The Fat Angel Sings

The epitome of a modern artist, Jana Bahrich does most things herself, no matter how painstaking – writing, producing, directing, often hand painting t-shirts the day of shows when the band have run out of merch. This has helped give her band Francis of Delirium a unique identity, with her rock confessionals breathing a new life in to the genre and her paintings creating a striking design aesthetic.

Released as she was finishing high school, 2020’s single ‘Quit Fucking Around’ was a great introduction and it remains one of her most enduring songs. Shortly after it’s release, she signed to artist-first indie Dalliance Recordings (Gia Margaret, HighSchool, lilo) and three EPs -“ All Change” (2020), “Wading” (2021), “The Funhouse” (2022) and a striking debut album – “Lighthouse” (2024) – on and Jana has Francis of Delirium flying.

While the EP’s fizzed with promise, her debut album “Lighthouse” landed its punches.

Seeking a more vulnerable and open sonic palette, she wove in pop elements to create anthems that celebrated heartbreak and love. Lead singles ‘Real Love’ and ‘First Touch’ were the first tracks she made with an outsider – working with Grammy winning producer Catherine Marks (boygenius, The Killers, Wolf Alice) – while the rest of the album was produced by Jana herself and day one collaborator Chris Hewett. 

Live, Francis of Delirium are Jana (guitar and vocals), Jeff Hennico (bass) and Denis Schumacher (drums). Together, their brilliant quiet-loud dynamic and tight interplay only elevate her songs and over the last 5 years, they’ve toured across Europe and North America, playing headline shows, festivals and tours with the likes of Blondshell, Briston Maroney, The Districts, Horsegirl and Soccer Mommy. They’ve also supported The 1975, Alanis Morissette, DIIV and Wolf Alice.

Last summer saw a memorable UK tour with Bôa, the 90s band resurrected by a huge TikTok moment for their track ‘Duvet’. There was a real sense of excitement for these shows with young crowds snaking outside every venue hours before doors and bringing the sort of energy Jana thrives on, she road tested new material to an overwhelmingly positive response, giving her the impetus to go and finish album two.

An artist who seeks to connect with her listener on a deeper level, it’s no surprise then that she’s made hope and inner strength central themes on her new album, “Run, Run Pure Beauty”. Jana says the title track is “an imagining of the world after it has been destroyed by humans and technology. Thrashing against what humans have left behind, ultimately the pure beauty of nature wins out.” Wanting to bring different perspectives into her songwriting with this record – informed by both her travels and the tumultuous times we find ourselves in – she’s also brought about a progression in her sound with these new songs somehow sounding larger, with undeniable harmonies and more orchestration.

Featuring the singles ‘Little Black Dress’ and ‘It’s a Beautiful Life’, “Run, Run Pure Beauty” serves as an excavation of hope in bleak times. Produced by Jana and Chris, and mixed by Nicolas Vernhes (Deerhunter, Dirty Projectors, Silver Jews, Wild Nothing), its eleven songs of discovery, despair and perseverance ultimately serve as a mirror on its creator and is a brilliant next installment in the Francis of Delirium arc.

Joshua Burnside is a folk singer, songwriter and producer from N.Ireland. His new album, “It’s Not Going to be Okay”, will be released in March 2026

He was trying to survive. The album was born from loss, written in the quiet aftermath of his closest friend Dean Jendoubi’s passing. In that stillness, Burnside stripped everything back. Gone were the dense textures and surreal folk tales; what remained were bare, trembling songs that told the truth.

The songs are so to the point lyrically that it seems almost silly to do so but here you are.

I wrote and recorded this album after the death of my best friend Dean Jendoubi. He was an incredible person and I miss him every day. He drifted unawares into the deepest sleep, and died of a drug overdose on August 17th, 2024.

Grief has always been a big part of my music, it’s the reason I started writing songs when I was
13. And so, as I did all those years ago, I reach for the guitar, try a few chords and sing a few
words and for a brief moment I feel like it’s going to be okay.

Many of the songs on this record are noticeably starker in production compared to previous
albums. I didn’t want to rely on weird sounds or quirky production – I wanted the songs to stand on their own two feet, and the lyrics to be the focus. The lyrics are quite straightforward as well, sometimes the best way to say it is the simplest way.

he songs are so to the point lyrically that it seems almost silly to do so but here you are.

I wrote and recorded this album after the death of my best friend Dean Jendoubi. He was an incredible person and I miss him every day. He drifted unawares into the deepest sleep, and died of a drug overdose on August 17th, 2024.

Grief has always been a big part of my music, it’s the reason I started writing songs when I was
13. And so, as I did all those years ago, I reach for the guitar, try a few chords and sing a few
words and for a brief moment I feel like it’s going to be okay.

Many of the songs on this record are noticeably starker in production compared to previous
albums. I didn’t want to rely on weird sounds or quirky production – I wanted the songs to stand on their own two feet, and the lyrics to be the focus. The lyrics are quite straightforward as well, sometimes the best way to say it is the simplest way.

It’s a masterwork in capturing grief and the celebration of a life without clichés or platitudes. A work that feels vulnerable and candid, with vivid lyricism and intriguing melodic choices.

The album was recorded and mixed in my little studio at Vault Artist Studios, Belfast.

Pink Breath of Heaven is a reverie of shimmering guitars, haunting melodies, and introspective lyricism. The project of Liv Field and Rex John Shelverton, the two share a strong commitment to the feeling of a song, where it takes you, and the delicate art of using music and song writing to create a living atmosphere.

Following the release of their first single, “Blue Is the Morning,” the band quickly began to draw wider attention, leading to their addition to Little Cloud Records ahead of their debut album.

Over the following year, Pink Breath of Heaven continued shaping a sound that is distinctly their own, immersive and transportive, pulling the listener into the moment and somewhere beyond it.

With performances alongside The Dandy Warhols, LSD and the Search for God, Alison’s Halo, Ty Segall, and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Pink Breath of Heaven has become a compelling force within San Francisco’s underground.

In late 2025, shortly after the release of their debut album “Colors Make a Sound“, the band signed with Westward, an independent LA-based label with distribution through Warner ADA, establishing momentum for the next wave of releases. released May 2nd, 2025

They are good straight-ahead, heavy shoegaze: guitars aggressive yet reverbed and tremolo-ed into oblivion, expressive vocals, lots of dreamy textures, pounding drums (it’s really worth pointing out how good the drums sound on this album; check out “See It Now”, for example), and well-structured songs. Hard to choose a fave track because it’s remarkably solid start to finish.

PBOH take all the elements of “shoegaze”, and deconstruct and recombine them into something vital and new, creating something utterly, utterly beautiful and euphoric. Impossible to listen to casually, it demands and deserves your full, closed-eyed, blissfully smiling attention.

Pink Breath of Heaven performing live at 25th Street Recording in Oakland, California, during Noise Pop 2026. Recorded February 25th, 2026.

Songs: I Feel God 00:14 Colors Make A Sound 03:53 Blue Is The Morning 09:13 The Wind Is Calling 14:19

Liv Field – Vocals, Guitar Rex Shelverton – Guitar Marco Cataruzolo – Bass Francesca Pevere – Tambo Cary LaScala – Drums

Arriving 15 years after their debut Go Tell Fire to the Mountain, the record marks a brand-new chapter for the recently reunited band. Produced by Sonic Boom, Recorded between Lisbon and Wales in 2025, “A Wave That Will Never Break” captures WU LYF sounding as vast and uncompromising as ever, it carries the scale of a sermon delivered at full volume, music that feels physical, devotional and cathartic. 

Where once WU LYF embodied the restless energy of youthful defiance, they now channel something more refined, an enduring flame tempered by the humbling of time.

Their creative philosophy has evolved from reactive protest into something closer to wu wei: effortless action, flowing around systems of control rather than confronting them head-on, and in doing so, inspiring a reclamation of potential and presence.

Stripping everything back to its core doesn’t mean reverting to acoustic archetypes; music can be simple and maximalist at the same time. At least that’s what Wu Lyf are aiming for on their latest record, “A Wave That Will Never Break”, 

The record has been released through their own LYF community and has been stripped away from any of the major streaming platforms. It’s bold for sure, but noble at the same time, in a big way to encourage the work to be “experienced as a whole” that fosters a genuine community amongst its fans that they say is not “simply encountered in passing”.

A brave mission statement needs an album to boot. Wu Lyf are encouraging a digital detox that will thrust the band and its fans back into a state of ignorant bliss that existed in the very best days of yesteryear. But they’ve not cashed in on a recipe of Mancunian nostalgia, which has all sorts of pitfalls. They’ve created something immersive and in keeping with modernity, while feeling wholly refreshing.

It’s maximalist in the way a great festival set is, where music and community blend under a sunlit sky or the cocoon of a parasol. The drum roll of the opening track ‘Love Your Fate’ sets that precedent, almost like a ladder that the melody can climb up before ascending into sonic utopia, far away from the world the band are rebelling against.

The heaviness of that opening track subsides, largely as part of this utopian journey they have sought to create. The textures continue on, through the lush ‘Letting Go’ and ‘The Fool’, which are arranged with nuance but almost subconsciously slip into repetitive euphoria during the chorus line. It’s here where the record converges, with one path continuing on to their natural horizon and the other subliminally thrusting back into modernity, worse yet, into Las Vegas’ Sphere.

But all of this leads to the most important song on the record, the 10-minute epic ‘Tib St. Tabernacle’. A mammoth track of this length was always going to encapsulate a record as ambitious as this, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. The vocals sprawl like a Greek tragedy, atop a piano-driven melody that inherently creates drama that’s perfectly concluded with the excessive finish. This simply is the sound of the band letting go. 

Release Date: April 10th, 2025 | Producer: Sonic Boom | Label: LYFRecordings

“The Suicide Handbook” is Ryan Adams’ most elusive and mythic recordings. The album is a raw and intimate collection of songs that captures the songwriter at his most unguarded. Recorded at the beginning of his solo career and long circulating only through bootlegs, the album has earned a legendary status among die-hard fans and fans of the Americana genre alike for its stark stripped-back beauty.

Acoustic arrangements and hushed, late-night vocals, these songs feel like private confessions set to tape. Adams leans into themes of heartbreak, isolation, and emotional vulnerability, delivering recordings that are as fragile as they are compelling. There’s an immediacy here that sets “The Suicide Handbook” apart from his studio releases. These are the original recordings in their rawest and un-touched form.

Released officially for the first time, experience the record as a cohesive piece, bringing warmth and depth to its lo-fi origins. The analogue format enhances every subtle nuance, from the quiet creak of strings to the tremble in Adams’ voice.

For longtime fans and collectors alike, “The Suicide Handbook” stands as a haunting, deeply personal snapshot of an artist laying everything bare—an essential addition to the Ryan Adams collection.

Cream’s 1968 album, Wheels of Fire, is getting a Super Deluxe Edition chronicling the full creation and fruition of the supergroup’s—Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce—ground breaking third album. The expanded title, to be released in 5-CD and 3-LP editions on June 12th, 2026, via Polydor/UMe, features newly remastered mono and stereo versions of the studio album, live performances, and 15 rare recordings, nine of which are previously unreleased.

The set includes a special, newly remastered stereo version of the nine-track studio portion of the album. Originally released utilizing CSG processed recordings, this remastered, de-CSG’d version now presents the album phase corrected, delivering the recordings with greater detail and a crisp soundstage.

The newly remastered mono and stereo versions of the studio album are sourced from the late Cream producer Felix Pappalardi’s personal reference reels. These recordings have never been released before and include many alternate mixes.

The collection features remastered versions of the four live tracks recorded in March 1968 and originally released on LP2 of “Wheels Of Fire“, alongside eight additional tracks performed at those concerts, including an unreleased live recording of “We’re Going Wrong,” recorded on March 10th at San Francisco’s Winterland.

A newly compiled rarities collection features 15 recordings, nine of which are previously unreleased. This collection includes early versions, alternate mixes and single versions.

The set is completed with a hardcover book featuring sleeve notes by Jim Farber and photographs of Cream from the era. The 5 CDs are housed in a gatefold sleeve and, together with the book, are enclosed within a rigid slipcase with a silver lamination finish.

“Stopped A Freight Train With A Grain Of Sand” is the latest instalment from the “Let’s Go Dancing” series — an epic (and still unfolding) 100-song living tribute to Drivin N Cryin singer/guitarist and celebrated songwriter / solo artist Kevn Kinney.

This new set sharpens its focus on the harder, faster and louder edges of Kinney’s songbook. If earlier chapters leaned into folk-born introspection, “Stopped A Freight Train With A Grain Of Sand” roars, spotlighting the grit and voltage coursing beneath Kinney’s writing, whether delivered solo or at the helm of Drivin N Cryin.

The roster this time includes Deer Tick, The Black Crowes, The Crosses (featuring Dan Kubinski of Die Kreuzen), Butch Walker, Edwin McCain, Dinos Boys, Bobby Bare Jr., The Ghost Wolves, Fang of Gore, Tim Nielsen, Mark Bryan, Miles Nielsen And The The Rusted Hearts and Peter Stroud.

A Dublin-born, stylistically restless but fundamentally punk troubadour, Stefan Murphy emerged in the early ’00s under the moniker The Mighty Stef, which became a full-band concern around 2007, wrapped up in 2016, and was followed by a short stint as Count Vaseline. Then, in 2019, Murphy met a gentleman by the name of James Mechan, who happened to be Stiff Little Fingers’ guitar tech. That last part is relevant, as any current convert to the band we’re discussing here can testify. And so is the first part, as Mechan wanted to record Murphy at his Nashville studio.

Those plans were derailed by the pandemic but not forgotten when Murphy moved to Nashville in 2022. Work commenced, the pair were joined by Ryan Sweeney (of Cheap Time) on drums and Eli Steele (Sweet Knives) on lead guitar. The result was The Sleeveens, named after an Irish slang for “trixter”…not the earthly type responsible for a plastic Aztec death whistle on your exhaust pipe but rather the otherworldly one that temporarily vanishes the keys to the vehicle. 

“National Anthem”, their second album, should and could comfortably sit on the proverbial shelf of rock history next to all-timers with titles like “Even Serpents Shine”, “Eternally Yours”, “All Rise”, “Setting Suns”, “Radios Appear”, Nobody’s Heroes”, “Sorry Ma, I Forgot To Take Out The Trash” and “Rocket To Russia.”

When five-time Grammy winner Taj Mahal intersects with The Phantom Blues Band, it’s one of those rare joints that hits you before you even know you’ve been hit. They walk in, plug in, and the whole room shifts. Studio assassins, road lifers, groove keepers and somehow still hungry. Mahal’s fearless, open-hearted spirit still shadows the whole thing with that genre-hopping joy. He leads you down the road with a history lesson and the Phantoms carry it with honour to the Griot.

Mahal sings and plays harp as he fronts an all-star lineup of legendary musicians with the three ringleaders for the Phantoms — Johnny Lee Schell, the soulful gunslinger with tone for days; Tony Braunagel, the drummer who keeps the whole ship steered straight and on time, every time; and Larry Fulcher, the anchor, the heartbeat, the quiet storm on bass.

On this record they slide through blues, soul, R&B, and island colour with the ease of men who’ve lived every bit of it. This is deep-groove, grown-folks music from a band that still plays like the night is young.

Recorded around 2010, Time weaves original compositions by members of the Phantom Blues Band with deep-cut blues interpretations, alongside a previously unreleased original song by Bill Withers.

The album’s title track, “Time” is a previously unreleased song written by Bill Withers, discovered as an early demo and, with the blessing of Bill and Marcia Withers, is brought to life for the first time by Taj Mahal and the Phantom Blues Band.

Taj and PBB’s collaboration spans over 3 decades, including the albums “Dancing the Blues” (1993), Phantom Blues” (1996), “Señor Blues” (1997), the classic live album “Shoutin’ in Key” (2000), “Maestro” (2008) and this new album, “Time” (5.1.2026).

“Time” is not a reunion, but a continuation, blending reggae, New Orleans grooves, country blues, R&B, and Latin rhythms—guided by the same shared musical language forged decades ago.

Taj Mahal & The Phantom Blues Band’s “Time,” from the new album ‘Time,’ out on May 1st.

The Black Keys have announced details of their 14th studio album ‘Peaches!’ set to release May 1, 2025. News of the release comes just six months after last year’s ‘No Rain, No Flowers’ album.

The duo have also released the first singe from the album, a cover of Earl Hooker’s “You Got To Lose” and is accompanied by a video in which the Black Keys play a surprise show at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way, a juke joint in Memphis.

Longtime collaborators Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney return to an organic approach. Auerbach described the album as “Their most natural” “Everything was all cut live in one with no separation, including vocals,” Patrick Carney adds. “It was a nightmare to mix but we got it sounding raw and filthy.”  The Akron duo’s 14th studio album (and sixth since 2019), a visceral and raw 10-song collection described by singer Dan Auerbach as the band’s “most natural record” since their 2002 debut, “The Big Come Up“. In similar DIY spirit, the album was recorded with all musicians playing in same room with few overdubs,

‘Peaches!’ was recorded with all of the musicians in the same room and includes limited use of overdubs. he album is The Black Keys’ first recorded and mixed entirely by Auerbach and Carney since 2006’s ‘Magic Potion.’

The songs chosen reflect Auerbach and bandmate / drummer Patrick Carney’s obsessive record-collecting habit, which in recent years has escalated into an ongoing series of Record Hang DJ-set dance parties where they spin vintage 45s for packed, high-energy dancefloors in the coolest spots across the globe.”

The new album’s roots were formed when frontman Dan Auerbach’s late father was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, and drummer Patrick Carney suggested that some time in the studio might offer Auerbach some catharsis.

The Black Keys’ upcoming tour schedule continues to fill in alongside previously confirmed shows and festival appearances. After performing at Rock En Seine 2026 in France in late August, the band will head to London for two newly booked concerts.

The Black Keys Announce New Covers Album ‘Peaches!’ Out May 1, 2026