Hibernation Music
The Cast (Albums) : Blue Lake, David Byrne, Gwenno, Smith and Liddle, Sons of Sevilla, Tunng
The Cast (EPs, Singles and Songs) : Dualist Inquiry, The Popguns, Soft Cotton County, Squeeze
Who Is The Sky : David Byrne
Best for : Those looking for music with surprising innocence and charm
If people know one thing about David Byrne it is that he was the controlling force behind the art rock band Talking Heads. If you've followed some of the comments since their 1991 break up you'll know that he was also perceived as difficult to work with, an occasional bully and a man who didn't need friends or bandmates but musicians who would do what he wanted.
This album may change that picture. For a start it's a collaboration with New York outfit, the Ghost Train Orchestra. It feels and sounds as if he had a good time making it, rediscovering the joys of working with others, sharing ideas and experiencing the benefits of shy humility. 'A Door Called No' for example is simply, rather sweet.
In a way he has spiralled back to his roots. The first Talking Heads album was a strongly stylised set of songs that, nevertheless, contained some exquisite pop melodies. That matches this album nicely, with the caveat that he now has fifty years of songwriting under his belt to help him make accessible songs that still deliver what he wants. (There's an echo, too, of his work with Brian Eno in the album title 'Who Is The Moon'.)
The Ghost Train Orchestra is key to the sound of this record. They could have narrowed down the breadth of the songs nudging them into the corner marked chamber pop. Instead they give the album an expansive soundtrack feel, a soundtrack perhaps to a late in life coming of age movie.
Melody has returned through the front door bringing warmth and smiles to a song such as 'I Met The Buddha At A Downtown Party' and leavening 'The Avant Garde' with a singalong chorus. 'Everybody Laughs' sets the tone from the start. It's a perky and quirky opening merging Caribbean and African rhythms with the orchestra to make something that is a lot of fun and, importantly, lighter.
It's seven years since Byrne's last album, long enough to notice how his vocals have changed. They're undeniably older but recognisable and undimmed. They have something of Stephen Merritt (The Magnetic Fields) about them, emphasised by the unexpected and glorious melodies that appear from around the corner.
David Byrne has produced a minor classic. I suspect that he likes it that way.
Taster Track : Tricky, but I'm going with 'A Door Called No' for its unexpected sweetness.
Utopia : Gwenno
Best for : Lovers of exquisite pop songs with satisfying emotional depths
Gwenno was brought up in a household where Dad spoke Cornish, Mum spoke Welsh and the country around her was swamped by English. Her first steps into pop included a spell with the perky updated girl band The Pipettes. Look at her Google Image pictures and they're a mix of the girl next door, sophisticated society hostess and alluring, sultry come hither temptress. All these elements combine in her music and yet she remains unknowable as if these different aspects of her life are sleights of hand to hide the true Gwenno from view. She's like everyone you've ever loved and no one you've heard before.
One thing is immediately apparent. This is an album to sink into and allow it to float you away. It's lush and luxurious, avoiding spontaneity and rough edges for polish and pop perfection. It all seems so effortless. These are songs that swirl, rather than following a straightforward path. 'London 1757' comes to you as if through 18th century fog. The pristine melody in the chorus of 'Dancing On Volcanoes' is a joy to hear, making it one of 2025's best songs. 'Utopia' is just Heavenly.
Beneath the surface sheen there's a layer of anxiety and concern, rooted in a real world rather than a glossy perfect one. 'Y Grath' is almost hymn like. 'War' is more sombre, a cloud in a perfect world. The final chant of "Infants" is chilling. 'St Ives New School' meditates on a child's future. It's particularly beautiful in its lengthy fade out, driven by strings.
Perhaps the key track on this album is its closer. 'Hireth' means a deep longing for something lost, especially connected to the home. It's feeling sad for something that can't be put into words.
It's that undefinability that provides the magic in this album.
Taster Track : Dancing On Volcanoes
Songs For The Desert : Smith and Liddle
Best for : Anyone needing to recover from excess with a well crafted homage to the Laurel Canyon sound.
The north of England may not be the first place you's look for the country tinged soft rock that conjures up the feel of warm Californian sunshine. It's less Crosby, Merseyside and more Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Fleetwood Mac, but Smith and Liddle have done their best to make it feel at home there.
They've claimed Laurel Canyon as their own - the sound of strong melodies and perfect harmonies, busy percussion, and 70s guitar solos with a Sunday morning Bob Harris Radio 2 vibe. It's good recovery music after a busy festive season, sweet sounds to provide balm for over indulgement and to soothe the hungover brow. It's pretty and allows effortless listening. You'll be happy to stay with it for the time it takes to prepare a weekend lunch before heading out to find something more energising - musical latte rather than a black double espresso.
It's undeniably retro, perhaps even unfashionable but then so is the population they'd expect to form their target audience. It sounds like music by long hairs for grey hairs and bald heads. (I'm not being rude, I simply looked in the mirror and wrote what I saw!) Young Gun, Silver Fox occupy the same space. Smith and Liddle may not be living the dream they're describing but they are soundtracking it.
You have to admire the feel and accurate re-creation of the period. The album is book ended by its two strongest tracks 'Piece Of You' has a lovely melody, and all the elements you'd hope to hear. 'No Place' is a little less busy allowing their natural qualities to shine through. They're also well served by a song such as 'The Moon Does Slide' - quieter, acoustic and showcasing their vocals beautifully. Smith and Liddle combine well, whoever leads a particular song. The embellishments in the harmonies are a delight to behold.
This album may not be for the 21st century indie kids out there, but it is a labour of love admirably discharged.
Taster Track - Piece Of You
Street Light Moon : Sons of Sevilla
Best for : When you just want to float away on music.
This is the perfect album for early mornings when it's cold and still dark, for late evenings when you want to wind down contentedly and for any time of the day when you're able to escape from the hurly burly of daily life.
It would be easy to regard this as another slice of smooth, retro yacht rock but it's actually the complete opposite of that. This is music that conjures up a sense of being part of a bigger universe full of stars, galaxies and possibilities. Yacht rock is for being part of an indulgent and shallow world centred around you. It has fewer stars and more wannabe stars, fewer galaxies and more chocolates. It's a destination, not the start of a journey.
It's smooth and retro but also contemporary. Songs such as 'All The While' and ' Street Light Moon' are for when you're happy to be lost in your thoughts. They're sweet and comforting, quietly enjoyable and an escape into a more positive world. They become the voice in your head that you want to listen to, knowing that the mood it creates is one of possibility and affirmation. They encourage you to lower your defences.
The songs here, like 'Do Me A Favour' and 'Life In The Sky' feel like instrumentals with lyrics. You're carried away on the music, and the vocals and lyrics simply drift along, stirred into the mix. 'Needless To Say' has the attractive wooziness that comes from the happiness drawn from the half glass of wine you should have left in the bottle.
Sons of Sevilla have the kind of gorgeous momentum that you find in The Alessi Brothers, CVC, Wooden Shjips and Rose City Band. It's more than enough just to be in that company.
Taster Track : Street Light Moon
Love You All Over Again : Tunng
Best for : Music that transports you into beguiling new worlds
Once upon a time there was a band, a band that was different from any other band around. They seemed to shut themselves away from the world where the rest of us dwelled, making music from the heart of a different place. In former times their music recounted tales of the dead and they take from macabre nursery rhymes and Grimm's fairy tales to create lines like:
" Wake up in the morning
Everybody eat your lungs and heart."
Their name is Tunng, and their music can be a bit of a risk. There's always a golden moment or two to treasure but sometimes they're buried in the midst of a psychological and psychedelic puzzle that you have to decode. 'Love You All Over Again' is a wonderful delight from start to finish, an ambient wander into a strange world where you're made to feel completely welcome. It has the magic and strangeness of A Midsummer's Night Dream in some of the loveliest and most accessible music you can imagine.
This is ambient, only because of the sounds and noises that paint the background and draw attention. 'Laundry's quiet, chattering noises and throat clearing, the tremulous whistling of 'Drifting Memory Station', the rhythmic static deep underneath 'Deep Underneath' - they all combine to create songs with the seductive strangeness of Pied Piper flute playing and siren songs.
Songs like 'Everything Else' and 'Snails' build imperceptibly until they soar. Mike Lindsay and Becky Jacob's vocals combine to paint an attractive normality over the strangeness below. The songs are filled with a wonderful imagination like hearing a new fairy tale for the first time.
'Love You All Over Again' is the rarest of albums, one you can both admire and love. Let it soak into you.
Taster Track : Everything Else
The Animal : Blue Lake
Best for : Those who want music that can slow down their day.
At this time of year, you can either be excited for what the future holds, or feel exhausted by the efforts required for Christmas and the party season. This is the soundtrack for those of you who are feeling the fatigue, not the love and who just need to be left alone for a while.
I've seen this album described as ambient Americana. That's a good start but, submerged in the music, you'll also hear folk, jazz and experimental tones. It's a heavy ambience. You'll find drones and wails buried within 'Circles and a mournful note to compositions like 'Yarrow' that suggests lives of struggle, toil and emptiness.
This is serious music for devout listeners and practitioners. Blue Lake (aka Jason Dungan) is playing at St Pancras Old Church in March. That fits, for this is music that demands the same reverence and respect expected of a child at a Good Friday Passion mass. If you're going to the show, you'll be listening to performers lost in their music. It would feel disruptive to converse, whisper or applaud.
Throughout this album I felt that there was a search going on for meaning and connection. There are parts of 'Seeds' that feel like tuning up, a preparation for something that takes its time to never arrive. It's a Waiting For Godot experience, broken only by moments that pick up the pace and suggest the arrival of a long awaited development. 'Cut Paper', 'Strand' and 'Vertical Hold' worked best for me precisely because of their greater sense of purpose.
Don't get me wrong. I can hear the merits in this work, but ultimately it wore me down. There's a sparse beauty throughout, but it left me impatient to move on. The album is quietly atmospheric but possesses no accessible hooks to persuade me to linger. Perhaps it just needs more time. 'Cut Paper' initially feels like a shapeless cloud but, as you listen intently you can begin to discern your own pictures from it.
This is a deeply personal and introspective collection, echoing the approach of William Tyler or Bon Iver at his least conventional. It's not for everyone, but for a few iit will help them to take stock and move on.
Taster Track : Cut Paper
EPs, Singles and Songs
Dualist Inquiry is the solo project of Sahej Bakshi, a producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Goa, India. 'Get You Back' is a highly infectious dance track that takes you straight to the heart of the party. It's catchy, rhythmic and, at its core, a clever piece of electronic pop. It's repetitive but liberating, calling to mind the sounds of Caribou and Jamie XX.
2026 will mark the release of a new album from Soft Cotton County and, on the basis of these tempting tasters, it promises to be one of the year's highlights. The new song is 'Soft Rain' and it's available in three versions. The '...' version is gorgeous in its melancholy melody and softly whispered vocals. You'll feel your troubles melt away within its first few notes. The 'A Capella' version doubles down on atmosphere. It's haunting and verging towards heartbroken, more ambient but beautiful. The ambient mix is a slower version of the song and subtly different again. All the versions are quite wonderful.
There's a back story to Squeeze's first new music in eight years. Difford and Tilbrook have revisited the first songs they wrote together as teenagers. At the time they lacked the musical know-how to realise them fully. In 2026 they've brought all the mature songwriting skills at their disposal to look at them again. 'Trixies Pt 2' celebrates a club they used to know. It's a slice of louche glam rock and roll. There's a lot going on, but the chorus hook will drill itself into your brain and squat there. It's a promising taste of what's to come from the album released on 6th March.
Self deprecatingly, The Popguns describe themselves as "No one knows who they were… or what they were doing. But their legacy remains. Their new EP shows it to be a more than worthwhile legacy too. The band are great. 'Orion' has the Britpop feel of Gene or Sleeper. Vocalist Wendy Morgan used to sing with the feel of the most popular girl in school. 35 years later, some poignant melancholy is allowed to lurk behind the sound of 'Oh Harry' and the gorgeous '...Who Has Never Found Love' with its lush strings and heartbroken vocals. 'I'm Happy With How My Life Turned Out' is more optimistic, triggering a spontaneous smile of delight. This is flawless 80s / 90s indie pop that has grown up.