Out of Time is the second preview of Coming Home, the forthcoming album from acclaimed UK Americana practitioners, Fine Lines. It follows on the tail of Seven Wonders, a song that turned many a head when it was released back in February.

Out of Time is a soaring, rocky, upbeat number. Frontwoman Helen Walford’s vocals recall Stevie Nicks – except Helen’s voice is sharper and brighter. David Boardman’s guitar chimes, and the band are tight and punchy. It’s another tasty appetiser for an album that we’re starting to long for more and more, with every day that passes.

Single #3 to preview Teddy Thompson’s forthcoming album, Never Be the Same – his first album of original material for almost six years.

Speaking of the Game, Teddy says:“The song is sort of Nick Lowe meets Roy Orbison – it’s quite stylised and retro. Lyrically, I think of it as being quintessentially American, with its talk of jukeboxes and wedding bells chiming, almost like a Archiecomic. On the other hand, I’ve had people tell me that it reminds them of Nick Lowe and songs from that period, which is an association I like.”

The Orbison comparison is readily evident right from the song’s opening bars; indeed, Teddy’s voice soars and charms as though The Big O has, himself returned to inhabit the man’s vocal chords. The backing is richly countrified, and embellished by flurries of piano and flourishes of strings.

…And Teddy almost manages a few yodels as his voice breaks into falsetto…

“Bring Your Own Hammer is not a band, a group, an ensemble or even a collective. If anything, it is a faction…..” we learnt that much from their debut long player, last year, and mighty fine it was too. Here, as an advance party for their next, is another wealth of individuals, again led by Mike Smalle, to illustrate Irish modern history in sound.

It is with waft of well mixed orchestration, melding the guitar of Bernard Butler with the cello of June Miles-Kington, later expanded by Terry Edwards’ trumpet, that it introduces itself. With the mood agreeably melodic, this belies, however, the grim historical footnote described in the lyric, shockingly so as you tune into the content. “From the Tombs” is the sequel song to, and largely based on the same sources as “Old Oak Road” from the earlier album.

A new album, also entitled “From The Tombs”, will arrive in the Autumn.

With a work ethic that would defeat many, Hanging Stars don’t, despite their name, much hang around, releasing almost an album per year of their 10 year existence. With number 7 due to drop next month, here is a teaser from that, paired with some totally new, unavailable elsewhere.

A little woozier than their usual fare, it smacks of, rather than the Byrds, already a familiar touchstone to the band, more to later period Roger McGuinn, “It feels so good to do what you want what you never should“, sings Richard Olson, and it’s a convincing argument. And, should there be a hit of Teenage Fanclub seeping about the grooves, it is no coincidence, the album coming under the production supervision of ex-Fanny, Gerard Love. (And the flip of this single, Wednesday’s Child, contains his backing vocals.)

Maintaining the new slimmed down quartet arrangement, The Hanging Stars may have cut back, slightly, on the cosmic country flavours, but this woozy psychedelic power pop more than makes up for that.

Critical Masses is the second single to preview Liquid Donnon, the forthcoming album from Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders. From Philadelphia, Jeffrey Alexander is the former frontsperson of such outfits as Iditarod, Black Forest/Black Sea and Dire Wolves. He convened The Heavy Lidders in 2019 and they’s since built a solid reputation for evolving a musical space that overlays dusty folk, cosmic jazz, deep psych, free improvisation and indie rock.

Speaking of new single, Critical Masses, Jeffrey says: “Critical Masses was the first song I wrote for the new album. I started listening to our studio improvisations on headphones in a hammock, whilst camping in the Poconos and placing lyrics. About a year later, I mixed the track in a mountain lodge in West Virginia. It’s a song about friendship, innocence, tragedy and loss but also the power of nature (keeping with the settings of its origin).”

Solid bass and cymbal-heavy percussion open the door to a swampy, psychedelic affair, awash with searing and crashing guitars. The vocals have an early-70s Lennon sound and they sit low down in the mix. Indeed, there’s a late-60s/early-70s feel to the whole thing. It’s a tune that would work well as a lysergic instrumental, but the off-the-wall lyrics do close a loop and, overall, it’s stragely satisfying.

We like the Tubs. The mix of jangle and the indisputably Thompson-esque vocals of Owen Williams make for a delicious combination. And, whilst Metallica might not seem the most obvious source material for the band, here they make this rare, for Hatfield, Ulrich and co., slow burning ballad into their own. (A ballad about suicide, no less.)

Freshly signed to Merge records, and looking for a song to celebrate that moment, Williams describes how the quartet added their trademark sparkle and decided to “give it a sort of folk rock reinvented outro.” That enough to alert all ears at ATB, it is an agreeable sonic tapestry of intermingling guitars and picaresque vocals. Mixed low and murky, that is all part the appeal, with Reaper-like B.O.C. flavours creeping in, as it unfolds.

Once the drums and low key organ join the melee, it is hard not to be locked into the groove, carried along thereby until that promised breakdown slices across expectations with a frenzied glee.

Another taster for Neon Summer Skies – the imminent album (it’s out on 5th June) from Syrian-American musician Azniv Korkejian, aka Bedouine. It follows recent samplings, Long Way to Fall and Always on Time. With Neon Summer Skies, Bedouine chronicles her experiences of life in Saudi Arabia after she moved there with her family when she was 10 years old.

Bedouine says: “I wrote On My Own after I returned from visiting my parents in Saudi Arabia. I felt such a deep sense of loss, because it was likely one of my last trips there, at least while my parents were still living in the village-like place of my childhood. I was flooded with nostalgia for it all; the chatter in the house, the constant fighting between my brothers but, more than anything, the feeling of belonging to something. I felt very lonely and pondered the space between the family you come from and the one you might one day create,”

And Bedouine captures those sentiments, in lines like: “I should be glad – or should I feel free? From all the distant memories,” in this smooth, lush piano ballad. The song builds slowly as – first – bass and drums slide in alongside the piano, and are then joined by horns. Bedouine’s voice is rich and resonant and, when she overlays that voice with glorious harmonies, the picture is complete.

Neon Summer Skies is starting to look like a very interesting prospect indeed!