Canadian folk singer-songwriter Matthew Swann records under the name Astral Swans. He’s back with a new, self-titled record, which includes a few great duets with fellow songwriter Julie Doiron. (Also, we’ve been doing this for 300 weeks. We’re old.)
Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay’s second album as LUMP is our recommendation of the week. It can be easy to dismiss these songs as scraps from whatever doesn’t find their way into Marling’s “main” albums. But those ideas, coupled with Lindsay’s marvellous synth work, come to have a life of their own here, and “Animal” has some of the best tracks we’ve heard from both musicians in a while.
In a surprising contender for first new exceptional album of the year, James Yorkston teams up with Swedish folk-rock-ish outfit The Second Hand Orchestra to deliver “The Wide, Wide River”, a “krautfolk” machine that got us hooked at first listen.
Toronto experimental jazz outfit Badge Époque Ensemble is back with “Self Help”. Just like in their 2019 debut, the collective has channeled selected vocalists to voice some of the tracks – one of them one of our favorite Canadian singer-songwriters, Jennifer Castle.
Sean Rowe’s New Lore was the highlight of Week 15.
Bolachas Now Playing, 15/2017 (#99):
Big Thief – Breathe in My Lungs
Laura Marling – Kathy’s Song
Angaleena Presley – Wrangled
Diet Cig – Sixteen
Idle Bloom – Disease
Waxahatchee – Silver
San Fermin – Cairo
Future Islands – Through the Roses
Woods – Bleeding Blue
BNQT – Restart
LAKE – Work With What You’ve Got
John Moreland – Sallisaw Blue
Andrew Combs – Lauralee
James Elkington – Make It Up
Jeff Tweedy – Laminated Cat
Sean Rowe – I’ll Follow Your Trail
Sean Rowe – Promise of You
Christopher Paul Stelling – The Cost of Doing Business
Justin Townes Earle – There Go a Fool