The Excitement of Imminent Rain In A Hot Scary Summer

Deb Talan, Hope Singers, Kathryn Williams, Lovejoy, Nicholas Krgovic, Royal Ottawa. Steve Tannen, Temples, TOMORA

Time for a bumper issue with something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Quite a lot of blue actually!

Mystery Park : Kathryn Williams

Best for : Gorgeous, contemporary folk for anyone entering their fifties.

If you're familiar with the idea of living a life split into seven year stages, you'll know that moving from 49 years old to 50 is doubly significant. It's a new cycle and a new decade. On this album, it's not just Williams who is facing up to this. She turned fifty the year this came out, and key collaborators Polly Palusma, Ed Harcourt and Leo Abrahams were all there or thereabouts. That may be what gives this album its sense of sincere and empathic feeling that runs throughout.

Williams writes about personal feelings that, nevertheless, many of her generation will share. 'Thoughts of My Own' confronts the loneliness of aging. 'Goodbye To Summer' - well, you don't need to be a poet to recognise the melancholy symbolism of that.

This is music for those at life's crossroads. The songs are gentle and delicate reflections as it dawns that you're no longer young even if you can't be described as old. It's for recognising you're at new stages of life and for realising what it is in the life you've led that will endure.

For Kathryn, that includes the power of songs and songwriting that she explores in 'This Mystery'. It's a wondrous thing and she conveys it beautifully both through the song and across the album. She brings understated arrangements to a song such as 'Move Me' that wrap themselves around you. Her melodies are a little melancholy and undeniably folky, but they're also sweet and pretty. There's a swing to 'Sunsets' that indicates a willingness to pick herself up and move on. Her Welsh accent is, first and foremost, one to cherish and it also grounds her in real life amongst her people rather than in the depths of a corporate studio. When she sings you want to listen. 'Gossamer Wings' is wistful and wispy and could fairly be described as dream folk.

In our heads we may still relish the music of our youth but in our hearts we feel the need for music that speaks to us now. That is what you will take from Kathryn Williams.

Taster Track : This Mystery

I Thought I Saw You : Deb Talan

Best for : Melody and emotion

Very occasionally you come across a song that holds you at the spot where that lump in your throat spills out of your eyes as tears. Deb Talan's 'I Thought I Saw You' is full of such moments.

They reach out and caress you providing your heart with the reassurance that you're not alone. Empathy is their reason for being. They're all about intimacy and connection dressed up in compassionate rather than overwrought clothing These are songs where the melodies have been marinaded in feeling. They gently kick against the pricks behind your eyes and hold you at the moment where you're teetering on the edge of emotional collapse, on the cusp of an inevitable but lingering farewell. If you think that sounds bleak, think again. Beauty such as this is never bleak.

Musically, you can hear folk, pastoral chamber pop and the lightest touch of electronica. But even the mildly synthetic beat of 'I Walked Away' sounds completely natural. It's her voice though that captivates. In 'A Glimmer In The Grass' it suggests that parting is such sweet sorrow, with the emphasis on sorrow. She has a voice that soaks her melodies in tears. On a song such as 'Just You' she's sincere, heartfelt and helpless. She has a way with heartstopping phrasing. The slightest pause as she declares her love for 'just you' isn't a hesitation, it's an intensifier. The pause in 'A Weed In Your Garden' has a quiet desperation, a knowledge that her dreams could be shattered.

Deb Talan is in the long tradition of classic singer songwriters, but with a tingle quotient that's off the scale. Laura Cantrell and The Innocence Mission are in the same rarefied atmosphere, but not many more.

Sit down with this album and you'll listen, weep if you must, but come back stronger.

Taster Track : There are so many, but 'A Glimmer In The Grass' has the impact you'd hope for from an opening track

Stopped At A Green Light : Steve Tannen

Best for : Solid, confessional songs laced with bar room blues.

A little bit of context might be helpful here. Steve Tannen was one half of the Weepies, alongside Deb Talan whose album is reviewed above. Steve's album is from 2003, Deb's is from 2025. In between they married, had three children together and divorced. Knowing that inevitably expands the pictures painted by each album, fuelling speculation about their story together. We can never know the whys and wherefores of their relationships, but hearing these albums together means that we're more heavily invested in both.

There's no doubt from these songs that Tannen was a man knocked off track. They paint a searing picture of self awareness, a little desperation and quite a few moments of guilt, shame and bitterness. If unfiltered emotions in song are your thing, there's much here to relish. They come from living the life and finding that it's all too much. Knowing what came next we can feel that he's ready to change and try a different approach, and that adds the prospect of redemption to what otherwise might feel a little downbeat and miserable.

The album is kick-started by the skiffle laced rock and roll of 'Stopped At A Green Light.' It's the most upbeat song here, a brave start. Like a swimmer walking into the depths of a swimming lake, it takes a colder, murkier trip from hereon in. 'If You Don't Feel That Way' is achingly personal and direct but garnished by emotional strings, and the first shafts of self awareness in lines such as:

"What I did to feel young, only made me feel older."

They're also in lines like these from 'Picture of You'

"Do I sound bitter? I'm not bitter.

I'm just not sweet any more."

Musically, this has the undefinable quality that marks it out as something that could only come from America. It has the 70s / 80s appeal of Tom Petty, FM Radio and some of Elvis Costello's excoriating wordplay. It evolves into a set of late night bar room confessionals laced with the blues.

This is a record that has you wondering where it all went wrong.

Taster Track : If You Don't Feel That Way

Boss Tape : Nicholas Krgovich

Best for : Surprising covers with a shy, poignant touch

On the face of it, pairing the hushed tone of gay Nicholas Krgovich with the rousing blue collar hero Bruce Springsteen is a bit of a leftfield gamble. However, it's a combination that works very well for both men.

Dig deeper and there is more similarity in their situations than might at first appear. Springsteen has always been the voice of the outsider, the voice of men trapped in situations where they don't belong, whether through poverty or expectations. As a gay man in America, Krgovich has lived the life of an outsider. It was at a Springsteen concert that he was blown away by how Springsteen's songs spoke to him.

These covers are stripped back from their original, rockier treatment. Krgovich converts the Boss' rocking 'Hungry Heart' to something more introspective, from an arena performance to feelings inside his head. Where Springsteen was born to run, Krgovich was born to be trapped with thoughts, feelings and desires that he can't escape. It's 'Dancing In The Dark' that most feels like an outsider coming into the world and finding acceptance. On 'I'm On Fire' the usual roles are reversed as the smouldering feel of the original is given a little more energy and becomes an opportunity for action.

Of course, this only works if the original songs are good enough and strong enough to reveal new depths. That they do, is to the credit of both men. Krgovich's masterstroke is to remove Clarence Clemons' rasping saxophone and replace it with Julia Chirka's quirkily mournful bass clarinet. It becomes his equivalent of Springsteen's train whistles heard from afar in the middle of the night.

This is a short album at just 28 minutes, but every one of the eight tracks is a winner, bringing new interpretations to the songs. They're tentative steps between two different worlds.

It's a work that both men can regard with pride.

Taster Track : Dancing In The Dark

Everyday Is Like Survival (More Songs About Peace and Love ) : The Hope Singers

Best for : Cold and desperate hope

Type 'Hope Singers' into Google and you'll come up with a number of church based community choirs. One thing you can be sure of is that the Hope Singers that made 'Everyday Is Like Survival….' do not fit that mould. They're a collective of independent Swedish singer songwriters, with all the gloomy Swedish mindset that can entail. That doesn't make this a disappointing record by any means, more that it overturns expectations you may have from their name alone.

There is hope here but, as you'll hear on 'Free Money' and 'The Call Up, it's a slowed down version dragged out of exhaustion and the blues. It's hope in need of a warm overcoat. If hope is the thing with feathers, this hope is more an ominous raven than a cheery Jenny Wren. The key word for this album is survival. This is the hope you need to get through life on a chain gang or when you batten down in a bunker. It's for civilians caught up in a conflict they can't control. That makes it a record for the times.

'Everyday Is Like Survivial…' is a mix of covers and originals. Place the covers in a playlist, and you'd think of 80s chart pop. Listen to them here and you take a very different feel. 'Johnny and Mary' is bleak.'Karma Chameleon' loses all trace of a cheesy floor filler. 'The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum)' comes to you with added menace and jeopardy. Their version of Don McLean's 'Everyday' has a scarred and rough feel as if it was worked up during a temporary cease fire. The excellent cover of World Party's 'Take It Up' provides the most uplifting moments here. It feels like a lullaby sung to someone who has managed to disconnect from the world around them.

The feeling of a collective of like minded souls comes through strongly. It's hard to tell if the songs were chosen to fit the contributors' voices or if the contributors adapted their voices to the tones and demands of the songs. They're always well matched though. KJ's growly tones throughout and Frida Hyvonen's husky kindness on 'Take It Up' work especially well. Elsewhere, as on 'Wade / Peace', you have an unusual form of pop noir that pulls what it can from the wreckage of blues, jazz and down tempo singer songwriting. There's even a dash of Isaac Hayes brass in 'The Call Up'.

You may not leave this album uplifted and brimming with peace and love, but you will feel like urging victims everywhere to hang in there.

Taster Track : Take It Up

Bliss : Temples

Best for : Big rave sounds from days gone by.

'Bliss' marks the fifth coming of a band who might once have been regarded as the next big thing in pop. The frustrating fact that they are still waiting outside the door marked fame and fortune means they have now resorted to the sledgehammer rather than a sharp rat a tat tat on the door knocker to be noticed.

The sad fact is that they've been left behind. From the early promise of the wonderful 'Shelter Song' that opened their debut in 2014, the likelihood of them repeating that shot of magic feels diminished. Here, 'Jet Stream Pony' is a reasonable slice of the eastern psychedelica that characterised their style, wrapped around festival field sized pop. By the time of 'Revelations' which is the second track in you'll be beginning to wonder if the mysticism in their songs is truly needed. Over the course of the album they shift from psychedelic to rave. Of course, in today's world it may simply be that they are prioritising songs that work better in the festival field than in the studio,

In 'Vendetta' they sing "Are you living in the same old story?". The answer is a resounding "Yes!' And it's a shame that this line comes from the best song on the album, a song with a memorable melody and a chorus refrain. This song, and 'Jaguar' show what could have been possible if they had adopted the maxim of less is more.

Elsewhere, being more nimble would help. Generally a bludgeoning, plodding bass prevents the songs from taking flight. They have the air of an early generation mobile phone, offering the minimum of what you might need competently, but in a cumbersome, blocky way.

I know this sounds harsh, but I once had high hopes for Temples. Now I think they are dashed. Others may view this differently, including Indie Is Not A Genre, whose balancing review can be read here. Indie Is not A Genre Bliss Review.

Taster Track : Vendetta

Here Comes Everybody : Royal Ottawa

Best for : Sonic adventures

Royal Ottawa feel like the best kind of conundrum. They're tip of the tongue recognisable, while sounding fresh and original. At various times I heard elements of The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, Jesus and Mary Chain, Buzzcocks and the kind of relentless Motorik beats of the German 70's counter culture.

In a way they need no introduction. You're thrown into the meat of their songs with no warning and you're left by the roadside at their end, wondering what just happened. It's an adventure, like losing your Satnav in a strange city and discovering hidden delights around every corner as you stumble your way home.

They're the sound of the underground and as unstoppable as a subway train. Their songs combine the grubby and muddy feel of the Jesus and Mary Chain with a production clarity that means that their clever touches don't get lost in the mix. The sudden bout of quiet whistling towards the end of 'Golden Eyes,the surge of backing vocals in 'Range Road' and the burst of applause that appears midway through their ten minute epic 'Here Comes Everybody' are just two amongst many examples.

The woozy indie rock of 'Pine' is the sound of four unified musicians at the end of a long, hard but immensely satisfying shift. It's also the sound of a band with their hand firmly at the controls of what makes a classic alternative indie rock song. I'm a sucker for songs that build and fall, that can sound like a wall of sound one minute and strip back to a metronomic drum beat the next. And, if they contain the melodies and momentum you'll find here, I've found my happy place.

The band have described 'Here Comes Everybody' as an EP. Don't be fooled. It contains more ideas than some albums twice its length. Listen once and then press play again. You won't be disappointed.

Taster Track : Golden Eyes

Come Closer : TOMORA

Best for : Soundtracking your strangest, most troubling dreams

TOMORA are Tom Rowlands from The Chemical Brothers and chart friendly dance pop singer Aurora. Be warned though. This takes you way deeper than the sweet sounds of Aurora and the giddy euphoric heights reached by The Chemical Brothers.

This is an album that inhabits an unsafe world. Lyrics, such as they are, force their way home through urgent repetition. They can threaten and disturb you. As a whole 'Come Closer' feels like a request you should treat with wary caution. It could make you feel as if you're waking up midway through experimental surgery, powerless to prevent or avoid what is happening. Imagine Kate Bush meeting Bjork at the House of Hammer Horror and you'll have some idea of the strong ingredients involved.

They may be unexpected collaborators, but they are well matched. Occasionally songs seem to consist of a steady insistent beat track with performance vocals spread over the top. It can feel like a collision of two separate elements that, nevertheless, combine dramatically and effectively. Aurora surprises with her full blooded commitment to the vocals, holding nothing back. She's changed and stretched, brought by Rowlands into the sound of The Chemical Brothers today. The music may not be quite as loud, but they're driven with the same beat fuelled energy. They will encourage hardcore dancing that tries to rid you of demons rather than sending you into a euphoric state.

After the short introduction, the title track ushers you into its ghostly, ethereal atmosphere, broken only by spells of Aurora's forlorn shrieking. 'Ring The Alarm' captures the full unease and panic of the album in five or so minutes. 'Wavelingths' shares the dark atmosphere but is quieter and, to that extent, offers a breathing space. 'Somewhere Else' is the closest you'll come to a traditional single. It's lifted by its opening melody, the equivalent of a sip of water as you wake briefly from a restless fever dream.

'Come Closer' is likely to stand as a career creative high for both partners. Whether it appears on future fan favourite lists for either act remains to be seen.

Taster Track : Somewhere Else

Under The Weather : Lovejoy

Best for : Resurrecting the sounds of great indie.

Sometimes it's easy to be swept away by an album that hits your personal sweet spots. I re-read my review of Lovejoy's 2024 album '... And It's Love!' before listening to 'Under The Weather'. Surely, I thought, it wasn't that good. It was. And here's the thing. 'Under The Weather' is better.

The glory years of indie which bridged the Millennium were so rich in details, thrills and emotion that drawing on them for inspiration opens a treasure trove of influences that still work today. Imagine the delight you'd feel if you discovered a secret sweet shop that contained all the favourite, but lost, confectionery of your youth - Texans, Cabanas, Topics, proper chocolate bon bons, dolly mixtures. This album triggers the same feeling.

It's an intriguing mix of The Field Mice's melancholy beauty, Echo and the Bunnymen if they allowed more of a chiming shoegaze into their lives, and Lloyd Cole's mature reflections. He's worked with Alan McGee on parts of this album and that figures because his music would have fitted right in with the early Creation Records roster.

This is more than an exercise in crate digging though, and the reason for that lies in Richard Preece's vocals. His voice is weary but listen to 'These Dark Days' and you'll realise that it brings hope and optimism too.

In songs such as 'Above The Clouds' you'll understand that this is the sound of a band consumed by the best kind of music and using it to come out the other side of difficult and exhausting times with their spirit intact. Following in their wake are the kind of small details that make a big difference. - an unexpected key there, a perfectly placed backing vocal there and a fully realised vision for music over in the corner. It's a record for the times drawn from a lost world where musical integrity and a love for all things indie can flourish.

I'm feeling love for the band growing in my musical heart with every song, like grass recovering with the first rainfall after a drought. I'm very happy to nail my colours to their mast.

Taster Track : These Dark Days