Crooked Words #4 (Elanor Moss, Natalie Jane Hill, Devin Shaffer)
Elanor Moss - Again, My Love
London songwriter Elanor Moss has announced her signing to Merge Records with a brand new single, her first new music since a 2023 EP. Billed as a hint of new music on 2026's horizon, the single is short and beautifully enticing, a stark reminder of her endearing craft.
Nestled in alongside the likes of Vashti Bunyan, Sibylle Baier and others, Moss' enigmatic delivery and intonation is spellbinding here, her wavering voice carried in the breeze alongside a gentle wash of strings and saxophone that concocts a sound that is both soft and spooky; always just out of reach.
“It’s a song that reflects on change, the nature of change being something that requires you to lose things, and that's okay, and actually really good,” Moss says of the new song. “I wrote it when I was really having a rough time. I was living a troubadour existence for the past couple of years, flitting between different places, and the uncertainty of that way of living was really getting to me. I think that one is a song for me, that I was trying to make a bit more universal.”
Natalie Jane Hill - Never Left Me
Having released a couple of truly wonderful folk records in back-to-back years – with 2020's Azalea and 2021's Solely – Asheville-based songwriter Natalie Jane Hill quietly reverted to the shadows for what turned out to be a more than four-year absence.
Wonderful news then that Hill has just announced her long awaited return, with the release of brand new album Hopeful Woman in early 2026. Alongside the album details, Hill has also unveiled its lead single 'Never Left Me', a swooning croon of sunshine and hearty sentiments that traces similar lines to what comes before while also feeling like something of a bold stride forward.
Slightly more fully-formed and fleshed-out, the album as a whole was brought together with a tight-knit cast of characters that includes Mat Davidson (Twain) who enticingly is listed as playing keys, fiddle, pedal steel, bass, flute and recorders across the album's ten songs.
This is what we have for now though, and 'Never Left Me' is every bit as compelling as those aforementioned albums; a singular and stunning voice that seems to land a little deeper every time you hear it.
Devin Shaffer - Anyone
We previously wrote about Devin Shaffer when she announced her new album a little earlier this year. Said album, Patience, is released tomorrow (Nov 7th), via American Dream Records, and Shaffer has shared one final single from it this week, in the form of the shadowy and dream-like 'Anyone'.
Shaffer's voice once again casts a bewitching spell, floating here like an apparition, held just a little above the gentle piano that runs underneath it all. It's indicative of the album's sense of wonder and charm, the whole thing playing out like the soundtrack to a dream, where the edges blur, sentiments linger, and the whole thing seems to exist just a fraction out of time with the real world.
I highly recommend checking the full album out, it's one of the winter's most captivating releases; perfect for dark nights and ghostly silhouettes.
