Album of the Week

Song for Our Daughter (2020) was written by singer-songwriter Laura Marling when she didn't have a daughter at all. More than four years later, that daughter is here - and with it enough inspiration for an eighth album: Patterns In Repeat. A fairly intimate album about the bond between parent and child, recorded at home, in the same room as the baby. It makes it feel incredibly close when Marling sings the opening track 'Child of Mine'. We hear the room, the birds, usually an acoustic guitar and indeed: a laughing child. Not everything is about her daughter, but also about the passing of time and father Marling. You wonder how the Englishwoman applied her recently completed master's degree in psychoanalysis. There is no doubt about the answer to the question she asked herself before giving birth: will motherhood extinguish my art? No, is the answer. CD / LP

New in

	You've been warned: with the opening lines of their third album, Amyl & The Sniffers set the tone without compromise. "You're a dumb cunt, You're an asshole, Everytime you talk you mumble, grumble, Need to wipe your mouth after you speak cuz it's an asshole" . Australia's leading punk band has the flame in the pipe on Cartoon Darkness , partying, swearing and raving away. CD / LP
	In a short while, versatile chanssonier Wende will be in Carré for no less than nineteen nights. Vrijplaats , her latest EP, can be called a companion. The concept is the same as the shows: two pianos, one piano and a whole lot of beautiful songs. It is a refreshing contrast to all the directions the singer has gone in recent years. CD / LP
	After the synths of Sometimes, Forever (2022) and the shoegaze of Color Theory (2020), Soccer Mommy goes back to basics on Evergreen . Reunited with her acoustic guitar (and a flute!) she has some grief to process. These are songs that should make her and the listener feel a little less alone. Maybe that's why there's also an inspired love song for a video game character. CD / LP
	Presumably Max Colombie is trying to seduce us with the cover of TASTE . Will you come with me? Then I'll show you my life - with all the ups and downs . As we have come to know from Oscar And The Wolf are used to this is stadium-intimate: the electropop reverberates in all directions, seems made for thousands of packed bodies - and yet it feels like Colombia is sticking its tongue out only at you. CD / LP

 

Of course, there's more that came out this week: Eminem's battle with his alter ego, The Death of Slim Shady , is now also available on vinyl ( LP ); Pixies are up for trying new things again on The Night The Zombies Came ( CD / LP ); and Halsey named The Great Impersonator after a Björk track and also draws inspiration from Joni Mitchell, PJ Harvey and Britney Spears ( CD / LP ).

Pre-orders

	Sharon Van Etten , for the first time in her life, just wanted to jam! And that's how Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory was born (February 7, 2025) . CD / LP
	Yes, Ringo Starr too goes country on Look Up (January 10, 2025) - with a little help from T Bone Burnett, Alison Krauss and Billy Strings. CD / LP