Quick Takes – June 2026: Album Reviews

Celtic Rock, Soul and Americana come to play on the debut from Pillarstone led by been-there-bought-the-T-shirt pair Paul J Bolger and Alex Soikans. They are indeed the pillarstones who lead a squad of collaborators on ten tracks of love, resistance, truth and transformation delivered along the spectrum that stretches from joy to melancholy.

Single material comes in the form of Run Fox Run, Fog Of War and September Sun that offer a snapshot of Mono Lit. Running the gamut from easy guitar rock to acoustic shuffle and a rich country/Celtic feel of the latter where the violin is particularly picturesque. One which invokes visions of The Waterboys folk and rolling with abandon.

Having set the tone, Mono Lit continues through a peaceful easy feeling with a little sidetracking in a more raucous direction. Cry shifts gear with a lively Rockabilly jive and (“there’s no need to…”) Hammer That Nail might sound like a worksong in waiting, yet rolls with a rustic acoustic slide, just waiting for those drums to kick in.

The beauty of Mono Lit lies in the embracing a musical diversity yet with no radical turns – the curtain call of Call For Mercy with the choir raising the stakes in an uplifting and joyous final, hammering home the nail point.

“All systems go!” An album that drummer  Michel ‘Away’ Langevin has called “a longtime dream turned reality,” as Voivod join the Metal fraternity who can tick off an orchestral collaboration.

For a flavour, head straight to the final track that sees the combo come up trumps on The Floyd’s Astronomy Domine – a familar tune yet in a different setting – to set the template. If it doesn’t stir you, give in now. Otherwise, backtrack to the start and find Symphonique celebrating the biggest and best tracks from the Voivod back catalogue given the kitchen sink treatment alongside the Quebec Symphony Orchestra.

Twelve songs in an hour and a quarter recorded just about year ago, the set delivers lashings of futuristic metal with the strains of a symphony orchestra and not just adding the usual sweep of textures. The QSO buy in big time, adding epic and majestic – possibly even menacing – embellishments on a scale where the term ‘cinematic’ doesn’t seem to be suitable enough to describe some of the ‘beyond’ cinematic’ arrangements that fill the set with drama and bombast.

It’s the brass that carries the fight, often heralding something in the region of Ben Hur heroic grandeur with the likes of the sprawling The End Of Dormancy, or even Holst’s Mars in the vast waves and surges. A lesson in how to use an orchestra and Cosmic drama by the bucketful!

They, I think, it a band name rather than any one individual, but, being Swedish, who’s to say. Or is it the French plural? Irrespective, 15 years since their debut single, this sees the Nordic rockers return with relish, delivering the same smorgasbord for which they are best known, a heady cocktail of kosmische, psych and, indeed, any roll that rocks.

The album opens with the not so cryptic Hőkvind, which needs little grasp of the language to work out to whom it references. With all the boosters bleeping, it is awash with al the requisite tropes of Brock’s 1970’s iteration of the band. From there little wrong can be done, as Jocke Åhlund’s plucky psychonauts plunder and pillage all shades and styles of guitar based rock, in a pulsating set of eight driven work-outs.

Echoes of many a favourite will wash in, often contrastingly, with flavours scattered from the Stone Roses through to the Black Keys, via Norman Greenbaum (!?), with always enough melody to keep the riffs from becoming formulaic. And with Big Flood, we have a genuine contender for this year’s surf-pop beach anthem for beleaguered longhairs. Masterful.

With 25 Forever, Pontypridd trio Chroma have chosen to move slightly away from the socio-political commentary that dominated the band’s 2024 debut release, Ask For Angela. Instead, they’ve chosen to explore: “…that time-worn and evergreen feeling of being stuck in your mid-20s.”

Not that the polemic has been abandoned – far from it. The band still rail mightily against the creeps and misogynists of the world. And they also explore such themes as young womanhood, the cynicism of ageing, the rise of the far right, and more.

Vocalist/frontwoman KT Hall elaborates: “In the lyrics for the album’s title track, I imagine meeting up with a friend that’s fallen out with everyone and offering an olive branch. I can’t help myself – I’d lost a close friend when we were 25. A grief like that teaches you that life gets tough; you need to remember that it’s precious. the songs on 25 reflect on the lessons you learn in your 20s, remembering that hard times will pass, but knowing those life lessons will stay with you forever.”

Alongside the title track, other album highlights include Coalminer’s Daughter, written by KT and associate Charlotte West in reaction to a photograph from the collection of Clémentine Schneidermann. And, perhaps the album’s most potent moment: What! – KT’s commentary on the rise of far right ideologies in Wales – and further afield.

Yes, you remember the name, if not quite from where. So, a clue, the 20th anniversary of her most celebrated moment has recently been celebrated, with an expanded re-release of the only album by psych-folk-rockers, The 18th Day of May, dropping last month. Cotton was the viola player for that much loved band, which featured also the guitars of Richard Olson, current lynchpin of The Hanging Stars.

The label, tak-til, an offshoot of Glitterbeat, gives away the terroir explored, this being still very much psych-folk, if heavier, wyrder and heavy on drone textures. With harmonium, piano, hammer dulcimer, treble recorder, bowed cymbal and percussion coming from Cotton, partner and producer Mark Nicholas contributes bass, drums and synths. That alone conveys the sort of territory here being explored.

Put together over the time period of her father’s final illness, a mood of closure is frequently present, as she puts his context into her conscious. With often wordless songs, her voice, frequently multi-tracked, is that of a whole pantheon of Gods, benign and otherwise, otherworldly spirits casting observation. An adaptation of John Clare’s I Am provides lyrics for one of the three worded songs, the mood fitting seamlessly into the reflective ethos sought by this artist.

File alongside some of John Cale’s eerier and more experimental efforts.

Michael J. Sheehy – “his grizzled features documenting his life on the road and in music.” reads one cutting. This is his first new work in some time;familiar to us as a part of Miraculous Mule and in solo guise, he has maintained a dedication to his muse in a varied career.

Never short of a striking name for a supporting cast, along with The Hired Mourners, the album title gives fair warning that the themes are raw and (dare we say typically?) bleak.

Never shying away either from exposing himself in an open and honest manner, the vulnerability and strength of fighting off his own demons along the way, fuels a moving collection, where close inspection of the lyrics (should the song titles not give away enough) might provoke a testing self-examination.

The hint of Hawley/Orbison in the delivery nudges the rich and majestic into the equation that sits heavily with in the sombre, where a duet, with Sandy Mill and some subtle strings, from Fiona Brice enrich the starkness that’s been described as Country gothic, yet no review of a Sheehy project is complete with out mention of ‘noire’, the sparse arrangements the perfect partner to his musings.

Uptempo moments are few and unnecessary as the focus remains sharply on the pathos and singularly sensitive, emerging from deep places yet with a strength that comes from the confessional outpouring that sees Sheehy inspiring us to seek within and find solace in the though that “things aren’t as awful as they seem.”

As a parting shot, If I Had Known It Was The Last Time is searingly tender – counting scars and blessings, Michael J.Sheehy touches a raw nerve or two.

In their own words, “let us all rejoice!” It is with a little tongue in cheek that we feature the Lep’s Greatest Hits which sees a vinyl only release (nice coloured pressing option too) with a standard five tracks per side. Therein lies the challenge; that of selecting ten Lep GHits. Five come from Hysteria, only three albums are featured (Bringin’ On The Heartbreak sneaking in from High’n’Dry) and there’s nothing from the last 30 years , yet with such a rich legacy, trying to choose ten from said legacy will surely have no two lists in agreement.

Someone somewhere will have totted up the number of GH sets – a minimum of four – plus the live sets which inevitably revolve around said hits.

There is a new song knocking about, the tremendous live at Caesar’s take on the latest single Rejoice, that sees them rising from beneath into a impressively Hysteria themed triangular set. Probably of more interest especially with some Euro dates very imminent. Amongst the handful of things in life that are certain, include the fact that Def Leppard know how to put on a show and certainly know who to do hits.

An emotional return for MONO as Brad Wood assumes fifth member status following the passing of long term producer Steve Albini. An association that weaves a nostalgic and poignant thread through Snowdrops where the mighty highs are balanced with a fragility that reflects the emotion themes.

The secret language of flowers inspires a set that might revert to standard Post Rock tropes that rely on dynamics, yet reaches and touches parts beyond those expected bases.

For all the bombast for which MONO is capable, Snowdrop is never anything less than beautifully crafted and often breathtaking fragility. Gerbera is glorious – what seems a simple recurring ringing motif builds and grows – the only way to go is with a choir, and they do. Bells Of Ireland is pure elegy and Statis typical of some of the dreamy atmospheres explored with the added bonus of angelic textures.

The melancholy finale of Farewell To Spring, despite the expansive swells, hits the spot as an apt farewell, the seal set on what will immediately attain the status of a monumental piece of the the MONO legacy.

Samantha Fish’s first official live album, Paper Doll Live captures her electrifying stage presence that has her marked as one of the
made her one of the most compelling performers in modern blues and roots music.

Off the back of the Paper Doll album, the set was recorded at the historic Bijou Theatre, the album documents a band firing on all cylinders in front of a packed crowd, elevated by the soaring harmonies of Nashville gospel legends The McCrary Sisters.

Having born witness in Manchester in March, we can testify to the power when the blue touch paper is lit for a rocket powered gig opening Kick Out The Jams.

The new album takes the spotlight as the title track rips a new one and the tight as the proverbial riffs and grooves take hold. There’s a certain bravado in the fearsome Can You Handle The Heat that completes an opening volley before I Put A Spell On You picks up the baton. Masterful setlist planning from a catalogue that comes to life onstage.

The combo of the McCrarys and the fizz of organ behind the similar fizz of guitar, especially when the slide comes to play, is an intoxicating cocktail. The swinging riff to You Better Be Lonely is hypnotic while in the search for evidence to support the guitar playing credentials, look no further than the extended (but not over indulgent) Fortune Teller or Black Wind Howlin’. Add a huge dose of charisma and personality, the result – a Blues Rock live album to die for.