing range that recalls the likes of Kate Bush and Jeff Buckley but as legitimate as those comparisons are, the fact is she possesses the eloquence and imaginative expression to make this style her own. Parts of the new album feature collaborative arrangements with Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen; something detectable in the eruptions of free jazz and progressive flourishes but the Hannah Frances core magnifies all elements into one heady brew, poetically honing her thematic meditations on generational trauma and maladaptive patterns with a musical experience that is deeply rewarding. Do not miss out on this one.

Jessie Kilguss – Howard Johnson’s

This is a preview track from Kilguss’s sixth album ‘They Have A Howard Johnson’s There’, a line that features in this superb reflection fuelled rock/pop tune, which is due to be released on November 14th. Jessie is a former actress who made songwriting her full time artistic outlet after working with musical heroes Marianne Faithfull and Mary Margaret O’Hara in the Tom Waits / William Burroughs musical ‘The Black Rider’. This song was inspired by the Al Pacino movie ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ and specifically the line spoken by Pacino “I’ll charter a plane to Algeria, they have a Howard Johnson’s there”. Kilguss’s father Howard had passed away a month before her seeing this movie and so the song stands as both a tribute to him and an inspirational spark for what the songwriter felt was a ridiculous line in the movie. ‘Howard Johnson’s’ is a wonderful, slightly forlorn and yet simultaneously uplifting and loving song that deserves some recognition. The nostalgia in the accompanying vintage advert filled video is a blast too, so enjoy.

Jose James – Tokyo Daydream

Released earlier this year, this irresistible slice of soulful electro with jazzy inflections is taken from Jose James thirteenth studio album ‘1978: Revenge Of The Dragon’. There is something in the pulse of the electro beat that sounds so warm and natural, which might have something to do with the fact that the record was recorded live to tape in a manner recalling the analogue heyday of the seventies. Jose has long been a voice in the contemporary soul and jazz worlds who is impossible to pin down, his groove is just so versatile, so cosmically old and new. The new record combines four originals alongside four new interpretations of late 70s classics and is a must hear for any fans of these styles who are on a quest for something bold, innovative and unique. Not only that, but it is a joy to listen to, so dig in.

Southern Avenue – Upside

As we have taken a soulful turn, let’s keep it going with some deliciously rootsy sounding funky soul and a killer chorus hook to boot. This one is an uplifting live version of a standout track on the bands debut album released this year on Alligator Records. Recorded in Memphis, the sense of that regions musical roots merging with gospel and funk is tangible, just as the impression of Southern Avenue being a band that can really cut it live is equally hard to ignore. The message carries a positive punch as well, with a lyric that pushes for the shedding of old concerns and the welcoming of the winds of change with open arms. “Every day’s a new day, find me on the upside” indeed. In the light of the times we live in, the mere act of setting out each morning with that attitude is a heavy act of defiance and one that I willingly try to embrace.

GoGo Penguin – What We Are And What We Are Meant To Be

Taken from GoGo Penguin’s latest album ‘Necessary Fictions’, the title of this modern jazz configuration is a strong indicator to the inspiration for the compositions creation. Pianist Chris Illingworth described it as being born of “deep reflection” and the music conveys sonically the abrasive dividing line between the reality of the people we are and the dream of the people we aspire to be. In that sense, each of the audio facets that are the building blocks of this piece, the delicate piano patterns, the restless drum grooves, the throbbing of the bass at the heart of it all, the deep washes of double bass and the ambient ever-presence of the synths each serve to capture an element of the whole that only becomes fully identifiable when everything is combined, which seems to happen both naturally and with some resistance. All told, this electric Manchester trio are still making and creating sound in a manner that demands attention and delights the ears.

U – The Bitter Withy

And finally, we conclude this week’s selection in a place that is one-part traditional old-England folk, another-part haunting and a wonderfully baffling puzzle all rolled into one. It comes from an album set to be released on 10th October called ‘Archenfield’ on the Lex Records label. There in lies the first mystery, for the record has been constructed by a sample collagist called U about whom little is known. In putting this audio delight together U has dug deep into archive recorded material, found sound and sourced other atmospheric samples all relevant to the area in Herefordshire known as Archenfield. The ambience of the whole record, in conjunction with the mesmeric appearances and disappearances of voices from another age, both bring folk and folklore into the current realm in tandem with time-locking them into history. Do these voices speak to us today or is our connection too severed to ever reach back that far? ‘The Bitter Withy’ itself is centuries old, telling the tale of a child Christ and a murderous misuse of his powers, and it sounds archaic too; it plays as if it were broadcasting from the needle on an antique shellac player which has just been wound for the final time, never to play again. This one is unique in every sense, one of those albums that will not survive as background music but for those who want immersion, confusion, patient gratification, questions without easy answers and a positive banquet of imaginative audio wonderment, then U’s ‘Archenfield’ album will surely become a treasured possession.

Standard
Old Fruit

Old Fruit 3rd October 2025

Tim Buckley – Happy Time

Last week the sad news broke of the passing of double bass legend Danny Thompson. As a tribute to the man and his immense fingerprint left on the landscape of 20th century music this weeks edition of Old Fruit pulls six archive performances enhanced by Danny’s involvement holding down that bottom end. First up, a rare piece of film capturing the week in October 1968 when Tim Buckley visited the UK to play the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Danny was part of his pick up band upon arrival in the UK, rising to the unenviable challenge of following Tim’s music and bringing an appreciative backing to proceedings. It is evidence of Danny’s standing in the sixties as a go-to session man, a reputation that would see his name appear on many credits from the time, most notable on records by Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, John McLaughlin Trio and Nick Drake.

Pentangle – Light Flight

Danny’s presence on the double bass in Pentangle undoubtedly elevated the bands fusion of folk, jazz and free-form acoustic psychedelics to heights they would not have attained with a mere four string plunker. He could bring both percussive energy and improvisational alertness and as such, the band felt like the ideal environment for his eloquences to thrive and evolve. For a time they did too, although Danny was never likely to be limited to just one combination of players during a career when so many would seek out his sound, his ear and his magic touch. Here he is performing arguably Pentangle’s most well known number at the start of 1971, a song that was originally both a 45 and a stand out number from the bands ‘Basket Of Light’ album.

John Martyn – Couldn’t Love You More

John Martyn’s deep folk-jazz fusion benefited from the Danny Thompson touch in a collaboration that would last more than three decades. They first came together for Martyn’s 1973 classic ‘Solid Air’ and it would be a union that endured through not just studio work, but mouth watering live concert sessions too, as is witnessed here from a vintage ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ clip. Their last known shows together were in the early 2000’s by which time Danny almost sounded like the essential component in John Martyn’s soulful, probing musical quest.

Richard Thompson – Put It There Pal

Similarly on a wavelength were the musical interactions between folk-rock maestro Richard Thompson and Danny. It has long been impossible for the pair to be written about without first explaining that they were not brothers, but with the kind of intuitive understanding they often displayed in live performance it was hard not to think there must be some higher degree of communication going on. Their highlights are worth digging into across a multitude of live recordings over the years but they did also share joint billing on an under-the-radar 1997 studio album called ‘Industry’.

Martin Simpson – Heartbreak Hotel

There is a temptation in compiling this selection to dip into some of the more mainstream cameos to be found of Danny’s work over the years. Top of that list is his bass credit on Everything But The Girl’s nineties melancholy dance classic ‘Missing’, of which there are TV appearances featuring Danny to be found should you care to dig them out, but really all he is doing on that track is holding down a very basic, beat accompanying low end. His playing always shines with brighter colours and variation when heard alongside an instrumentalist of similar dexterity. That is what we find here, playing in tandem with folk guitar legend Martin Simpson on a live bluesy version of a fifties rock ‘n’ roll classic.

Danny Thompson – Idle Monday

We finish with one of the all too scarce examples of Danny taking the lead on a performance of a tune from his first solo album. ‘Whatever’ was released in 1987 to a favourable critical reception in the jazz world, it gave Thompson a platform to express his love of folk and jazz in a deep instrumental showcase that did open the door for future solo projects in a similar vein. Danny himself said “I just wanted Kate Bush to like it. I wanted the jazzers to like it. I wanted the folk side to like it”. Returning to the album after news of his death broke, this work does stand the test of time and represents a grain of the mans music that is ripe for rediscovery amongst the many higher profile recordings on which his genius, expressive playing can be heard. We have lost a good one here, RIP Danny Thompson.

Standard
Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 29th September 2025

PINS – I’ll Be Yours

This Manchester all female have been releasing attention grabbing indie-rock albums for nearly fifteen years now and make a welcome return here with more classic sounding original music. They are leaning into a sixties wall-of-sound aesthetic here, albeit one that still thrashes those melodic guitar hooks to Jesus And Mary Chain levels of fuzziness. When they were starting out, founding member Faith Vern brought her fashion photographers eye to the mix, ensuring that PINS always had a stylish swagger to their post-punk aggression with vivid nods to the Riot Grrrl movement. All these elements are clearly still flourishing today, so it is great to hear news of this return for their previous release was 2020’s ‘Hot Slick’, a wait that felt far too long.

Jeff Tweedy – Out In The Dark

The new album from Wilco front man Tweedy is a 30 track, triple album epic called ‘Twilight Override’. He recorded it at Wilco’s home base The Loft in Chicago in collaboration with his sons Spencer and Sammy as well as James Elkington, Liam Kazar and Finom’s Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart. Unmistakably the work of Jeff, it proves him to be a song writer still very much in service of the creative spark and with a record this size, that tap is clearly still pouring a potent natural supply of inspiration. He himself describes the record as a reaction to “the bottomless basket of rock bottom” and it is indeed a defiant action against the despair of modern times expressed through his unique musical vision.

The Divine Comedy – The Last Time I Saw The Old Man

This is just so beautifully on the money, relatable too if you have ever found yourself reflecting on your final moments with a close elderly relative. It requires a certain lightness of touch in tandem with a fluent musical vocabulary but, if there is a recording artist from the past 35 years who has consistently displayed these qualities it is undoubtedly Divine Comedy mainstay Neil Hannon. The bands newly released album is called ‘Rainy Sunday Afternoon’ and it shows a deliberate emphasis on chamber pop orchestration and offers an overriding sense of introspection. A perfect soundtrack for reflection as we enter the colder winter months, the sense of autumnal melancholy is striking and Neil himself, when talking about the album, has said it is a way to “work through some stuff”.

Half Man Half Biscuit – Horror Clowns Are Dickheads

If you need a lift after the previous recommendation then this should provide enough of a contrast. Nigel Blackwell’s band had their oeuvre nailed down on arrival forty years ago and they have stuck with it brilliantly, often hilariously, ever since. The recipe has always been energetic punkish indie-rock as a bedrock for Nigel’s dead pan mocking alongside devastatingly observed social and cultural satire. New album ‘All Asimov And No Fresh Air’ features the definitive take down of the profiteering hype around ‘Record Store Day’ (“oh I do like to re-release my b-sides” sung to the tune of “I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside”) but it opens with this instant classic, a song that instructs “all horror clowns are dickheads and if you have a phobia of them, you’re a dickhead too”.

Joan Shelley – Here In The High And Low

Joan Shelley’s new album ‘Real Warmth’ arrives, as many new releases have done in the current climate, heavily troubled by the unstable world conditions we live in. There are multiple layers to the “real warmth” she is referring to not least the collaborative, tangible connection we humans often isolate ourselves from in an online space and also the climate anxiety that is provoked by our warming planet. But she also took her mission drive to the recording process too, seeking a looser, more interactive and live feel to the sessions by recording them with musician friends in a snowy and remote Canadian hide away. That was definitely a sound move as can be heard here on the records superb cascading opening track, after which the rest of the album holds up equally well.

Julianna Riolino – Seed

So it feels like a closing of the circle with this weeks final selection for, much like the opening number, this is a cut swinging its sixties style hooks with a bolshy, assured swagger. For a song that begins like a 21st century take on The Shirelles, the way it ends in a hurricane of rising noise with Julianna repeated spitting out the refrain “I was your seed” is really quite sensational. This is taken from a new album due in October called ‘Echo In The Dust’ from the former member of Daniel Romano’s Outfit. Hailing from Canada, she has pursued a solo path since releasing a single called ‘Be My Man’ in 2019 and with this follow up to 2022’s ‘All Blue’ LP there is clear evidence of an artist who has absolutely found her voice.

Standard
Old Fruit

Old Fruit 26th September 2025

Billy Bragg – Between The Wars

For this edition of Old Fruit we are jumping back forty years to 1985 and a few tracks that show an often maligned period in popular music had some seeds of hope in the margins away from the thin-synth dominance of the mainstream. I am kicking off with Billy Bragg because I launched this weeks Fresh Juice with another guitar crunching bard from Essex and I felt like indulging in a bit more of the South of England’s London overspill splendour. Bragg’s classic lament drew vivid parallels between the working class struggles felt in England between the world wars and the Britain he drew topical inspiration from in the eighties. Forty years later, the relevant themes insure this song still has a place in the musical culture, even if the idea of the protest song itself now seems awfully idealistic and naïve. Bragg though, always sang, and continues to sing, with feeling and sincerity which is precisely why he has endured.

R.E.M. – Driver 8

In 1985 this tune, heard here in a rare earlier acoustic performance, would be one of the stand out tunes on R.E.M.’s third album ‘Fables Of The Reconstruction’, a record the band would have less than fond memories of recording in a damp English winter with the legendary Joe Boyd in the producers chair. It seems incredible now that while the US was frothing over Madonna and Prince (justifiably so I might add) ploughing away in the margins at the exact same time was one of America’s greatest ever rock bands, quietly refining their craft and slowly finding their identity. Maybe it should stand as a lesson in two things; firstly that there is a lot to be said for not tasting success too early and secondly, that the good stuff really does rise to the surface eventually. Nowadays, all five of those pre-worldwide fame R.E.M. albums are regarded as must hear classics.

The Fall – Spoilt Victorian Child

Whereas the previous band would tangibly move from their cult, outsider status to a place where their genius won the acclaim and success it deserved, the same pathway never opened out for The Fall. That is, I guess, understandable for the confrontational, unpredictable and undiluted delivery of leader Mark E. Smith was clearly never made for mass mainstream consumption. Even when he did break through to occasionally occupy a popular platform (I’m thinking about his Top Of The Pops appearance with the Inspiral Carpets in 1994 or the later time when BBC TV got him to read the Saturday evening football results) the tension that followed Mark around was not unlike that felt when a potentially aggressive thug stumbles into a pub looking for someone to pick an argument with. But maybe that was the thing that gave The Fall their spark? That garage rock energy and post-punk edginess moulded into something wholly unique and real by Smith’s primitive, poetic take on life as a working class man from Northern Britain.

The Waterboys – The Whole Of The Moon

For just a short time in the 1980s The Waterboys featured two of the periods greatest songwriting and producing talents. Band leader Mike Scott, for whom the group were essentially always a solo project with an ever rotating supporting cast of musicians (much like The Fall actually), is the ever present Waterboy but for a couple of albums back then they also had the equally gifted Karl Wallinger. It was undoubtedly a volatile pairing as both men were natural leaders with a strong desire to back their ideas but Karl did later prove himself in his own one-man band with changeable sidemen configuration, World Party. ‘The Whole Of The Moon’ remains the crown jewel from their time together, definitively Mike Scott’s composition but traces of Walllinger across the recording are undeniable and do enhance it with sonic stardust that continues to burn bright to this day.

Camper Van Beethoven – Take The Skinheads Bowling

This was an early underground anthem from a band formed in 1983 in Redlands, California having emerged from garage bands like Sitting Duck and Estonian Gauchos. This track helped bestow a quirky irreverence on them that, along with their facility to eclectically fuse punk, folk, psych and ska influences, insured their status as cult favourites. This one appeared on debut album ‘Telephone Free Landslide Victory’ and two more albums would appear the following year before they signed to Virgin in 1987. They split in 1990 (although would reform by the end of the decade) after their last notable success, a 1989 cover of Status Quo’s ‘Pictures Of Matchstick Men’ which became a number 1 hit on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks in 1989.

‘Til Tuesday – Voices Carry

Elvis Costello once described the eighties as “the decade that taste forgot” and whilst this weeks feature has been tailored to present the case for the defence from the eras middle period, when all the excesses provoking that kind of comment were at a peak, it is true that around 1985 you could find acts like Bob Dylan, Neil Young and even Elvis himself struggling with the digital production evolutions of the time. But this final selection also points to the same issues possibly restricting newer artists who would find their sound a lot more convincingly later in the nineties and beyond. Aimee Mann, one of the next decades most credible and dependable purveyors of a grungy, folk-rock sound, is heard here leading her band ‘Til Tuesday, clearly developing the writing chops that would serve her so well later on, but arguably held back by a flat mid-eighties pop sheen. This isn’t too bad, there is a lot of potential on display, but there was much better to come further down the line. Something I find myself thinking about a lot of music from this era.

Standard
Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 22nd September 2025

Scott Lavene – Cars

Scott Lavene took some time to find his voice, having busked extensively before retreating to solitude on a boat via stints in bands around France and New York, his breakthrough came around the time he attended a music workshop for recovering addicts. That awakening brought us a singer and writer with one of the most authentic voices on the music scene today, rooted in urban Essex with the poetic flare of an Ian Dury taking on the Sleaford Mods in a lyrical arm wrestle. He is self effacing, warm, witty and incisive in his observational detail, as his music jumps between spoken word narrative and soul boy intonations whilst the subject matter pivots across real life confessions and Scott’s wild imagination. His new album, ‘Cars Buses Bedsits and Shops’, is so named because all of the songs focus on those exact, recurring subjects. Simples.

Foxwarren – Deadhead

This one is accompanied by a video that is both divertingly amusing and a little disturbing at the same time. It feels like they took the songs title as a launch pad and decided to feature some actual dead headed puppets but eerily, still smiling and moving because after all, with its “don’t stop dancing” refrain, this is quite a light and bouncy number on the surface. The effect is wonderfully unsettling as this Canadian indie band, led by Andy Shauf, deliver their second album following their 2018 self titled debut, with a similarly satisfying analogue expansion of the introspection heard in Shauf’s solo work. Especially with those flute licks, this one is infuriatingly addictive and catchy.

Bret McKenzie – Freak Out City

There was always a suggestion when performing as comedy duo Flight Of The Concordes and delivering pitch perfect parodies of retro pop styles and artists, that there was quite an adept musical talent at work here. The trouble with comedy songs is, as a general rule, they are set up for just one listen and only a few are ever re-played. Once you know the joke, it is time to move on. Still, with a burgeoning side hustle composing film music, Bret did set out his serious musician credentials on 2022’s stringently straight ‘Songs Without Jokes’. Now with a new follow up album, of which this is the title track, he appears to have struck the perfect balance; ‘Freak Out City’ is a record driven by melodic tunesmithery without totally abandoning the droll, subtle wit flowing so effortlessly out of McKenzie’s modest, humble disposition.

Brandee Younger – Gadabout Season

Spiritual, ethereal and soulful jazz played with the harp as lead instrument is thriving in 2025. At least, that is how it feels with Brandee Younger releasing sumptuous music such as this, the title track of her new album available on Impulse! Records. It is the harpists third album with the label and feels like the closest she has been thus far to realising and developing the signature sounds in her minds ear. That it was recorded on Alice Coltrane’s harp is an apt connection, for if an exploration into this music’s roots were to be undertaken then those fifty year old heavenly vibes would certainly show up. Still, Brandee is plugged into the modern motions too, as the records collaborators like Shabaka Hutchings, Courtney Bryan, NIIA and Josh Johnson only serve to prove. Justified, stylish and stately.

Carson McHone – Winter Breaking

Carson’s new album ‘Pentimento’ is out now on Merge Records and it is one of the 2025 albums that demands some immersion. All of the songs entered the world as poems but McHone has nurtured and developed each of them into a song cycle that transports the listener through the four seasons. Comparisons are already awash with references to the late 60s/70s Brit-folk-rock sound and names like Shelagh McDonald and Bridget St John are accurately being tossed into the appreciation, but I hear a more contemporary edge seeping through as well. McHone may well find her musical soul drawn connecting with these wonderous vintage echoes but her head is firmly plugged into the present day and that kinship alone makes her first full-length album since 2022’s ‘Still Life’ a repeatedly rewarding experience.

Adrian Sherwood – The Collapse Of Everything

This is the title track from Sherwood’s new record and it somehow is a heading that feels depressingly pertinent in the current climate. Nevertheless, that it should be masterfully vintage sounding dub soundtracking the breaking and broken nature of the world around us at least seems very fitting. The audio landscape is both doomily oppressive and chillingly fatalistic but, in equal measure, soothing and resigned. This is Sherwood’s first solo album in thirteen years and the experimentally inclined dub maestro, so often the background wizard sprinkling his sonic sorcery on the work of others, is allowing himself to be the centre stage focus of attention for once. It is a full length record to set sail with, playing like a film soundtrack as it glides across worldwide musical territories and regions but rarely breaking loose of the dub backbone holding this phonic requiem together as one.

Standard
Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 25th August 2025

Eve Adams – Get Your Hopes Up

Growing up alternating between the rural farm idyll of Oklahoma and more urban surroundings in Los Angeles, Eve began writing music at a very young age and was already showing considerable emotional depth in her songs by the age of twelve. Her latest release is called ‘American Dust’ and arrives on the Topic label continuing her narrative fuelled folk-noir style with a maturity that seems to be really hitting the heights now. In a recent interview with Uncut Magazine she described her music, which pulls in strong visual art elements too, as “a nice little ouroborus”.

Curtis Harding – There She Goes

This is psychedelic soul par excellence, featuring a deep production resplendent with strings, funky rhythm chops and a far-out fuzz guitar solo, it is clear Curtis’s music is going places other soul stirrers cannot reach. This is a recently released stand alone single marking the mans first new music since the acclaimed 2021 album ‘If Words Were Flowers’. In terms of theme Harding has described the song as a tribute to “the beauty and duality of the ideal woman” but I say it skates pretty damn close to the beauty and duality of the ideal soul track. There is much to love here, including the Twilight Zone essence of this accompanying music video.

The Black Keys – Man On A Mission

While I am thinking about psychedelic soul it is fair to say there is a huge element of that very thing in this new music from the Black Keys, that and their ever present raw blues cut and thrust. This one is from the bands brand new album ‘No Rain No Flowers’ released this month on Easy Eye Sound/Parlophone Records. They remain dependably brilliant on this LP which sees them at times return to the blues-rock sound of their roots and elsewhere turn to other modes such as post-punk, retro soul and then, pushing even farther out from those roots, a touch of eighties style synth action. Always worth checking out.

Laura-Mary Carter – June Gloom

This is one part a forlorn country-style ballad and another part a Lana Del Rey style haunting melodrama. Laura-Mary is previously known as one half of Brighton alt-rockers Blood Red Shoes but after two decades pounding down those souls she is now stepping out solo with a striking shift in tone. Hers is now an Americana adjacent motion with a vivid echo in the production that calls to mind a Spector wall of sound and a Velvet Underground-like ghostly shimmer. If that sounds like an appealing cocktail, which it certainly does for me, then be sure to dig out the solo debut album ‘Bye Bye Jackie’ when it arrives later on in September.

The Onlies – Going Across The Sea

Pronounced the own’-leez, these young yet old-timey folk and bluegrass whizz kids are about to release a brand new album called ‘You Climb The Mountain’. This lively number from a recent live performance may not feature in the tracklist but the live footage offered up does give you an idea of the fire and energy this combo possess in spades. It therefore ensures, despite its old fashioned reference points, this has a vitality definitively proving they belong in the here and now of modern times. The album features a wide panoramic view of the emotive range in the sound, from the slow swinging reflection heard in ‘Roll On Buddy’, a railroad song learned from Aunt Molly Jackson, to the punchy picking on show in a vibrant interpretation of the English song ‘Matty Groves’, it is clear The Onlies are explosive talents rightfully demanding our attention.

Studio Electrophonique – How Can I Love Anyone Else?

I am closing this edition with some dreamy electronica, a song that sounds simultaneously retro and modern, both primitive and grandiose in its lush production. It is a rather forlorn piece but there is a warmth in there too, this piece has a piercing autumnal feel ready made for the next season that is already starting to show its colours. This is the solo project of singer-songwriter James Leesley, one of the most interesting and original musical outfits to emerge from Sheffield’s current independent scene. He says this song “existed for a while as just this little arpeggiated interlude I’d play in between writing other songs, kind of like a thinking tune, but then one night it just turned into this swirling fairground ride of a sequence. The full thing came all at once, as if it was already there — like I’d found some secret waltzer and had a pocket full of tokens. I just kept going round and round until I’d finished the words”. He will release his eponymous debut album on Paris-based label Valley of Eyes Records on September 26th.

Standard