Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Melissa Carper apparently banjo and bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley use the phrase "borned in ya" to describe an artist's ability to play old timey songs. At that moment, she began jotting down ideas as to how that could be turned into a song. "I knew I had to write that song," one quote states. "I was turning over in my mind wha it means to have something 'borned in ya'... The song evolved as I was writing it to be more about having your soul 'borned in ya' and the more life experience you have, you hopefully grow to embody the highest version of yourself that you can be." It's hard to argue with the logic, or the album itself. Borned In Ya, which opens on the title track before jumping on the horse and riding off across the Badlands of yesteryear, is a vivid and visceral record, capable of transporting us to another time, if not entirely another world, calling off at campfire folk, barroom country and plenty more besides.

Review: American singer Eva Cassidy released Nighbird posthumously in November 2015. It came 19 years after her death and was recorded at the Washington club Plus Alley in 1996. Some of the tunes had already been released as part of a live album the same year but for this album the recordings have been remixed and remastered from the original tape. It has some big jazz standards such as 'It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)' and 'Fever' as well as eight tunes that were previously unheard at the time. An exceptional record from one of the best female jazz singers of all-time.

Review: Under the Clairo alias, Claire Cottrill has achieved cult status in recent times, with her lo-fi take on indie, alternative and dream-pop finding on audience on both sides of the Atlantic. The Boston-based singer-songwriter continues her ascent from the musical margins on Charm, her first album for three years. It's a hugely atmospheric and emotive affair, with Cottrill languidly shuffling between subtly country-tinged lo-fi indie-pop (the semi-acoustic warmth of 'Nomad'), late '60s-inspired dream pop, gentle psychedelia and loose-limbed, surprisingly funky haziness smothered in rubbery bass guitar, vintage synth sounds and heady horns ('Sexy To Someone'). And yes, it's an undeniably charming affair.

Review: Solo is the operative word for Josienne Clarke. Kissing labels goodbye with preceding album, I Promised You Light, and leaving musical partners behind in the process, 2022 saw the artist step out with a bold confidence that seems at odds with the sound she's best known for. Not exactly nervous, but there's certainly always been an air of careful tread about her work.
That's no criticism. Through the use of understatement, from guitars that often form the focal point of her instrumental arrangements, to occasional piano keys and, for the most part, her own voice, she conveys a powerful sense of longing, yearning, and wanting. And yet there's always been an air of redemption and resilience in there, too. Onlines takes all those elements and heightens them, even upping the rockiness on numbers like the wonderfully raw and distorted 'Anyone But Me'.

Review: Realistically speaking, we could write essays for years on the joy of Leonard Cohen's music, poetry, attitude, and poignancy. Without question Canada's greatest gift to music, and the world (Bryan Adams withstanding), Songs of Love and Hate was the iconoclastic artist's third studio album and remains a pivotal work, albeit one that clearly showed global divisions.

Released in 1971, it would fail to make much impact on the US charts, reaching a paltry 145 on the Billboard 200, but in other regions it was a different story. UK and Australian fans bought enough of it to hit number 4 and 8 in their respective album charts. Many European countries also embraced the record. Quite what America's issue was we will never be sure of, although this is certainly Cohen at his all is lost, all is doomed, that's the way it goes best - gentile instrumentation meets soft bombshell songwriting

Review: Recorded in Stockport and Stockholm between 2016 and 2017, Jon Collin's The Nature is still just as beautiful more than half a decade on. Captured inside and outside, "with and without electricity", on the face of it this is a collection of captivating slide guitar improvisations that feel altogether timeless. Tunes that were born in a specific moment, but could have been conceived in countless others. That's all very impressive, but in many ways what really makes The Nature so enthralling are the minutiae, the imperfect details, ambient noises that were captured during the process of these tunes being laid down. Those elements add a three dimension quality to the listing experience, rendering the work and artist in vivid detail, transporting us to the times and places this project came from.

Review: Cowboy Junkies had only recently become a thing when they put out Whites Off Earth Now!!. Formed in Toronto, Canada by bassist Alan Anton, songwriter and guitarist Michael Timmins, drummer Peter Timmins and vocalist Margo Timmins, the record is dominated by covers of classic rock and blues tracks, with 'Take Me' the only original song included. If that sounds like a brave move for a new group the response proves there's pay-off in risk. Whites Off Earth Now!! sparked a cult following for the band, first at a local level before word of mouth spread south of the border and gig offers began taking them to the southern US. International fame followed with 1988's follow up, The Trinity Session, so consider this a long overdue opportunity to revisit, or discover, chapter one.

Review: The 50th anniversary of Deja Vu by Crosby, Stills & Nash gets marked with this specially celebratory reissue. It has been remastered for the occasion and comes with original artwork. Back when this one was released first in March 1970 by Atlantic Records, the record soon went on to top the pop album chart for a week and generated three Top 40 singles. These are the well known 'Woodstock', 'Teach Your Children', and 'Our House' while many other highlights also feature. A timeless classic for sure.

Review: It's understandable if you're skeptical about hearing the word supergroup as it's overused and often applied where it's an exaggeration. It's the same situation with the word genius. But a genius supergroup is an appropriate description for Crosby, Still, Nash and Young. You just have to look at the other bands that they've been in between them - The Hollies, Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young, The Byrds... It's God-tier stuff. Part of the magic of their psychedelia-tinged folk rock and harmonies is how well they lock in together. It's as if they're cut from the same LSD-soaked cloth; they sound like an extension of one another metamorphosed into one and leaving their individual self behind. Another aspect of their credibility as performers is how consistent they were and how powerful they were live. And whilst it's fairly common to find scratchy recordings of them playing big shows there's a charming intimacy to the radio broadcasts that makes it feel like an uninterrupted close-up with you the sole guest at the show. Squint and you'll feel you're there - transported back to the golden age of songwriting.

Review: In the mid-80s, Svitlana Okhrimenko, Oleksandr Kohanovs'kyi, and Tamila Mazur, students at the Reinhold Glier Kyiv Academy of Music, formed the foundation of Cukor Bila Smert. Their blend of music and camaraderie led to the addition of Eugene Taran, who further helped shape the band's vision. Dubbed Sugar - White Death, their ironic moniker challenged media sensationalism and amidst endless musical exploration, they crafted two albums in 1988 and 1989. The band's unique "sugar calypso sound" emerged, a blend of Kohanovs'kyi's music and lyrics by Okhrimenko and Taran. A significant studio session in 1990 yielded tracks featured on the Mannered Music compilation which sparked international interest. Their journey concluded in 1993 with the release of "Selo" by Koka Records, and now some of the best bits make it onto this new collection.

Review: Back in November 1990, fresh off recording Ragged Glory, Neil Young and Crazy Horse took the stage at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz. They played a long and sprawling set of tunes that last three hours and took in songs like 'Love and Only Love' and 'Like a Hurricane' which they managed to hypnotically stretching out for more than ten minutes. The gig was also the debut live airing for 'Danger Bird' which was on the 1975 album Zuma. All of these make it on to the Way Down In The Rust Bucket album as part of Young's on going Performance Series.