Singles Selection – Issue #2

The title track from Abigail Lapell‘s forthcoming album, Shadow Child is our second foretaste of what the Canadian singer-songwriter has in store for us very soon. Shadow Child (the album) will be with us on 8th May. It’s a nine-track collection (a track for each month of Abigail’s recent pregnancy), with each song inspired by Abigail’s experience of carrying her child.

For her previous single, Hazel, Abigail was joined by fellow Canadian singer-songwriter, Jill Barber. For Shadow Child, her guest vocalist is another Canadian legend – Frazey Ford of Vancouver’s Be Good Tanyas.

Shadow Child takes its title from ultrasound surgery, referring to what Abigail describes as “a liminal person that doesn’t quite exist yet – onthologically blurry.” Vivid acoustic and baritone guitars provide the backing to Frazey’s strident vocals and, when she harmonises with the otherworldly sound of a theremin, the effect is quite startling. And Abigail’s lyrics are equally startling: “Oh, shadow child – when the work of this day is done, let me raise my voice in a joyful noise – in days with the setting sun.”

Shadow Child is one heck of a song and Shadow Child is shaping up to be one heck of an album.

When we last heard from Teddy Thompson, it was to be enthralled by My Love of Country, his 2023 collection of country classics. But, did you realise that it’s been almost six years since we’ve had an album of original material from the great man?

2020’s Heartbreaker Please was the last such album from Teddy and now, at last, he’s got more new stuff on the blocks and ready to go. His new album, Never Be the Same, is scheduled for release on 15th May and new single, So This Is Heartache is the first taster.

Speaking of the song’s subject matter, Teddy says: “If you sit down to write the most raw emotion you can summon, most of the time, it’s going to touch on some kind of loss. People will say: ‘Oh you poor thing,’ but it’s not that I’ve had more heartbreak than anybody else – I just wrote it down!”

So This Is Heartache is a song with a nice, easy-going, country feel. The backing is smooth, tight and perfectly balanced and Teddy’s crystal-clear tenor vocals sit way up front. The tune is a wistful waltz and Teddy matches that wistfulness in his vocal tones. Swirls of organ and layers of sweet-sounding sax fill any gaps and the effect is stirring and soulful.

Teddy Thompson – Welcome Back!

Truthpaste describe themselves as: “…a band of five multi-instrumentalists and a trusty computer drum [who] blend pop, acoustic folk and electronic music.” And, if the band’s new single, Bus Song, is anything to go by, that’s a blend with a lorra potential.

Truthpaste released their debut single – See You Around – last year and, fair to say, it grabbed them a healthy amount of attention. Indeed, Steve Lamacq, no less, described it as: “One of my favourite singles of 2025.”

Turning to their new single, Bus Song, band members Esme Lark and Euan McNeill say: “Bus Song is our emo rock song. It’s another side to Truthpaste that it’s time people heard outside our live set. We don’t stick to one thing; if it sounds good, we’ll do it. This song was knocking about in my [Euan’s] head for a couple of weeks. It wasn’t until we got together as a band and decided to make it a duet that it really started to feel like it has come to be.”

Bus Song is a dreamy affair with vocals that are delightfully discordant. The lyrics: “I know exactly how it is/ and you can’t tell me what it means/ But maybe we can have some kids/ And we can show them how it is…” are deliciously engaging. And it’s all loaded on top of a backing of lush sax and well-considered guitar licks.

Truthpaste are, very clearly, a band to watch…

Of Ghosts and Gods, the sophomore album from Transatlantic duo Sons of Town Hall, hit the racks earlier this month. Sirens is the album’s second single and follows lead single, Antarctica.

Formed almost ten years ago in a London pub, Sons of Town Hall are acclaimed singer-songwriters Ben Parker and David Berkeley. The duo’s specialties include imaginitive stories, irreverent humour and vocal harmonies that would make even Simon and Garfunkel blush.

Of Ghosts and Gods is a concept album that tells the story of Josiah Chester Jones and George Ulysses Brown and their travels aboard a self-built mythical raft. Sounds fascinating, as I’m sure you’ll agree. And, as an appetiser. Sirens is the perfect song to arouse that curiosity even further.

The duo’s deep, rich vocal harmonies are thoroughly deserving of the Simon & Garfunkel comparison. Will Robertson’s string arrangement adds to the rich experience and the guitar-accompanied verses are wonderfully intimate. Sirens is a song with a lot to offer and it’s an inviting gateway to the album.

Clarke is no stranger to dark and rich gothic imagery, and this stark new version of the traditional song sticks firmly to that template, Even without access to the video, the sound soaks the listener into a cold sweat of fear.

What sounds like a tumbril rolling introduces the song, before some echo-drenched electric guitar notes get picked slowly out. Clarke intones the words, with a bleak delivery that belies passion. Is that a recorder blowing mournfully between the verses? Little happens and little needs to, simplicity and repetition the tools to tantalise any listener into submission. Over almost as it begins, the tumbril wheels again start rolling.

Clarke has appended a couple of new verses to this ancient tune, so as to better inhabit it with her personality. Where the song ends and she starts might be a challenge to unpick, so much does she make it her own. File under chilling.

Hector Gannet is the name of a boat, rather than a person, the fishing vessel that Aaron Duff, singer/songwriter/guitarist with the band, remembers his grandfather sailing on. Sometimes the band is just him, sometimes a five piece or more. Here they are decidedly more, as a brass section wellies in, adding the unassailable soul of Dexy’s into the tune.

It is a song about the God complex, and “how those suffering from it seem to actually believe in their powers“. Biblical references inform the lyrics, imparting a fiery passion to the delivery, for which Jason Holcomb’s horn arrangements are well-nigh perfect.

A taster for forthcoming album, The Great Shakedown, it smacks of that description from the first vibrant swell, promising a rare treat is in store for later in the year. This will more than do until then!

A taster of their forthcoming concept album, Qisma. In the album’s story, Venom marks a turning point, as the consequences of experimental technology begin to spiral out of control.  The track brings together the album’s core themes of technology, nature and humanity into sharp focus.

Musically, the song showcases HeKz’s unusual twin lead pairing of guitar and violin, with Lucia La Rezza’s Flying V shaped violin running through a guitar amp and while trading off and dueling with Tolis Zavaliaris’ churning guitar lines.  

Accompanied by some stirring organ riffs, the rhythm also takes an typically unexpected turn, and fuses in Latin dance patterns and ethnic swirls rather than traditional Metal. Upfront, the vocal from Matt Young fly around the upper register as he channels the frustration and desperation of the storyline. Stirring stuff!