Making Teardrops, Making Smiles, Making Memories

Ready to tickle and massage your eardrums, here's this weeks acts.

Admiral Fallow, Andrew Bird and Gavin Brivik, Andrew Wasylyk, Big Thief, Boo Boos, Kelly Moran, Lowenzahnhonig, Mammal Hands, Peter Gabriel, Sloan

First of the Birds : Admiral Fallow

Best for : Love songs that combine tenderness with scary passion.

As I write this, Valentine's Day is tomorrow. The shops are full of red ribbons, inflatable hearts and overpriced chocolates. Florists are earning their keep making up bouquets that would look better left to grow naturally. It's all a bit branded.

Admiral Fallow provide the antidote. Their songs are honest expressions of love that cut behind the commercial and sentimental shop window messages all around. Mind you, your partner may not thank you for dedicating a song to them that includes the couplets:

"I'm living for you now.

I'm living for you for now." ('Living For You')

"You're the headache coming on

The devil in the detail" ('Headstrong')

Everyone else will thank you for sharing the razor sharp observations that lie behind them.

Louis Abbot is the force behind Admiral Fallow. That's not to diminish the playing in the band which is uniformly excellent, nor his vocal interplay with Sarah Hayes which is pitch perfect. It's more a recognition that these songs come from the heart and that heart is his. He's a man who recognises that love brings strength if not sweet happiness. He understands the power of love and its mix of tender lullaby and out of control scariness. Above all, he sings of the uncomprehending feelings that lay low strong men who are beset by unaccustomed vulnerability and confusion.

Songs such as 'The Shortest Night' and 'Avalanche' flare up unexpectedly, bursting into passion before subsiding. 'To Not Be Left Behind' is almost orchestral, that being the only sound that can do justice to the emotions in play. 'First Names (Storms) is folktronica with heart and soul. The mix of acoustic guitars and piano is enchanting. 'All The Distractions' is beautiful, sincere and loving - a moment of pure peace and acceptance.

First Of The Birds is a very personal album about the love you feel for partners and new born children. As such it stands alone and comparisons cannot do it justice. It deserves, though, to sit alongside the likes of Villagers and Bon Iver for ambition and execution.

Admiral Fallow make music for real couples living real lives. It's at once frightening and euphoric.

Taste Track : Living For You

Don't Trust Mirrors : Kelly Moran

Best for : Music students who want to relax

Around 40,000 years ago, someone picked up a hollow bone and blew into it, discovering music in the process. That would have stopped conversation around the fire! It's simply amazing that we're still discovering new ways to make sounds, arrange them and write about them.

Some of today's music is for the heart, some of it is for the feet. Kelly Moran's album is for the ears and the brain. You need to listen to it deeply and thoughtfully to get the most from it. Read about what she's created and it will seem like an album for professors of music. Listen to it, and you'll notice there's a lot going on but it's relaxing too. To take one example, you may notice what sounds like odd tuning. Explore that as you listen and you'll discover it's due to following John Cage's approach of prepared piano, where a piano has its sounds temporarily altered by placing bolts, screws and other bits and pieces on or between the piano strings. I found that interesting. You may want to move swiftly on. You'll still find much here to savour.

This is music that's full of the cascading tinkling you might expect in a wind chime shop when the door's left open on a breezy day. There are times, as on 'Systems' when you wouldn't be surprised to find a flock of chattering birds escaping from the piano as you open the lid.

She's adept at balancing and offsetting moods.'Echo In The Field' is a composition that builds into something urgent and panicky. It's followed by 'Prism Drift' which sounds more confident, reassuring and relaxing too. One of the more surprising developments in the history of music is the emergence of the drone, one of its most non musical elements. Moran uses this also, to good effect on 'Reappearing'.

There's no doubt that these are compositions rather than traditional pop songwriting. Melody lines cross over and interweave which can sound lovely or crowded or both at the same time. Amidst the fluttering notes and chimes that define the album, tracks such as 'Chrysalis' are grounded by their bass line.

This album may not be for everyone, but it has a special magic that combines the best of Radios 3 and 6.

Taster Track : Prism Drift

Young Love : Boo Boos

Best for : Lovers of soft country rock relationship songs with stories to tell.

Boo Boos are Mark 'E' Everett from Eels and Kate Mattison from a band called 79s. Together they defy the expectations caused by their name. There's no frothy power pop here, just a collection of excellent relationship songs drawing on a vast pool of country and soft rock. Listening to this is like taking your significant other to see the rom com of their choice, and finding it surprisingly enjoyable.

It's all in the chemistry. Everett' s gravelly vocals bump into Mattison's sweet tones and the result is one of the most purely enjoyable collections I've heard in a while. Both are allowed their solo moments in the spotlight, but this album works best when they duet. These are proper duets between an equally matched couple. Take '...That's Not A Thing'. They step up to the microphone together. First he sings, and then she takes a turn before they finish the song together. It's simple, but too often one partner is pushed to the background. It's the chemistry too that give the impression that they are a well matched couple and that this project is for themselves

These are songs about people who expect to mess up their last chance but will enjoy and cling to it while they can. The scenes they recall are a mix of the manically playful and more thoughtful pieces of uncertain reflection that something precious may be slipping from their grasp.

'C'Mon Baby' provides the 70s soft rock feel. 'The Toughest Bitch I Know' - their words not mine, as the lyrics make clear - is one of the playful songs. 'Boo Boo Time' is rock and roll, short and snappy. Everett's sadness seeps through 'Intros and Outros' Every song sounds great; every lyric deserves attention.

Boo Boos could be the neighbours betweenThe Delines and Nick Lowe during his Brentford Trilogy years. They're neighbours you'll want to get to know better.

Taster Track : The Toughest Bitch I Know

Kirschblutenboogie : Lowenzahnhonig

Best for : After a restless night when you rise full of cold.

Lowenzahnhonig make music for when you need looking after. It creeps up on you, starts to play without asking permission and provides exactly what you need. It has the comforting and reassuring feel of a mother moving quietly around a sick child's bedroom, humming as she goes. This is music for when you need to sleep but are unable to do so. 'Heavy Pink Snowflakes' creates the sense of music drifting by outside the window, so that you're protected from the cold and damp and lulled into a trance that's at the cusp of waking and sleeping.

Don't dismiss this as nothing very much. Yes, it's a little like library music. You can imagine it as the theme tune for a conversational and softly spoken DJ playing down to the news. But it's a real skill to keep everything so gentle and provide a lot of variation within the chosen mood.

This is a kind of un-jazz. It has much of the virtuosity of its finest practitioners but, as 'Skylinekiss' demonstrates, it's as if all the bits that might jar or disturb have been taken away. Some will say, they're the good bits. Many more will happily sink back and be grateful that Lowenzahnhonig have taken the basic elements of lounge jazz - guitars respectfully in harmony and light percussion - to make something magical that's full of light and space.

There's a calm improvised feel throughout. 'Kirschblutenboogie' has the feel of close friends playing together at the end of a hard day. The different rhythms quietly at play behind 'Kuckuck' are human, and typical of the variation conjured up within the chosen mood. 'Bergkonig' highlights how melodies, sometimes just snippets, glide into and out of earshot moving on to make room for a new one to take its place.

Lowenzahnhonig occupy the same space as Khruangbin and Svanebor Kardyb - and I don't mean a space occupied with acts that have names that are difficult to pronounce! They're lost in their music and you will be too.

Taster Track : Skylinekiss

Based On The Best Seller : Sloan

Best for : Inoffensive radio friendly filler.

Occasionally the only word that comes to mind to describe an album is…… frustrating. It will sound great. Everything will be in place for maximising radio airplay. The band themselves will be likeable, excellent with their instruments and so well meaning. For some reason though their album will simply not work.

You can tell where I'm going with this intro, can't you?

Sloan are a Canadian band and this is their 14th album. They must be doing something right but I can't put my finger on it. Perhaps it's a question of personal taste. One of the things about North American indie rock is that it seems to have to try just a little too hard at times, as if it's finding the struggle to balance mainstream radio and streaming success with sounding different from the crowd, too tricky. If music were a jigsaw you'd look at this album and feel that the overall picture looks good but there are a couple of key pieces that are missing or in the wrong place.

It may be that they remain in thrall to the music scenes that coloured their past, but lack the undefinable magic touch in their own songs to produce the same feeling. It makes for some good popThey bring a Beatlesesque approach to their songs using different vocalists throughout the album to give each song a different feel. There's a look back to the sound of classic Kinks on the very British pastiche 'Open Your Umbrellas'. You can detect the sound of XTC in 'Congratulations' too.

There's a lot of good time pop here. It's quite sprightly, not too heavy, a little quirky in places but it's also over familiar and a little tired and worn. They have the sounds, the structures and the creative spark but not the magic inspiration that makes for something special and even memorable.

It's interesting that they sound best on 'Dream Destroyer', an enjoyable slice of indie glam. It's the one track that feels like a natural fit for them.

Maybe that's the takeaway. They should start being Sloan rather than a tribute act to the unwritten leftovers of their favourite bands. There. I said it. Now I'll spend the rest of the day regretting that I've been mean!

Taster Track : Dream Destroyer

Double Infinity : Big Thief

Best for : Opaque but satisfying music and lyrics, and appreciating a band that will take risks to evolve.

I'm late to the Big Thief party, but they're currently one of the biggest bands in the world, with 6.1 million Spotify followers. I'm not sure why I've taken so long to listen to them, so, part of the motivation to listen to this was to hear what the fuss was about. I'm impressed.

This is a different kind of album, one that's almost rock, nearly poetry and not quite ambient. It's a big sound for a trio. The lyrics and music sit together well, the poetry of the former nestling in a musical setting that's like the tangled straw of a newly opened hamper.

It's free ranging and its ambient qualities are made explicit with the wordless contributions that Laraaji makes to 'Grandmother'. It's an intriguing listen that has me wondering if joining the Big Thief community at this stage of their career is like starting your Maths education with prime numbers, or dipping into Radiohead for the first time at some point after 'OK Computer'.

There's a run of songs in the second half of the album - 'No Fear', 'Grandmother' and 'Happy With You' that feels like a band evolving in front of you, as if it's regenerating like Doctor Who. There's also an incantatory feel at times. Take 'Double Infinity'. They seem to be searching for something deep inside that they don't have the words to express. I even questioned if they were becoming more than musicians and heading towards the guru status 'enjoyed' by Bob Dylan.

Big Thief sculpt a song such as 'Incomprehensible' with rich textures and layers, into some kind of Americana dream. There are moments throughout the album that capture and hold your attention. The bass line in 'No Fear' is captivating. It's difficult to remember at times that these are songs based in the world of rock and pop. Thankfully there are songs like 'How Could I Have Known?' too that return you to something resembling the mainstream.

Final impressions? Big Thief make the kind of brave, risky and worthwhile music that rewards patient listening.

Taster Track : No Fear

EPs, Singles and Songs

Trailing their imminent album Circadia, Mammal Hands have a three track EP out, led by 'Window To Your World'. They must be a contender for the most melodic contemporary jazz outfit. That doesn't mean that the music has been smothered to within an inch of its life, but it does mean that there is always a hook to return to after their forays into inventiveness. The title track wigs out after an emotional but calm beginning, before it returns abruptly to sunshine after a sudden violent storm. 'Paper Boat' is a relentless display of their essence. If they had a manifesto, this is where it would be heard. 'Alia's Abandon' is a little more frantic than usual. The sense of abandon is foretold in the title! It's saved by some timely changes in momentum, providing much needed relief.

From the medical drama series 'Pitt', 'Andrew Bird and composer Gavin Brivik have recorded 'Need Someone'. It's short and that gives it the feeling of a promo trailer for the show. Bird's vocals are a treat, weary and breaking and even in the short time available there's time for some trademark whistling. If this was a commissioned piece, it would be a case of a job well done.

Peter Gabriel is releasing a new song to coincide with every full moon in 2026, compiling them into an album by the end of the year. It's a ploy he used successfully for his previous album. 'Put The Bucket Down' is from his 'Bright Side', again a feature of his previous album. It shows off his facility with atmosphere but the chorus is as optimistic and uplifting as he gets. It's surprisingly funky by the end, the doomy echoing drums of the beginning long gone.

There's something about Andrew Wasylyk's jazz ambience that is calming and soothing. 'Love Is A Life That Lasts Forever' is no exception. The cover of the song is of a bird singing in a tree, and that's a pretty good picture for the song. Molly Linen's vocals are lovely. Wasylyk's instrumentation is livelier than before. It's a great combination and it lingers after it's gone.