Crooked Words #5 (Joshua Burnside, Hank Bee, Marem Ladson, Spencer Radcliffe)
Snow is forecast here today. So far there's only been rain. Rain and big heavy clouds, all different shades of grey, which are maybe holding snow but also maybe aren't. We'll find out soon enough.
I'm often talking about the weather. I've often and always tied the two together; music and weather. I've been writing a lot about that recently (here a little, mostly in more private places). There's been a big shift in the season this past week. We had frost and sharp blues; I drove through the heaviest rain I've ever experienced. It flooded the road in less than an hour.
I'm hearing winter in these songs today. Much like the weather, they appear as something soft but also sharp, heavy but tender.
This new song from Hank Bee has grabbed me immediately. It's released today via the ever-excellent Memorials of Distinction label and is the first ever release and it pre-empts a debut EP, called 'a sudden hankering', which is released via tape/digital right at the end of January.
Hank Bee comes from Liverpool but 'Corner' is infused and enthused by a good old dollop of Americana, the guitars sag a little, the voice cracks at the edges, and the drums drive it all forward. It feels right on the edge of chaos but manages to right itself to end up somewhere surprisingly beautiful. A really exciting initial step.
This new Marem Ladson single dips its toe into similar waters, although the distinction between the heavy and the tender is somewhat more pronounced. Its first-half is far more subtle, just a wavering guitar and Marem's beautifully affected voice, all heavy of heart, weighed by sentimentality.
It takes less than a minute to open up a little, however, the percussion arriving to shift the tone somewhat, before little ripples of piano cast a different kind of glow again. The piano comes courtesy of Nick Hakim, whose presence here adds a little more weight to what is, for now, the second of two standalone singles released in the last few weeks (listen to the previously-released 'Cavity' here).
Whether they remain as that, or go on to form something more pronounced, they both offer a glimpse into the workings of another wholly intriguing songwriter.
Having already released one of the year's very best albums, in the form of the foggy and distinct Teeth of Time, Northern Irish songwriter Joshua Burnside has just announced its swift follow-up, to be released in 2026.
Far more raw and stripped back than Teeth, the album – which is called It's Not Going To Be Okay – was written and recorded after the death of one of Joshua's close friends and, as he says, "most of the songs deal with that directly".
Led by just voice, guitar and fiddle, lead single 'Moon High' would be moving even without that context, but it does indeed take on a different kind of light under such weight; little moments of light among the shadows; grief under new light.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the very-excellent Spencer Radcliffe dropped a brand new album on Friday via Orindal Records. His first album in six years, and first solo effort in a decade, Ohio Vision, is formed of ten new songs that bristle with the same kind of angst we've been previously accustomed to; a steeliness that always finds room for its beating heart.
Opening track 'Shield and Sword' is an invigorating introduction, indicative of Radcliffe's singular charm and vision. Through five-minutes of building, spiky guitars, words tumble through Radcliffe's Ohio lilt, all woozy and fruit-bruised. There's even an excellent Modest Mouse reference thrown-in for good measure.
The album as a whole was said to be "crafted slowly in bursts and breaks from 2019-2025" but where that might hint at something chopped-up and unruly, the whole thing hangs together gracefully; less a series of snapshots recorded over time, more a document of life as it was and is.
The album, available digitally and on limited cassette, is also accompanied by a feature-length documentary pulled from footage of his 2024 tour alongside Horse Jumper of Love. You can watch all 1hr40mins of it over on YouTube now.
