Katherine Priddy
The Pendulum Swing
(Cooking Vinyl)
★★★

FOLLOWING her well received 2021 debut, English musician Katherine Priddy returns with another set of pastoral-tinged contemporary folk.

There is a noticeable maturing in the songwriting and arguably a more rounded sound too. At the same time there are few surprises, with the enchanting mid-tempo tunes and hushed vocals of her previous work still the dominant mode of transmission. 

Several melancholic tracks suggest at least one love affair gone wrong. Seemingly addressed to a former romantic interest, Anyway, Always finds her “a little prone to swing low” and nostalgically admitting “I still think of you from time to time”, while the self-explanatory Does She Hold You Like I Did combines Tex-Mex with swinging Mumford and Sons-style folk.

Impressionistic and heartfelt, Priddy’s talent is unmistakable, though I do wonder if she is still to land on her singular artistic voice.

Brown Horse
Reservoir
(Loose)
★★★★

AFTER riding high at the turn of the century, the altcountry genre has felt more than a little moribund for a long time. So what a surprise to hear the superb first album from Brown Horse. And to find out the country rock six-piece hail from Norwich, England.

Recorded over just four days in a Kings Lynn studio, the record’s weariness and desperation suggest a band well into the middle of their career rather than the first flush of success.

Stealing Horses pays tribute to Mule Skinner Blues by Jimmy Rodgers, while the accordion and Patrick Turner’s nasally vocals on Outtakes bring to mind The Felice Brothers. The melancholic Paul Gilley eulogises the largely forgotten country music lyricist who likely wrote I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry and Cold, Cold Heart.

A debut that already sounds like a classic.

The Libertines
All Quiet On The Eastern Esplenade
(EMI)
★★★

ALL Quiet On The Eastern Esplenade is only The Libertines’ fourth album since their culture-shifting 2002 debut – a good example of why some view their career as a series of huge wasted opportunities. Looked at from a different, more charitable angle, perhaps the British indie four-piece’s infrequent, patchy releases perfectly captures their unruly rock ‘n’ roll spirit.

Rowdy single Run Run Run heralds a return to the ramshackle indie rock that Carl Barat, Pete Doherty and co churned out during their heyday. There’s no shortage of romantic, Dickensian poppy tunes to go round – from Mustang (“Traci likes a drinky”) to Merry Old England, a caustic commentary about refugees landing in Margate.

Full of boisterous energy and scruffy guitars, The Libertines are very much a band out of time. Which you suspect is just the way they like it.