Favourite Five Recent Releases

Five of the best albums from the recent postings at Elsewhere. Music too good to let slide into the archives. The Elsewhere place if you're looking for a quick fix.

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The Coral: Coral Island (Run On/digital outlets)

3 May 2021 | 2 min read

At this geographical distance from the UK it has always been the fact that we are familiar with those at the top of the British pop iceberg (Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Elastica etc) but not so much of those below the surface (Shed Seven, Ocean Colour Scene, Teenage Fanclub etc). While every album by the main players would get publicity and reviews, those others sometimes languished,... > Read more

Arooj Aftab: Vulture Prince (New Amsterdam/digital outlets)

26 Apr 2021 | <1 min read

Pakistan-born Arooj Aftab is emblematic of the world we live in: She is a graduate of Berklee in Brooklyn (jazz but with a penchant for ambient and minimalist musicians like Terry Riley). On this, her third album, she brings her considerable compositional and arranging skills (and pure voice) to elegant music grounded in her traditions which comes off to Western ears as more than just... > Read more

JOHN LENNON, PLASTIC ONO BAND, REMIXED AND EXPANDED (2021): The dream may be over, but it begins again

24 Apr 2021 | 7 min read

Although Paul McCartney announced the dissolution of the Beatles in a self-written sheet accompanying his eponymous solo album in April 1970 (“Q. Are you planning a new album or single with the Beatles? A. No”), it was John Lennon who, that December on the release of his Plastic Ono Band album,unequivocally closed the account on the group which had dominated and defined... > Read more

Isolation (demo)

Joy Harjo: I Pray for My Enemies (Sunyaya/digital outlets)

18 Apr 2021 | 1 min read

We are forgiven for not knowing much if anything about Joy Harjo who is the current Poet Laureate in the US and the first Native American to hold that title. Harjo (Muscogee Creek Nation) has won more accolades than we could count and at almost 70 has built a huge body of written work and half a dozen albums where she reads her powerful work with various traditional and contemporary musical... > Read more

Fear

Dianne Swann: The War on Peace of Mind ( /digital outlets)