Laura Gibson - Goners (Live on KEXP)

This is Laura Gibson playing a live version of the title track from her most recent album, Goners, back in 2019. You can watch the full KEXP session here.

Fantasy Festival number 12: The Lineup

Emma Back: Emma Back is a singer, songwriter, violinist, teacher and community musician from Vermont. Her music is strongly influenced by Greek and Balkan traditions, and I interviewed her for The F-Word back in 2018, shortly before the release of her debut album Little World. You can find out more here.

Julia Jacklin: Australian singer and songwriter Julia Jacklin is two albums into a steadily building career. She seems to lean towards the Throwing Muses end of indie rock, and as with fellow compatriot Hatchie, her songwriting is drenched in sunshine and makes for great feel good music. You can find out more here.

Half Waif: Nandi Rose Plunkett's fourth album, The Caretaker, the follow up to the critically acclaimed Lavender, was released back in March. Seemingly more electronic and textured than her previous album, it builds on the success of it's earlier sibling and should see a steady return in terms of more people hearing her and being aware of her sophisticated songwriting and voice, which is reminiscent of early Laura Nyro at times. You can find her on Bandcamp.

Laura Gibson: Singer, songwriter and multi instrumentalist Laura Gibson has been a staple of the US underground for some time now. Whereas 2012's La Grande had overtones of gothic Americana, her most recent album, 2018's Goners, showcased a spikiness and an anger that hadn't been as apparent in her earlier writing. She will continue to surprise us. You can find out more here.

Cat Power: From underground star to overground star, to well respected singer, songwriter and musician, an influence and touchstone to many of the current generation of musicians,  Chan Marshall has more than earned her place. You can find out more here.

Tracey Thorn: The legend that is Tracey Thorn first came to the public's attention in post punk band the Marine Girls back in 1980. She and Ben Watt formed Everything But The Girl as students in Hull in 1982. Since EBTG finished in 2000, she's become a writer, and her return to music in 2018 with the album Record, marked a new exciting direction. You can find out more here.

Regina Spektor: Russian American singer, songwriter and pianist Regina Spektor has been making delightfully clever, slightly off kilter records since 2001. She's one of those artists who just gets better and better, making music that is straightforward enough to not be out of place on Radio 2 ('Samson') to complex pop baroque's such as 'Small Bill$'. You can find out more here.

PJ Harvey: Polly Jean Harvey's debut album Dry was released 28 years ago this year. It is being re-released, along with her entire back catalogue of albums, over the next twelve months. As influenced by Captain Beefheart as she is compared to Patti Smith, she has twice won the Mercury Music Prize and she is one of UK music's quieter stateswomen. You can find out more here.

Songs of the year: Number 6

Laura Gibson's 'Domestication' came as something of a surprise, but perhaps it shouldn't have done. Last year's single 'The Cause' showed a definite tilt towards feminism and, while 'Domestication' is a very different song, it does share that sense of observation if not a campaigning spirit. This song is so very 2018, and the video was pitch perfect as well.

End of year roundup: Music

Welcome to part two of this years end of year roundup!

Today we're covering music.

Favourite breaking artist of the year:

Miya Folick

Premonitions was surely the most casually announced debut album ever? But when you've been quietly releasing songs as strong as 'God is a woman', 'Talking with strangers' and 'Deadbody' for the past year and a bit, you can afford to be confident. Folick is going to be a stealth artist I think, creeping up on people...

Favourite video of the year

Laura Gibson, 'Domestication'

There's some subtle Handmaid's Tale stuff going on in this video... Making it very timely as well as very powerful.

Favourite gig of the year

Florence + The Machine, Manchester Arena, 23 November

As discussed previously, I didn't write a gig review, I wrote a fan essay instead. If you'd like to read a proper review, you can do so here. 

Artist to watch in 2019

Suzi Wu

One of this years BBC Introducing alumni, and a sharply acerbic artist with great attitude and beats. Worth keeping an eye on if 'Taken Care Of' and 'Teenage Witch' are anything to go by. 

Albums of the year

10) Guttfull, Tits and Nails
9) Virginmarys, Northern Sun Sessions
8) She Makes War, Brace For Impact
7) Emma Back, Little World
6) Tami Neilson, Sassafrass
5) Santigold, I don’t want: The Goldfire Sessions
4) Tancred, Nightstand
3) Let’s Eat Grandma, I’m All Ears
2) Miya Folick, Premonitions
1) Florence + The Machine, High As Hope


Songs of the year will follow in separate posts, starting tomorrow...

Spooky (but not in a Halloween sense) playlist compiling

This month's F-Word Music blog post is now up on the site. Because we are well into the period I like to think of as Peak Touring (new university term, end of year lists pending, Christmas wish lists being compiled...) there has been an awful lot of stuff to cram in this time. 

By comparison, the playlist was pretty easy and came together almost immediately. I think I had to move, maybe, two songs around and that was it, it was done.

It was when I was listening to it back that I realised how very apt a lot of the songs are in terms of the past year. A lot are very pertinent to the #MeToo era and, most recently, the Kavanagh appointment in the US. I feel as though I've been stockpiling these songs in my mind, and in my Spotify lists, just waiting for the right moment to put them all together. 

Some are from new artists, some are from established artists. Some were recorded for major labels, some were self released. But what they all seem to share is a kind of conscious or unconscious commentary on the state of womanhood and the world in 2018. 

I'm really pleased that so many artists have tapped into their inner rage this year. It would be nice to live in a utopian world, or at least a more restful one, but that seems remote and, as with all art, music reflects that. And provides a source of inspiration and solace in a fucked up world.

Image is the cover image for Laura Gibson's new album Goners. It is out now. 

Laura Gibson - La Grande

An intimate live clip of Gibson performing the title track from her 2012 album, La Grande, conveying the more American gothic end of her sparse, stripped down narrative songs.

You can watch Laura Gibson's full set at All Songs Considered's Sweet Sixteen Party from 2016 online.

Fantasy Festival #1: The Epic Festival - Lineup

Vagabon: Vagabon, aka Laetitia Tamko, hails from New York and released her debut album, Infinite Worlds, earlier this year. You can read about her in W Magazine, and you will find her music over on Bandcamp. She makes sprawling, raw indie rock with authenticity and heart.

Gothic Tropic: Cecilia Della Peruti hails from Los Angeles, and there seems to be some dispute online as to whether Gothic Tropic is Peruti alone, or whether Gothic Tropic is a band. The debut album, Fast or Feast, was released in the UK back in May. I was charmed by the bands set at The Castle as part of the Manchester leg of Dot To Dot at the end of May, and the album is an indie pop classic, with a sheen of California post punk pop and the intricacies of Adult Net. You can read about Gothic Tropic on DIY Mag.

Laura Gibson: Laura Gibson is a quietly established singer/songwriter who, until fairly recently, was based in Portland, Oregon. Her current, and third, album, Empire Builder, was released in 2016 and reflects the stark and understated nature of her songwriting. She is playing some UK dates in August.

Lily & Madeleine: Lily & Madeleine are two sisters from Indiana who play sophisticated folky pop. Their current album, Keep It Together, was released last year to critical acclaim, and they are currently touring the US in support to John Mellencamp.

Neko Case: Coming on like the lovechild of Patsy Cline and Gene Vincent, Neko Case makes gorgeously evocative Americana. She is one third of Case/Lang/Veirs, and also plays with The New Pornographers. She has released so many solo albums now that I have actually lost count and is resident in Canada. Her most recent solo album is the very presciently titled The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You and she has just come back from a short tour with The New Pornographers.

Bat For Lashes: Natasha Khan, aka Bat For Lashes, released her debut album, Fur and Gold, in 2006. Two Suns, which followed in 2009, included the haunting 'Daniel', and brooding 'Sleep Alone'. The Bride, which was released last year, is her fourth album. Her songs are both haunting and beautiful, always atmospheric and gorgeous.

Stevie Nicks: There is the Stevie Nicks who is a member of Fleetwood Mac, and then there is Stevie Nicks the solo artist. My friend, David Wilkinson, has a theory as to why so many hipsters like the McVie/McVie/Fleetwood/Nicks/Buckingham lineup of Fleetwood Mac: he puts it down to the success of Tango In The Night in the mid-late 1980s, when the hipsters were children, meaning Fleetwood Mac serve as a sort of musical comfort blanket for them. Solo Nicks tends to be more rock, a bit harder, a bit tougher, a bit more visceral. She is playing British Summer Time festival at Hyde Park on 9th July as the main support to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and will then be touring the US.

Laura Gibson "The Cause" (Live at WFUV)

It's taken me a while to get into Laura Gibson. As with Julia Holter, I think it's a case of every now and then there's a song that really grabs me, and that I get really into, and then I feel like I have a longish wait for another one to come along. It might be lack of attention and a bit of impatience on my part though, as it took me three or four listens to really get into 'The Cause'.

I am blogging 'The Cause' because, before I started on the Between Two Books odyssey of reading, I'd been reading quite a few books on the suffragettes, and today is local election and mayoral election day. If you have an election to vote in today, go forth and vote.