The MOnday: 27.01.25
Swim School turn it up a notch, a sublime US folk performance from the archives, and more from Ella Clayton
Welcome to the last Monday update for January…
Listen to this
Three new recent releases you shouldn’t miss. Check my latest monthly playlist for lots more.
Swim School - Heaven
Kicking in forcefully with a deluge of drenched guitars, ‘Heaven’ is the sound of Swim School going full throttle. You can sense the excitement as they rattle through a high-energy track, but there’s a delicious element of menace here, too.
We Are All Fossils - Rapture
‘Rapture’ is an item of majestic beauty — acoustic guitar-driven, ethereal indie-folk enrobed in spectacularly emotive vocals. A haunting display of open-hearted passion.
Ella Clayton - Come Pass The Time
A song built on a brilliant lyrical image of passing time around like a tangible thing. It’s smoky, intriguing and beautifully delivered; moments within moments of vocal skill and sparkling instrumentation.
These songs are on my January playlist, which you’ll find here (alongside all my other lists)
Watch this
Another NPR Tiny Desk concert I’d hate you to miss out on. This one is by US folk artist Joan Shelley and her guitar partner Nathan Salsburg, recorded way back in 2015. I discovered it in 2021, and this feels like a good time to go back to it.
The whole performance is only 12 minutes long — just three songs — but it’s so perfectly beautiful — one of those performances you come back to time and time again, when you need soothing, when you need an escape, or just for no reason other than to get lost in the music. Just read some of the comments under the YouTube vid to see how this touches people.
Of the three songs, I think the first, ‘Easy Now’, may be my favourite, with its masterful choice of progressions bringing moments of musical surprise which inevitably make you sit up.
I hope this brings you some joy today!
Read this
Having featured one of ’s songs today, it feels right to recommend her Substack also. Her most recent post takes us deeper into the inspiration behind her song ‘Come Pass the Time’; I enjoy the way she writes with such natural clarity.
And of course, if you’ve not read it yet, please have a look at my post about Blue Violet’s second album, ‘Faux Animaux’.
Blue Violet: Faux Animaux (Album)
I’m conscious that I’ve written about this band quite a lot recently (including this interview), but that’s just the way it is sometimes when a band are busy creating immediate, connective art.
Don’t miss this week
Wednesday 29th Jan: ‘Middle of the Road’, a long-awaited and hugely exciting EP from Dictator, the genre-hopping Livingston band who never stop innovating.
Thursday 30th Jan: Following up ‘Close Season’, Katherine Priddy is releasing her second song written with UK poet laureate Simon Armitage - it’s called ‘Daybreaker’.
Friday 31st Jan: Nicole Hale’s magical single ‘Give It Time’.