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5. Spouses New Single Is Simply The Beth

Spouses is the musical project of Joel Durksen, a creative and literal nomad, who was born in Canada, spent his formative years in the Caribbean, found his musical feet in Liverpool playing with Brad Stank and Two Blinks I Love You, and now calls Iceland home. Having often played a supporting role, the move to Iceland, and to, “a remote horse-breeding farm” came at a time when Joel wanted to explore more of his own creativity, “I needed to do something drastic to find my voice”. The results of this wild creative leap will be shared later this month when Joel releases the debut Spouses album, I Could Be Your Dog, which he previewed this week with his new single, Beth.

A song Joel describes as, “the single piece of art that I’ve created so far that I am the most proud of“, writing Beth was no flash of inspiration straight to tape. Instead, channelling the same frustration Leonard Cohen twisted into Hallelujah, Joel agonised over this track, “trying to get every word, every syllable just perfect“. The result is a track that feels crafted in the best way possible, only fitting for a song about, “loving someone so desperately that you would do anything for them…contorting yourself into whatever image they would like the most“. If Leonard Cohen inspired the lyrics, the music is considerably more sprightly. A fluttering acoustic guitar does most of the heavy lifting, like the middle ground of I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning-era Bright Eyes and Nick Drake. Amidst it all is Joel’s vocal, reminiscent of The Tallest Man On Earth, as he sings out a dancing melody, like he’s hopping on the hot coals of the accompanying guitar, as he promises almost anything to the apple of his eye if she’ll just offer him a glimpse that she has any interest at all. There’s a wonderful variety of options he presents, from the achievable, “you can cut my hair”, to the highly improbable, “I could grow wings like a butterfly”. Yet they’re perhaps all underpinned by the almost pleading resignation of the ending to the song’s opening line, “Beth, do you want me to change?” So much is offered with so little knowledge of whether it is wanted. This is faith, not fact, making the references to saints, bibles and acts of unwavering devotion all the more fitting. It might be a song that Joel admits came through hard work, yet Beth sounds contrastingly like a hymn, a pleading, beautiful prayer that might not have found love, but could still, for Joel Durksen, be a true breakthrough moment.

I Could Be Your Dog is out May 22nd via Kalfholt Records. For more information on Spouses visit https://linktr.ee/_spouses

4. Blow The Dust Off Alela Diane’s Blooming Marvelous New Single

Alela Diane strikes me as something of a musician’s musician. Over the past two decades the Portland-based folkie has toured relentlessly, released a string of excellent albums, and generally put in the hard yards to build an almost old-fashioned career as a musician outside of the mainstream’s glare. Four years on from her last album, Looking Glass, Alela is set to return later this month with her ninth studio album, Who’s Keeping Time? Ahead of the record’s arrival on Fluff & Gravy / Loose Music, this week Alela shared the latest single from it, Dusty Roses.

Described by Alela as, “a song for all the lost girls, for those we lose to the hardest parts of life”, Dusty Roses was written, “about a dear friend of mine whose path took a wrong turn”. The song explores the capacity we all have to, “lose ourselves along the way” as we tackle the difficult bits of life, “it feels like we’re all just teetering on the edge, and some just don’t have a sturdy enough footing to get back on track”. Musically, the track is Alela at her most overtly country-influenced, as her finger-picked guitar brilliance is adorned with Sebastian Owens’ walking bass, the whole thing bringing to mind the outlaw swagger of Hurray For The Riff Raff or Waxahatchee’s more sun-drenched moments. It’s a fitting accompaniment to a vocal that is weighed heavily upon by the dust of a lifetime. The verses bring us moments of the pained loneliness of everyday reality, “downtown whisky drowned”, or, “ravaged body, buried like a key”, in contrast to the open hearted chorus refrain, which pleads and hunts humanity like a searchlight, “where has our girl gone?” Bruising and beautiful in equal measure, this Alela Diane at her most compelling, a songwriter who remains one of the finest chroniclers of life around.

Who’s Keeping Time? is out May 22nd via Fluff & Gravy Records / Loose Music. For more information on Alela Diane visit https://aleladiane.com/

3. Charlie Franklin’s Colourful New Single

Based in London, Charlie Franklin’s music seems like an almost deliberate antidote to the city she calls home, as the city rushes by in an overwhelming blur, Charlie’s songs demand we slow down, and really listen. That will become clear to many more later this month with the release of her self-titled EP. Produced by another similarly humane musician, Natalie Wildgoose, the EP celebrates the immediacies and imperfections of one-take recording and tape machine hiss. Ahead of the EP’s release, this week Charlie shared the second taster of the record, Patchwork of Colours.

Charlie’s, “response to superficiality”, Patchwork of Colours, was written about a relationship with someone,“who wants life to be this hedonistic show where interactions are transactional and people are for their pleasure. This song was a very softly written fuck you to them”. Despite its biting lyrical reflections, the track is a masterclass in musical subtlety, from the rhythmic interplay of guitar, as wandering bass notes meet light upstrokes, through to the particularly wonderful chanson-like tinkle of the closing piano that feels like you’ve stumbled into a beautiful Parisian cafe. The musical backing is like a fine silk overcoat for Charlie’s poised delivery, throughout the song her words seem to grow in confidence, as she moves from blank misunderstanding, “trying to trace the direction of rain on a cloudless day”, through to finding her worth, flaws and all, “I’m a patchwork of colours, all blurry and vivid like springtime”. As the voice becomes a wordless hum and shuffles gently out the door with Charlie’s bandmates in tow, it feels surprisingly liberating. The sound of Charlie Franklin finding her voice and deciding, thankfully, to share it with the world at large.

Charlie Franklin EP is out May 27th. For more information on Charlie Franklin visit https://linktr.ee/charliefranklin

2. Look No Further That Arborist For Your New Love

Under the Arborist moniker, Mark McCambridge has released three albums of increasingly acclaimed indie-folk, culminating in 2023’s Matthew E. White-produced offering, An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeros, which took home that year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize. Since then, Mark has worked with Bill Drummond on his STAY project, dedicated a song to the Ghost of Elvis, performed a show celebrating 50 years of Bob Dylan’s Desire and recently received a fellowship from the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast. This week saw something of a return to the day job, with the release of his new single Looking 4 Love, the de facto title track of his fourth LP, Looking For Love.

Looking 4 Love is a track that’s distinctly of Belfast, as Mark wanders the streets at night, taking us to the various blackened corners where love seems like the last thing you’re going to find. The song came about from an experiment, “to abandon the guitar”, and attempt to capture, “the sound of late evenings in Belfast“, creating an ode to the real Belfast left when most people have headed home to sleep. A track laced with intoxicating late-night intimacies, it’s accompanied by a fittingly boozy musical swagger, as a piano, borrowed from Jacques Brel’s Marieke, yet which wouldn’t sound out of place on an early Tom Waits recording, plays off against buzzing organs, ticking drum machines and the fuzzy-headed waltz of the strings. It’s a tribute to Mark’s home city, but certainly not a polished Tourist Board montage, more a truthful reflection of the ups and downs of the place, in the vein of Interpol’s NYC or Kevin Morby’s Bittersweet, TN. He might not “want to go looking for love in Queen’s Arcade” or, “Titanic Slipway”, but then perhaps he wouldn’t truthfully want to look for it anywhere else but home. A heartfelt love letter to Belfast from a songwriter who is quickly establishing himself as one of his city’s most compelling exports.

Looking For Love (LP) is out later this year. For more information on Arborist visit https://arboristmusic.com/.

1. Frank Lloyd Wleft Is Sending Letters From America

You could certainly be forgiven for thinking Frank Lloyd Wleft was American. The London native took a solo coast-to-coast trip across the US back in 2022, cementing a lifelong passion for everything from Beat Poetry to Country & Western. He first appeared on these pages in July last year with his previous single, and the title track to his upcoming debut album, The Actual Kids In Actual America, and has made sold-out 4th of July shows at Paper Dress Vintage an annual tradition. With his album set to be out on the 3rd of July, he’ll have even more to celebrate this year, as showcased this week with a new single, with, as you probably guessed by now, a distinctly American twist, Postcards from L.A.

Recorded in a single take in East London with a crack team of musicians who play with the likes of the Moonlandingz, Tapir and Lilo, Postcards from L.A is a distinctly transatlantic number, marrying his deep-rooted love of American mythology with his own identity as a Brit embedded in the London grassroots community. The song finds Frank and his Orchestra exploring, “the homesick heartache of the open road“, courtesy of a typically epic 8-minute musical meander. While the recipient of Frank’s postcards remains a mystery, there’s a sense throughout of words left unsaid and an inability to say how you really feel, “give me five years, and I’ll be somebody, somebody you’d wanna know”. Musically the track is beautifully detailed, moving languidly through sections, as the country-twang is peppered with orchestral flourishes of saxophone and cello, reminiscent of the much missed Meilyr Jones. There’s even room for a cacophonous explosion just before the end, like everyone suddenly decided to play all their parts at once and see what happens. At the song’s denouement, we’re left with the feeling of a spark fading from view, as Frank sings, “I heard you laughing, last time I called, I can’t remember your smile anymore”. In an age where it can sometimes feel like every musical idea has already been done, sometimes what you need is a maverick. Frankl Lloyd Wleft, like Richard Dawson or Kiran Leonard before him, takes the familiar and warps it into something entirely his own, a one-of-a-kind gem making deeply human music to treasure, savour and hold close to your heart.

The Actual Kids in Actual America is out July 3rd via Strong Island Recordings. For more information on Frank Lloyd Wleft visit https://linktr.ee/franklloydwleft

Header is Frank Lloyd Wleft and his Orchestra by Lucas Edwards