Category Archives: New Release Reviews

New Release Reviews

The Junipers – The Solid And The Hollow

Finding a psychedelic band previously unknown to me is nothing new today, the scene seems to throw up a plentiful supply in 2026. But occasionally, as has occurred with my coming across Leicester’s The Junipers, you check them out then about three songs in the light goes on and you find yourself shouting out “this lot are the real deal!” So, for those who do not feel like reading on, the headline is that this is a great 2026 psych pop album; for everyone else here are some reasons why. ‘Oneless’ is a breezy beginning, you can feel yourself taking off and blowing through the clouds looking at the people down below, “doing what they do.” As lift offs go, it certainly encourages the listener to get on board, the floating nature of the jangly textures is far from lightweight, the voices build on top of each other with a celestial comeliness and there is just about enough of a sigh in the air to ensure avoidance of anything too flowery or whimsical. What happens next firmly locks us in; the thwack of a single drum followed by the steam engine propulsion of a pacy fuzzy guitar hook ushers ‘When She Turns’ to the front. This is psych pop with energy and bite, a little echo of the early nineties’ bagginess but essentially a groovy little nugget for this new 21st century age of psych. ‘She Makes The Sun Shine’ says it all in the title, although once again this bright burst of glorious sunshine pop is rammed in authentic detail. There is a breakdown with cascading vocals that halts you in your tracks like a stun gun and if you care to listen deeper into the mix, those electric stringed arpeggios are merely the front of house for an audio menu that features backward guitar effects, ‘Revolver’ era McCartney bass lines and the most colourful Byrdsian major-minor harmonies you could wish to hear.

I try to make a point in reviews of not flagging up obvious influences if the artist does not do them justice or simply fails to be as good as the music they are trying to emulate. However, I mentioned two mid-sixties giants just now not because The Junipers are photocopying the past, more due to their impressive re-purposing and preserving of classic sounds and to applaud them for justifiably wearing those connections on their sleeves like badges of honour. This band are potent because they are getting the basics right so above all period reference points; my enjoyment of this album boils down to the simple fact that these are incredibly good songs. Not that the studio work is failing to sprinkle some magic on the produce as well, quite the opposite. The way those keyboard chords ripple out as if we have divebombed the deepest lake on ‘Fishes’ is incredible, not to mention how a rising slide guitar sound evokes the sense of emerging once more to the surface. ‘Meadow Song’ similarly paints a picture of the tune’s situation, those chiming acoustic notes tangibly sounding like they were plucked whilst taking a walk through the long grass as the sun begins to set.

‘Swan’ keeps the action outside, each element of the tune appearing to act in response to its surroundings. The semi-discordant haziness that briefly appears is a powerful brush stroke, to these ears early seventies children’s TV performed by hand puppets appear in the mind out of nowhere, a little bit dreamy with a tiny touch of eery but that could just me my memories, still that is how music works after all. ‘Where I’m Landing’ pushes feelings of uncertainty to the fore, the lyric speaks to loneliness coupled with an easy going, fatalistic attitude to whatever fate might deliver. Here again, despite any bumpiness at the heart of the song, the soft malleable nature of the sound acts as a cushion. ‘Who Can Say?’ retains the head vibes at the table, there has been a definite shift towards the matters of the mind as we approach the close. I am thinking of bands like Beachwood Sparks here too, which again is no bad thing. Still, change does jump back one last time, as ‘In A Maze’ picks up the tempo and reminds the listener that, in some parallel universe, The Junipers are one of the top pop bands around. Then finally, this sumptuous song suite closes with the piano led melancholy of ‘Moments Of Truth.’ Plastered in mellotron sounds, it underlines what a sonic delight this little excursion has been. What can I say, I love psych pop, I love psych rock and I love great songwriting; The Junipers have delivered all of that in one kaleidoscopic treasure of an album, go out and find it today.

Danny Neill

You can get a copy of the album via this link: https://thejunipers.bandcamp.com/album/the-solid-and-the-hollow-album-2026

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New Release Reviews

The Delines – The Set Up

Considering how grand and satisfying a listening experience this whole record is, it may be surprising to learn that The Delines built it almost as an afterthought following 2025’s ‘Mr. Luck And Ms. Doom.’ These were tracks that had been leftover following those sessions, which makes it quite remarkable how cohesively stitched together this all is as a thematic song sequence. Call it a concept album or a piece of audio cinema, however you view it, ‘The Set Up’ is a deep and fantastic work. The album begins with ‘The Set Up Pt 1’ which with its mournful, late night street corner ambience and forlorn trumpet figure occupies a similar space to Springsteen’s ‘Meeting Across The River.’ Placed here however, as a scene setting curtain raiser it plays more like an overture while our narrator tells the story of an arsonist burglary that went rather well for the perpetrators. A trace of envy is easily detectable in the voice, imagining them today with their feet in the Spanish sand. That desire for escape, to be free from living a life on the poverty line is keenly felt throughout the album and explicitly stated in the title of ‘Can You Get Me Out Of Phoenix.’ This is a stunning piece of music, warm as southern soul but contemplative and yearning too, it resists the temptation to dream of a better life by remembering all the things that can go wrong. This actually serves as a set up lyric for the gut punch of death that arrives halfway through the song and yet, somehow, we are still lifted by the slow pulse of the music even while our feet remain grounded in reality.

‘Jumping Off In Madras’ reprises that aching, streetlight trumpet, its role on the album becoming something akin to a wordless secondary voice. This is actually a clever detail by The Delines because some of these audio tracks are plainly beautiful, even as they feel covered in sorrow, and warrant some appreciation simply as images in sound. That said, ‘Dilaudid Diane’ is built on a simple church-like piano with organ figure and punches through thanks to a vocal that is positively bleeding with empathy as it recalls the sad tale of the Diane in the title. ‘Keep The Shades Down’ is a let’s get it on soul gem with a difference, as the cajoling for human connection is played out despite a background of enforced austerity and an unforgiving outside world. Maybe there are other songs that have essentially said “let’s make out because it’s all we’ve got to enjoy” but, at the moment, I cannot think of another that paints this scenario with such depth whilst avoiding any tired cliches. ‘Getting Out Of The Ward’ is another vivid instrumental, this time led by a piano movement that slides into waltz time and yet, as the music instils a sense of stepping out into the open, that trumpet again weighs heavy, as if the open air is fraught with tension and danger rather than a space to breathe easy.

‘The Set Up Pt. 2’ introduces a seventies crime movie texture, with the story of an embezzling Brenda again causing some approving thoughts for someone brave enough to do the necessary and get out. Another layer is subtly peeled away though, and these private revelations are revealed to be part of a bigger ruse later when we reach ‘Pt. 3,’ but I will not go all in with the spoilers and leave it there. For now, the next phase of this audio adventure is ushered in with another album highlight, ‘The Reckless Life.’ You can picture the scene, being regaled with these stories propping up a late-night bar, several drinks in as a vintage soul band fills the room with retro flavours, the moral of these stories being realised with the thought “a reckless life ain’t reckless until that one day when you finally get caught.” It begins to feel like the seeds of trouble are going to catch up with a few of the characters introduced on this journey. ‘Walking With His Sleeves Down,’ a distant cousin to ‘Mr Bojangles’ perhaps, tells the tale, over gentle sympathetic piano, of another good man beaten into submission by the struggle. ‘The Meter Keeps Ticking’ marches along musically even though the hospital bound figure at the centre of the song feels like he might make hell freeze over. When our movie concludes on the instrumental ‘The Last Time I Saw Her,’ the imagination brilliantly runs wild with what may have become of these souls, its pitter-pattering falls like a heavenly requiem. Wow, with records as well constructed and crafted as this coming out in 2026, I feel sure the album as an art form remains in extremely healthy shape, I give ‘The Set Up’ the biggest possible recommendation.

Danny Neill

You can get a physical copy of the album via this link: https://www.thedelines.com/

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New Release Reviews

Nicole Atkins – Drama

There is a moment during the Memphis soul style strut of ‘For No One’ from this latest Nicole Atkins album, her first of all new material in six years, where she sings “don’t let a good wine go to waste.” As a metaphor for the sumptuous melange of ages and sounds heard throughout this record, I cannot help but think it is on the money. Everything you hear on ‘Drama’ in terms of sound aesthetic contains echoes of golden eras of recorded music. Be it film noir, the panoramic orchestrations heard on classic Roy Orbison tracks, the lush heart string plucking arrangements perfected for the Nashville sound, the trip-hop moodiness patented by Portishead and even the scene stealing dramatizations washing over a Bond theme tune, this is a soundtrack performed with so much class you could probably get away with mislabelling it as the work of the Wrecking Crew. However, as much as these mostly live cut audio expressions make the record sound incredible, they are nothing more than the decorative choices of an artist with a great ear; the element really standing out is the quality of the songs. Nicole Atkins has stepped back into the ring armed with a collection of numbers that are demanding their place in the cannon of classic American compositions. Nicole has explained her modus operandi as “not trying to rehash or celebrate some bygone era. I’m just taking what I like melodically from the past and channelling it into my songs. I like to make them deeply personal. The question I come back to is – how do I make this sound exactly like me?”

None of this is fresh news of course, ever since she released her 2007 debut album ‘Neptune City,’ Nicole Atkins has stood tall as part of a rich new breed keeping the spirit of classic popular song craft not only alive, but an essential part of the modern music listening menu. She has always sung with clarity and force, untroubled by the kind of vocal crutches that seem to hold back too many mainstream vocalists. Nicole puts a song over the old-fashioned way, although such is the effectiveness of her method that there is really nothing vintage about it, it simply remains the best style available today delivering the treatment these tracks demand. By getting inside the heart of the lyric, feeling it, and stepping up with such commitment it ensures no nuance of the song is going to be missed, the Atkins identity is indelibly stamped in these grooves. It all makes me ponder how, sometimes the best artists have nothing more of a USP than just doing the basics really, really well, to a standard that pretenders cannot hope to get close to. Perhaps the problem with this kind of performer is that there is nothing particularly headline grabbing about simply being very talented and incredibly good at your craft, too many people need more sensationalism or a troubled back story to offer their attention but I am here to tell you, putting a brick wall up against the hype machines and trusting your ears around a talent like Nicole will only lead to good things and a life enriched by brilliant music.

By her own admission Nicole approached this record from a place of power, recalling where she was two decades ago releasing a debut and the relationship troubles fuelling inspiration at the time. She admits to being bewitched by the sound of heartache and so deliberately re-connected with the circumstances and troubles faced back then, re-purposing and aligning them with today’s extra life experience and self-growth, so as to produce a new perspective on age old themes of love and life. The signposts are all over the album cover, a bold comic strip style depiction of Nicole looking fearfully up at an oncoming avalanche perhaps? And yes, that really is the famous Sun Records logo you see at the top right corner, her friend and touring partner Chris Isaak (who has a cameo appearance on ‘Cue The Symphony’) having signed her to the label as part of a current drive to honour its legacy by releasing vital new titles such as this. To these ears ‘Drama’ has the potential to become one of the signature albums in the labels catalogue. Nicole has produced a collection where every track could be a single, she nods to girl-group pop with ‘Trippin On Teardrops,’ an electro pulse on ‘Singing In The Mirror,’ Jimmy Webb worthy classicism on ‘When The Night Falls,’ all this and so much more before finally closing with some jazz leaning balladry on ‘Softly As You Were.’ As a whole, this album is a masterclass in dramatic, lovelorn song writing, executed with pazazz and sensitivity, showing a clear understanding of the musical fundamentals that can make a record worth revisiting again and again. If it sounds like a classic that may well be because, soon enough, it will surely become one.

Danny Neill

For more on Nicole Atkins and ways to purchase the album please follow the link: https://nicoleatkins.bandcamp.com/music

Nicole Atkins by Barbara F G

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New Release Reviews

The Creepy Jingles – Against All Opps

Here is a band totally uninhibited about their love of a zinging pop hook, in fact they positively let that urge run wild on this new – all too short but undoubtedly leaving me wanting more – six track mini-album released on the wonderful Enigmatic Brunch label. The thing about pop, especially the kind of guitar pop we have here, one that references new wave and skater punk but then goes deeper into the realms of giddy psychedelia and multi coloured freakbeat, is that it has to be immediate. Well, you can tick that box off right away, I took one listen to ‘Against All Opps’ (got to love a Phil Collins referencing album title pun, haven’t you?) and right off the bat was convinced I had stumbled upon one of America’s best kept secrets. All these songs get in and get the job done on first exposure, they are short sharp punches to the earlobe and the brain because, and here is the best bit, they all still stand up to closer immersion and, more than that, enhance with a more deliberate listen. The opener ‘You Don’t Trend’ is a textbook example of what I am describing. The briefest of intros and away we go, divebombing into a punk pop nugget built on the classic verses to ear candy chorus mould and that vocal, with all its 21st century buzz words delivered like a hot slice of prime bitchiness. But let those words sink in a little, bask in the skinny-jean guitar solo before staring deeper into those sneering vocals, and it is hard not to conclude that ‘You Don’t Trend’ is actually a precise take-down of modern social tropes and shallow values, with all the vacuousness that entails taking a tumble with it.

It turns out The Creepy Jingles are not so new to others as they are to me, they have previously been a Kansas based four-piece built around the acid witted, lyrical songwriting of Jocelyn Olivia Nixon. They had previously announced themselves with the album ‘Take Me At My Wordplay’ but this new release, arriving hot on the heels of previous album ‘Washed Up,’ finds Nixon with a lightly refreshed and re-shuffled pack of musicians alongside. Maybe that explains the need for a speedy new release from this latest configuration, and if that is the motivation then playing this record more than justifies the exercise. Much is made of the humour, bite and imaginative wordplay Jocelyn deploys but with a band tearing into tune packed, riff heavy and ear worm worthy song constructs, you are being dealt a double whammy of mind and muscle in every song. ‘Stay High’ is a song that gallops into view atop the most irresistible of descending riffs and as the repeated chorus line song title circles us, staying high on this delight is pretty much the only option available. The self-assuredness in the lyric is a declaration that suggests, between the lines, this band know how great they can be. “You can’t hold me down or cop my sound, break my brain, derail my train. Stay high.”

That same confidence is explicitly stated in ‘I Don’t Need A Thing From You,’ a song with the energy and mocking aggression that used to be food and drink to Elvis Colstello and The Attractions, which might just be a reference point in my head thanks to the tracks fruity Farfisa echoing keyboard sound played by Gailen Gillespie. ‘Throw Me In Some Rice’ is where things really fly out of their lane. There is so much going on here that I should merely say go and listen to it; there are mellotron sounds, flute-like spinning textures, dramatic bass breakdowns and a moment where the drum kicks a fill, as the band fall away, that conjures thoughts of the timeless wall-of-sound production. The key to it all though is a brilliant song, a bittersweet lament fired from aching verses and a heavy-duty resolution accompanying a lyric which might be about letting your guard down but then again, the way Jocelyn paints lyrical pictures in all these songs, leaving them open to multiple interpretations, is the sign of a serious talent. As we enter the closing brace of tracks there is no slowing the eclectic range on display, ‘Funhouse Mirror’ is an Americana leaning scuzz bath (superb) leading to ‘Nu Fables’ which, with the “you don’t rock with my friends” repeat, resolutely delivers a genuine sing-along worthy moment for the Creepy Jingles audience to sink their teeth into. Jocelyn may expect all the cool kids to be rolling their eyelids now, but I don’t find it too hard to imagine an ever-expanding audience embracing this band and throwing masses of love and respect their way. On this evidence, The Creepy Jingles not only feel ready to make the leap, but they also sound thoroughly deserving.

Danny Neill

You can get a copy of the new Creepy Jingles mini-LP via this link: https://enigmaticbrunchrecords.bandcamp.com/

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New Release Reviews

Son Lux – Out Into

Often when a musician or band go deep into film soundtrack work, they can lose a bit of momentum and impetus in their more regular recorded work. Alternatively, on other occasions such as this, the commitment to atmospheric textures, scene enhancing instrumental pieces and the spring of ideas that entails, can result in creative ideas piling up so high, the urge to offload the amassed work into a songs-based album becomes overwhelming. The surfeit of inspiration manifests itself in an LP collection jam packed with inventiveness and sonic layers that are a feast for the ears, which is exactly what I have found on ‘Out Into.’ This is the bands ninth album with their core members consisting of Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia and Ian Chang. All the film soundtracks they have been involved with in recent years have certainly earned Son Lux kudos amongst peers and listeners alike and when you check out some of these credits, including ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once,’ Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts’ and currently ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother,’ it is clear they have paved their way into the upper echelons of the film and music world. Which is, for me, wonderful to witness because there are so many chancers and mediocre talents with nothing to show but a good networking team occupying so many of these positions, that it is refreshing to know artists breaking through on the strength of their ideas and productions have a chance too.

And those inspired ideas do flow with an abundance. These are songs first and foremost, but they are spacious enough to accommodate eruptions of tones and patterns with frequent changes seemingly thrown in just for the daredevil thrill of it all. Where their love of hip-hop can be detected in some breaks, Son Lux are also honouring almost old-fashioned composition processes mixed with an improvisational aesthetic, but their smartest trick is that despite these classicist instincts, they could not sound more 2026 if they tried. The vocals are all airtight and up close in the mix, this does not sound like it was recorded in an aged environment, modern vocal effect tropes are played with uninhibitedly and the present-day electronics that form the backbone of the sound manage to unlock the kind of limitless potential this approach really should inspire more often. The soundtrack commitments worked in their favour as well for, in the gaps between the cinematography focused sessions, they piled enthusiastically into the songs on ‘Out Into.’ On top of that, this was played out over a two-year period, a freedom from deadlines that has leant this album such a fully loaded potency. Lyrically too, Ryan Lott has been able to carve out a thematic curve, explaining that the songs “are about losing and finding ourselves. How we lose ourselves in relationships, in work, in our children, in our pursuits and desires.”

‘Want You To Love’ launches the album into a space that is instantly unsettling and strangely inviting, a warm lurching sound but one that is as disturbed and anxious as a scuttling hamster; something like the bastard love child of FKA Twigs and Alabama Shakes. ‘Endlessly’ intros with multiple voices demanding, and receiving, engagement before building into one of the albums most rousing, self-asserting moments with the lines “love what you love and feel what you feel,” a straight-shooting plea to find oneself and be at peace with that. ‘Even If It Hurts’ presents as ghostly and haunted, echoing synth lines and a spiralling breeze all speak to a sense of revelation and release. ‘You Could Be The One’ is also an atmosphere laden later highlight; a little mournful and pensive sounding to the extreme, motioned by a tremendously dolent guitar line, the tune hits a dramatic breakdown near its conclusion alongside the lines “I’m not letting go of you, despite everything you do.” In yet another contrast, ‘Summer’s Gone’ has an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink busyness, a stuttering jerkiness to the rhythm and a machine drill of notes laying a foundation for a track that is frantically agitated. Arguably the finest example of the album’s expansiveness is on nearly title track ‘Out Into Us.’ An almost spiritual mediation on the overall thematic connections of transformation and change, the progressions sound like they could continue to evolve indefinitely. In fact, there is an extended 17-minute version of the tracks video on view at MASS MoCa in Massachusetts, an installation that defiantly stands in contrast to the short attention span disease that infects so much modern music consumption. Son Lux could not make their point any better than with the wholly immersive ‘Out Into,’ an album that proves the deeper the creative journey embarked upon, the greater the rewards.

Danny Neill

You can get a copy of the new Son Lux album via this link: https://sonlux.bandcamp.com/

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New Release Reviews

Hollow Hand – Wish Road South

There is an instantly familiar feel to this album but in the best conceivable way, so much so that the entire content of this review could just me sitting back and referencing the top-tier sonic nods and clear as day influences that are flying past. I will refrain from doing that, but I will shout out a few of the obvious ones, not because there should be any implication of copying, but actually because the signposts of inspiration are carried out with such class that I want folks to understand what a great album this is. So, we have a very clear Velvet Underground three chord trick swagger, a hint of early seventies Bowie glam and the kind of melody driven pop nous that bands like ELO built careers around and a singer songwriter like Elliott Smith carved out new standards in acoustic pop balladry. The song ‘Black Metal Corpse Paint’ even throws in an old Captain Beefheart album title (‘Safe As Milk’) into the lyric which I doubt very much was anything but deliberate. That said, all the tasteful hero worshipping in the world will only carry you so far if the new songs you wrap it around are not up to much. The song writing of Hollow Hand though is so strong here, everything sounds like it has been crying out for this kind of energy all along. The story of its creation features more than a few top names as well on the journey to an album named after the early‑morning bus route that ferried Hollow Hand main man Max Kinghorn-Mills to the studio. It may be a metaphor for the where he finds himself at with this fourth LP release, for ‘Wish Road South’ captures Kinghorn‑Mills stepping out of his old habits and into a looser, bolder, band‑driven future.

And so, it transpires that Hollow Hand’s new release has emerged from an encounter with reckoning for Max Kinghorn‑Mills, the man whose performing name has always been essentially a solo venture but finds itself very much in a branching out phase today. He hit a point where the songs that were sketched out for the record no longer matched the fire he felt after months on the road. Touring behind previous album ‘Your Own Adventure’ had thrown him into the orbit of other musicians; Irish bands with wild, instinctive energy, Caitlin Rose’s touring ensemble, Aoife Nessa Frances’ world, and a run of European dates with MJ Lenderman that refined his sense of what his own project could be. “The way I’ve made albums previously has usually been huddled away in the tradition of a bedroom producer,” says Kinghorn-Mills. “But with this one I expanded my horizons and it made me realise there’s so much more to playing, and being in a band, than just recording the songs.” Returning home, he realised the solitary, bedroom‑bound approach that had defined his earlier records could no longer carry him forward. So, he scrapped the half‑finished version of the album and rebuilt from the ground up, forming a tighter unit with Oliver Newton and Leo Clarke in a new Brighton studio where the songs were played into being rather than assembled in isolation. With the shift towards live tracking, shared investment, and a richer sonic palette the door flung open to a warmer, more confident record, later pushed further out by Clarence Clarity’s left‑field mixing instincts.

The record kicks off with a sound that should instantly point to the newfound audio avenues enthusiastically being explored throughout. ‘Flowers In The Garden’ is a sweet melange of hurdy gurdy bagpipe noises and drone with an anthemic, sing it from the terraces, melody resolution that truly satisfies. ‘Here Are The Tulips’ possesses some classic tension and release playing, it feeds into the major/minor electric jangle that the folk-rock genre wears in its purest form, but it is executed with such panache, the sound feels like a long-lost friend returning home. It is a gleaming little piece of pop perfection, happy sad in its progressions and simultaneously echoing so many eras and times without sounding retro for a second, I guess this means it might be operating in the realm of the timeless. The joy of plugging in and riffing on an irresistible three chord pattern is indulged in repeatedly. Even on the softer tunes like ‘Love Again,’ which offers tenderness and understanding in the lyric, is pushed on by solid, meaty strumming whilst ‘Kiss The Boot’ finds a chunky bit of abandoned Velvets gold dust to re-use with interest. There is so much more though, at times this could pass for a psych record with its distorted spoken word interludes, found sound, multi-layered string sections and general sense of mayhem prevailing, punctuated by the arrival of another shiny nugget of a song. ‘Heavy Metal T-Shirt’ is actually one of the poppiest selections here and another curve ball is thrown when ‘Drinking With Judy’ ups the energy stakes with some new wave urgency. By the time we close of ‘Green Meadows Of England,’ played out under tangibly grey skies and ‘A Gentle Place,’ a lovely baroque closer, it is blatantly obvious that the one other throwback ‘Wish Road South’ offers is its appreciably satisfying arc as an album. Add to that the absence of any weak tracks or filler and it all adds up to a mighty fine piece of work. It stands as a reminder that even in a post‑Bowie, post‑Reed, post‑Petty world, there are still artists willing to capture the spark and, on this evidence, Hollow Hand is running with the flame and holding it firmly in safe hands.

Danny Neill

Find the new Hollow Hand album via this link: https://www.hollowhand.com/

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New Release Reviews

ANYX – Starlink

The music of ANYX feels like it comes from a forbidden, derelict terrain. The sonic landscape overwhelms the listener from the outset as a feverish electric guitar note repeats and circles us until the icy exterior cracks and a full blown ethereal gothic wonderment bursts forth over funereal pounding drums, mournful keys and a voice that sounds nothing short of Nico returning from the other side. And this is just the ‘Ladybirds Spine’ opener, the preview track revealed a couple of months ago that served this album release up as one to look out for. This is the sound of an industrial landscape painted autumn grey, showered with freezing rain and yet humming with a self-fuelling energy and vibrancy that we simply cannot turn away from. It is like the Velvet Underground harvested from a war torn eastern European regime, albeit one where the sixties art school nonchalance is replaced by a biting modern-day realism, ANYX is an entity rising from the rubble with a momentum that can wipe the desolate surrounds clean and in so doing, breathing fresh life and shining new light on the dirt and dust. This is an album with grime all over its tough exterior but possessing a whole solar system of beauty and wonder lurking within the grooves, you just have to get on board and the forthcoming audio rewards are plentiful.

ANYX is the solo project of Berlin‑based artist, musician and vocalist Anna Lucia Nissen, emerging after her period fronting the trio Anchoress. ‘Starlink’ marks her first release under this name, developed in close collaboration with former bandmates Alexander Rathbone and Tobias Textor. The album reflects a shift toward a more personal, self‑directed practice that reconnects with Nissen’s background in visual art: she builds songs from her voice and lyrics outward, adding sparse instrumentation only once the core structure is set. This method gives her work a sculptural, deliberately constructed quality, grown with minimal elements such as harp, keys, guitar and double bass. Alongside this formal approach, Nissen’s writing often engages with broader questions about how people move through contemporary life, including the tension between human‑made systems and the natural world. Her interest in adopting different perspectives (sometimes human, sometimes animal) also informs the thematic reach of the project.

All told though, it is undoubtedly Anna’s resonate tenor voice that gives this art rock project its bones, not only that but it also reveals a sensitive beating heart at the core of the work. You can hear this especially well on centrepiece song ‘Strange Times.’ The bells that toll at the songs opening, a backdrop to radiant guitar lines that possess the pull of a coiled spring, all provide a progressive palate for the vocal that ponders the uneasy relationship between humanity, mythology, technology and the natural world. Then slowly something changes, as the arrangement leaves space for air some light gets in and it suddenly feels like we are elevating, drifting away as the moment fades atop the warmest organ chord imaginable. Earlier the mesmerising ‘Window In Your Eyes’ also shows the organic syncopation that exists between Anna and the musical tools she works around, this time debuting a harp into her sound that, by her own admission, grows into a conversation between voice and instrument. Once again, the closing passage is pushing us into the realms of the glorious. This line between light and shade, tension and release is walked across all nine tracks. It is there in the whispered voice of ‘Spring Birds’ watching from the margins or the way church doors seem to fling open in ‘Marian’ to reveal the most dazzling and divine hymn. It all serves to make ‘Starlink’ the kind of stand up and get noticed debut that should break through with force, there is very little else remotely like this music around right now.

Danny Neill

Follow the link for more on ANYX and how to get yourself a copy of the album: https://anyx.bandcamp.com/

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New Release Reviews

Dent May – The Big One

Well, this is a thing of beauty and wonder is it not? When making music that is adjacent to pop music, albeit a popular music that honours the standards and craftsman like processes of the past far more than the committee produced formular driven electronic pop that we hear so much of today, creating something as fantastically satisfying on a musical level as this is actually damn hard work. Realising sounds that push and pull the heart strings, rise and fall like a living breathing entity, that can caress the ears and nourish the soul with their lush presentation is not a process that happens by accident. This needs the ear of a true musical soul, not just that but one who can translate those echoes of the mind into the real world, play the notes and arrange the combinations of melodic traction, tempo and feel into something that works on record and is primed to manipulate the audio reactions in the listener. This is a deep skill and from the moment you let the needle drop on this album, it is abundantly clear we are being driven by someone well versed and practised in the art of classic pop song craft. These may be lazy comparisons but think Beach Boys, early Bee Gees and Beatles (the three B’s) and that is the style Dent May is observing with a piece of work like this. The great news is, May is absolutely up to the task.

Of course, none of this has happened by accident. Dent May has been a long-term devotee of seventies singer-songwriters like the similarly Beatles influenced Harry Nilsson as well as Paul McCartney around the time of ‘Ram.’ It is only now though that he is really letting those influences bleed into his recorded output but because he does so without inhibition, they stand tall and proud. It is an interesting direction because for all the meticulousness in the production, not to mention the detail in the arrangements (there are guitar figures, piano sweeps and swooping emotive strings to be heard in abundance) the sessions that launched these tracks were actually quite loose and explorative. For Dent’s seventh full length release he abandoned his previous bedroom aesthetic in favour of collaborative jamming sessions with friends and colleagues, an idea designed to explore the potential for a fuller, tastier sound. It was recorded at the Los Angeles Honeymoon Suite studio with Paul Cherry producing. This freedom has opened the door for Dent to flex considerably his melancholy pop magic, the combination of the bitter and the sweet heard in these songs is surely enough to satisfy even the most discerning of pop classicist enthusiasts.

The willingness to capture spontaneity and true analogue feel is heard on a song like ‘Second Wind,’ a track recalling how a low feeling Dent was invited for a night out but, not feeling up for accepting, he waited until catching his second wind before choosing to take the social option against his natural instincts. The way it rises from pastoral acoustics to pounding piano keys and a skipping beat as the evening town is hit by the narrator before the tired yawns of the graceful closing section arrive, is a thing of genuine loveliness. Of the very Gerry Rafferty leaning title track, Dent acknowledges that it is the work of a man painfully aware of the natural disasters that could be coming our way, not to mention the ticking clock of mortality. This is no surprise to me, because the music plays like the work of someone urgently driven to locate the natural joy available to us in our brief window of existence. Aside from environmental concerns, he says of ‘The Big One’ that it is also about “any personal life-altering moment that shakes you out of your comfort zone.” This is the story across all eleven tracks here, the traumas and joys of day to day living wrapped in a masterclass of pop writing and recording, directed by a man prepared to walk the happy/sad line fearlessly, scooping up every drop of audio magic he finds on that path and heating it to perfection. Sometimes there is truly little to say about albums like this other than, it has been made with a purity of intent and vision which leaves us with an album that really needs proper listening and will frequently reward those who do.

Danny Neill

You can find the new Dent May album via this link: https://dentmay.bandcamp.com/

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New Release Reviews

Margaret Glaspy – I Am Both

Around the release of her fourth full length album, the follow up to 2023’s highly rated ‘Echo The Diamond,’ Margaret Glaspy has been musing on her place in the world as a working musician. She is turning away from notions of success that are the accepted measuring tools, thinking of what she does instead as more of a public service. “You show up in city after city and you bring the music with you” Margaret ponders, “and hopefully it reaches whoever needs to hear it. I feel very honoured to be of service in that way.” Maybe this purity of intent is an indication of why this album stands tall with such undeniable effect. This is a work that plays as if all obstacles on the pathway to creation were aggressively swept aside, there is something in these songs that has more focus and indeed more hair-raising stimulants than we had any right to anticipate. At times there appears to be so much raw emotional detail in some of the lyrics that you could reasonably assume that this singer is emerging from a period of intense personal trauma, although the pre-release declarations from the artist herself all lean towards these being fictional, song writing excursions, albeit from someone more than capable of stitching a few authentic real morsels into the scenarios she sings about.

Also, if this were to be the Margaret Glaspy equivalent of Bob Dylan’s ‘Blood On The Tracks,’ (there is plenty of evidence that he is a big influence, especially in some of the wild and free harmonica playing we hear here) then it is a homage that respectfully understands the appeal of zooming in from a multitude of different perspectives. These audio vignettes have fine brush strokes that rarely nail moments down, preferring to play with time and chronology, prompting the curious effect of getting to the heart of the matter more than once. Part of this directness is attributed to Glaspy’s self-imposed release from the grip of social media. She saw this as a route back to original thought, not to mention some clarity of purpose, and sketched out these songs first with pen and paper before doing some even more retro polishing on a typewriter. This momentum is captured in the immediacy of the final work, produced by three-times Grammy winner Joe Henry. There is a fearlessness to the simplicity in some of the hooks, a confidence to play the notes that serve the narrative best and are guaranteed to reel in the listeners. Beyond that, there is a strength evident in the indie-leaning, acoustic warmth that has been captured, as Margaret alludes to herself when saying “I always think of myself as more of a photographer than a sculptor in the studio. It’s about capturing the moment rather than layering and building things up over time.”

Opening track ‘Michigan’ parachutes us into the troubled emotional terrain that bubbles across the surface of the whole album. “You said you didn’t need me, but who’s standing in whose driveway?” Potent lines like this enrich the whole track, emanating from the broken-hearted thoughts and deeds that permeate a recent relationship break up. It is writing of a fine crafted stripe, offering the suggestion of a narrative but exploding with moments that possess a universal familiarity that people are bound to identify with. ‘That Rose’ plays around with perspectives too, this time resulting in an album highlight, a sly reminder that jealous feelings are not exclusive to the betrayed. ‘Reminder,’ by contrast, feels like a peephole into the singers’ inner monologue, evaluating her place in the world and recalibrating all the coping strategies we need to survive, it is a do not throw your hand song that ducks and weaves rather than go for the knockout. At other times Margaret hits her targets with lethal precision, like on the beginning of ‘Petty’ with its seething opening line “can’t you read my mind? I thought telepathy was a requirement for love.” ‘Common Ground’ ploughs through the debris of shattered love too but like so much here, is lifted by the life affirming grit of the music.

‘James And Marie’ walks a more traditional storyteller line, especially by naming the lead characters from the outset, but again the momentum of the acoustic rhythmic riffing pushes the track into another realm far away from standard acoustic balladry. The subject matter takes on a wider brief with ‘Martin Luther King Jr.’ wherein Glaspy recontextualises segments of a 1957 sermon by the legendary civil right leader. Finding inspiration from his transcendent speaking, she shines a light on the truth in his words and their pertinence in modern day America and the world over. By the time we close on the title track, it feels like Margaret has arrived at a moment of self-enlightenment. The song is based on a female character that the writer looks up to deeply, a multi-faceted character with a real clarity of thought. But maybe she is also seeing a little of herself in there too? Or at the very least the person she aspires to be. All I can conclude is that, on this evidence, Margaret Glaspy is fast evolving into an expressive artist who also contains multitudes, travelling on a significant upwards trajectory of her own, she presents as one of the most engaging musical troubadours of our time.

Danny Neill

You can get yourself a copy of ‘I Am Both’ via this link: https://margaretglaspy.bandcamp.com/music

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New Release Reviews

Sam And Louise Sullivan – Love And Devotion

This is a record made by a duo who were raised, schooled, and immersed in the folk tradition but who wish to reach for something far away from that world sonically. In fact, they are looking at the whole other realm of FM radio with a sound that heavily references Buckingham and Nicks, the foundation of Fleetwood Mac’s gear change from blues purists to the dramatic pop sheen of their most celebrated era. There might just be something similar happening here, although the Sullivan siblings have not specifically grown a reputation within the folk world, if you listen close enough you can definitely detect the background embedded into the harmony rich, melodically memorable core of their songs. Take the opening track, which was also the lead single ‘Down On Love,’ the voices switch verses and take a chorus each as the song bounces along like the theme tune to a 70s sitcom, electric guitar fills adding to a mix that presents like a very polished pop brew. But hidden behind the modern production is a song that could exist very agreeably as an acoustic number, the drama belonging in the character driven approach of the leading male and female voices. Those vocals unite very well on the title track too, switching between long held falsetto backing notes and the semi spoken recitals of Sam whilst guitar lines send jolts of electricity through the mixing board.

So, who are the pair making these sounds? Well, Sam and Louise Sullivan’s story reads like a long, looping folk song beginning on an old farm school along the Tualatin River in Oregon, where the brother and sister first learned the American and British traditional tunes that informed their musical instincts. After moving to New York in 2001 Sam fell hard for the mandolin and the finger‑twisting guitar of Reverend Gary Davis, while Louise immersed herself in Manhattan’s Irish sessions and sang with the Young People’s Chorus of New York. As a family band they played everywhere from Carnegie Hall to sea‑shanty gatherings at the South Street Seaport, all while enduring the kind of formative, slightly chaotic road trips (Elvis and Woody Guthrie pilgrimages, contra dances, old‑time festivals) that tend to fuse siblings into lifelong collaborators. College brought literature and visual arts, Philadelphia brought ceramics for Louise and high‑school teaching for Sam, and eventually songwriting arrived as a natural extension of their creative lives together. What began as home recordings made on a USB mic between loads of laundry grew into a fully-fledged band once they met Kevin Basko and Emily Moales, who nudged them toward amplifiers, reel‑to‑reel tape, and a looser, more immediate way of capturing performances. Their records ‘Papier Mâché,’ ‘Sweet Enough,’ and now ‘Love And Devotion’ balance arena‑sized pop ambitions with the trad DNA they cannot shake: the ballads, the ’70s harmonies, the blood‑born blend that echoes the folk‑inspired ceramics of their mother and the offbeat Americana chronicled by their father. Even as they lean into digital textures, that sweet old‑time feeling remains stitched into every song as this album unfolds.

Continuing with ‘There You Go Again,’ dreamed into existence in those bedazzled half-asleep, half-awake moments, gliding on a breath of a repeated backing refrain and a corrugated guitar figure that holds it all together, the otherness of the sound double accentuated by a shift at the close not unlike a tape changing speed. ‘Ms Mercedes’ is a deceptively simple sounding character study and yet, the easy on the ear portrait manages to throw everything but the kitchen sink into the production and arrangement without ever overcrowding the space. ‘Since I Left’ is a harmony rich back porch banjo ballad fed through an electric folk power blender while ‘Doing Time’ has a kind of resigned exhale that suits the reflective nature of the lyrics perfectly. It finishes with a solo that has an unexpected bagpipe texture overcoating the guitars too. ‘My Guy’ arrives with seconds of hazy backwards tape effect that re-appear later, alongside other rapid dream state audio sensations, in an otherwise straight-shooting song where psychedelics are applied liberally, tastefully but far from overplayed. ‘After All These Years’ has the thrust and appealing verse resolve then chorus eruption of a hit record. ‘Irish Goodbye’ is an emotive ballad of letting go before we close on ‘Treehugger,’ a pop-rock song pulsating with an electro heart and clearly pointing to further sonic and stylistic evolutions for this duo. They are surely going places, the rich offerings of craft, ideas, and execution to be heard here alone convince me of that. ‘Love And Devotion’ may not beat you over the head with its quality, but it will subtly entice you in and then lay you out deliciously song by song. Excellent album.

Danny Neill

You can buy a download of the album via this link: https://link.amazon/B0i7uJArG

Sam & Louise Sullivan by Betsey Carroll
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