Reviews | Songlines

Reviews

Review of Simple Pleasures

Simple Pleasures

Alison Brown

Compass Records

Rating: ★★★★

Pioneering banjo player, composer, and a key leading lady of bluegrass, Alison Brown wears many...

Reviewed by Devon Léger in issue:

Review of Kokoro

Kokoro

Sababa 5 & Yurika

Batov Records

Rating: ★★★

Tel Aviv-based quartet Sababa 5’s third full-length album in as many years is, in fact, a compilation of the A...

Reviewed by Daniel Spicer in issue: August/2024

Review of Araya Lam

Araya Lam

The Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band

Zudrangma Records

Rating: ★★★★

Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band (PBMIB) has released its first studio album since 2016’s successful Planet Lam. The new album...

Reviewed by John Clewley in issue: August/2024

Review of Out in La La Land

Out in La La Land

Martha Spencer

Music Maker

Rating: ★★★★★

Martha Spencer is from deep in the Appalachian folk tradition. So deep that she lives on top of a lonely...

Reviewed by Devon Léger in issue: August/2024

Review of Erbil

Erbil

Omar Souleyman

Mad Decent

Rating: ★★★

The Syrian singer Omar Souleyman’s fifth studio album, Erbil, is filled with the celebration of life through music. Souleyman performs...

Reviewed by Thérèse Wassily Saba in issue: August/2024

Review of The Complete Friends of Old-Time Music Concert

The Complete Friends of Old-Time Music Concert

Bessie Jones, John Davis & The Georgia Sea Island Singers with Mississippi Fred McDowell and Ed Youn

Smithsonian Folkways

Rating: ★★★★★

The immediate (and significant) feeling I got when I first started listening to this 1965 concert was one of privilege;...

Reviewed by Glenn Kimpton in issue: August/2024

Review of Siniensigui

Siniensigui

Sidiki Dembele

Sidiki Dembele Music

Rating: ★★★

Hailing from Côte d’Ivoire and descended from Malian griots, Dembele has become a central figure in Britain’s West African diaspora,...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: August/2024

Review of Suomiklezmer2

Suomiklezmer2

Sampo Lassila Narinkka

Narinkaattori Records

Rating: ★★★★

Hop on the last metro out of Helsinki city centre. Nighttime revelries fade away as the doors slide closed and...

Reviewed by Fiona Talkington in issue: August/2024

Review of Bleu bleu

Bleu bleu

Sophie Lavoie

Sophie Lavoie

Rating: ★★★★

There’s a post-COVID movement in Québécois folk music in which artists once known for their traditional roots have moved more...

Reviewed by Devon Léger in issue: August/2024

Review of Weġgħat Żgħar

Weġgħat Żgħar

TroffaĦamra

TroffaĦamra

Rating: ★★★

What a surprise to hear an album sung predominantly in Maltese. Infused inevitably with Mediterranean influences, bolstered by perceptible Levantine,...

Reviewed by Mark Sampson in issue: August/2024

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