Is it really that time? Apparently yes, it is. So here are my favourite releases of the year so far. 50 of them, in no particular order. I know you’ll find plenty to enjoy here. If you tune in regularly, live or on listen again via MixCloud, you’ll of course be familiar with the names here. If you aren’t a regular listener, then why not? But seriously, lots of top quality music to investigate further. Happy listening.
Josienne Clarke – Onliness (Corduroy Punk)
I’m Kingfisher – Glue (Fading Trails)
James Yorkston, Nina Persson and the Second Hand Orchestra – The Great White Eagle (Domino)
Peter James Millson – Faith in Good Fortune (PJM)
Lisa O’Neill – All Of This Chance (Rough Trade Records)
Lucy Farrell – We Are Only Sound (Hudson Records)
Complete Mountain Almanac – Complete Mountain Almanac (Bella Union)\
Darren Black – Empty Halls Can Feel Like Crowded Rooms (Self Released)
Mary Elizabeth Remington – In Embudo (Loose)
Salt House – River Woods (Hudson Records)
Rachel Baiman – Common Nation Of Sorrow (Signature Sounds)
Dan Whitehouse – Reflections On The Glass Age (Self Released)
Hack Poets Guild – Black Letter Garland (One Little Independent)
Unthank Smith – Nowhere & Everywhere (Billingham Records)
Sunny War – Anarchist Gospel (New West Records)
Megson – What Are We Trying To Say? (EDJ Records)
Iris DeMent – Workin’ On A World (Flariella Records)
O’Hooley and Tidow – Cloudheads (No Master Co-operative)
Lynn Miles – Tumbleweedy World (True North Records)
Jon Wilks – Before I Knew What I Had Begun, I Had Already Lost (Self Released)
Jana Horn – The Window Is The Dream (No Quarter)
Bennett Wilson Poole – I Saw A Star Behind Your Eyes, Don’t Let It Fade Away (Bennett Wilson Poole)
Feist – Multitudes (Polydor Records)
The Tallest Man On Earth – Henry St (Anti)
Various Artists – The Endless Coloured Ways: the songs of Nick Drake (Chrysalis Records)
Ian Roland – The Wood Wide Web (Self Released)
Boygenius – The Record (Interscope)
Withered Hand – How To Love (Reveal Records)
The National – First Two Pages of Frankenstein (4AD)
Josh Ritter – Spectral Lines (Pytheas Recordings)
Natalie Merchant – Keep Your Courage (Nonesuch Records)
Tiny Ruins – Ceremony (Bella Union)
Elly Lucas – In The Quiet Of The Waiting EP (Self Released)
This Is The Kit – Careful Of Your Keepers (Rough Trade)
Liz Hanks – Meer (Hudson Records)
Kris Drever – The Best of Kris Drever (Reveal Records)
The Ciderhouse Rebellion & Kirsty Merryn – The Devil’s On The Mast (Under The Eaves)
Reg Meuross – Stolen From God: a folk song-cycle about the transatlantic slave trade (Hatsongs)
Martha Tilston – Luminous (Squiggly)
Ruth Theodore – Cherry Picker (River Rat Records)
Nickel Creek – Celebrants (Nonesuch)
H.C. McEntire – Every Acre (Merge)
Kassi Vallazia – Knows Nothing (Loose)
Arborist – An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeros (Kirkinrola Records)
Sophie Jameson – Choosing (Bella Union)
LYR – The Ultraviolet Age (EMI North)
Erland Cooper and The Scottish Ensemble – Folded Landscapes (Mercury KX)
David Edward Booth – All My Days (Self Released)
Anna B. Savage In-Flux (City Slang)
Angelica Rockne – The Rose Society (Loose)
Adam Wilson's Quiet Revolution 