Tag: Indie

Live Review: Florence and the Machine @ The Hydro, Glasgow 9/2/26

At the start of Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the main character has to dig herself out of her own grave after being violently brought back from the dead. Afterwards she walks through riot-strewn streets of fire, disorientated and bleeding, asking: ‘Is this hell?’ The rest of the season she spirals into crippling depression, apathy and a self-destructive relationship.

Florence Welch considered calling her last album ‘Season 6’ in honour of that arc, so much did she see herself in Buffy’s struggle. During her last tour Florence suffered a broken foot on stage, before losing her unborn child and nearly dying with complications of that ectopic pregnancy. Hell and back doesn’t even begin to cover it.

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E.P. Review: Meels – Across the Raccoon Strait

On her YouTube channel Meels has included a playlist which details the ‘visual world’ of her new EP Across the Raccoon Strait. Included in this list are videos from TV shows Hee Haw, Gunsmoke, Free to Be You & Me, songs by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Muppets and Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton singing ‘Jolene’ on the Porter Wagoner Show, Roy Clark doing ‘Gentle on my Mind’ and the cartoon title sequence to Grease. This eclectic and irreverent selection tells you everything you need to know about the musical sensibilities of the artist known as Meels, whose music she describes as ‘critter country’.

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Album Review: Courtney Marie Andrews – Valentine 

Sharing memories of 2016 is the social media trend of the moment and ‘Honest Life’ by Courtney Marie Andrews was one of the albums released towards the end of that year which inspired me to start this blog. 

Ten years later she’s still going strong having been one of the most prolific artists I’ve covered on the blog. Between 2016 and 2022 she also released May Your Kindness Remain – a stunning Americana epic, Old Flowers a quieter and darker pandemic era offering and Loose Future a lighter, breezier collection.

In the four years since that album she’s been busy with painting as well as releasing her second poetry collection ‘Love is a Dog That Bites When It’s Scared’. 

This new album ‘Valentine’ was self-funded, recorded with only two other musicians – her producer Jerry Bernhardt and drummer Chris Bear. While it doesn’t return to the country-tinged sound of her earlier records, it does offer us a deeply emotional and impressive sounding collection of songs.

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Albums of the Year 2025

We’ve made it to the end of blogmas and I’ve saved the best of the year until last. It’s been great writing a post every day in December and I want to thank everyone for reading the blog this year!

So now for my favourite albums of the year by women artists. The list reflects my own personal listening and is not intended to be any kind of ‘best of’. 

Please share yours in the comments! Click below to read my reviews of each album. 

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Songs of the Year 2025

This year I made a rolling playlist of my favourite songs on Apple Music which has been hugely helpful in keeping track of what I’ve enjoyed listening to. I’ve always kept a list of songs from albums I review on Spotify but that doesn’t catch every single. 

Another useful app for me is Last FM which I’ve been using since 2006 to count what I listen to. Sometimes the numbers are skewed because I have to listen to something more to review it, or just because a song came out at the beginning of the year but it still helps me to see what music I’ve gone back to. 

So using those metrics alongside my own gut instinct here are my top 20 favourite songs of the year sung by women. Apologies to the artists who I just haven’t had a chance to listen to this year. Share yours in the comments and let me know what I missed! 

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Album Review: Juliana Hatfield – Lighting Might Strike

Juliana Hatfield has been hugely prolific in the period since this blog started in 2017, releasing albums Pussycat, Weird and Blood along with her cover albums of songs by Olivia Newton John, The Police and ELO. It’s been hard to keep up, even for dedicated long time fans like myself. She’s also been writing a brilliant Substack newsletter too. This new album Lightning Might Strike was recorded after she moved to the countryside and went through a difficult period in her life.

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Album Review: Snocaps – Snocaps 

The recent Rilo Kiley reunion has been a total joy for fans like myself and as they are one of Katie and Allison Crutchfield’s formative influences, it was lovely to read the post about them traveling to see the shows together.

Waxahtachee also supported Rilo on some dates and Katie ended up singing with Jenny too, which was incredibly sweet. 

Rilo’s reunion and listening to this excellent album makes me hope we might even have a noughties indie rock revival on our hands. 

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Album Review: Brandi Carlile – Returning to Myself

Since releasing her ‘Who Believes in Angels?’ collaboration with Elton John earlier this year, Brandi Carlile’s star has never been brighter. Lesser mortals would have some time off after such a publicity blitz (and her UK/EU tour in July) but when has Brandi Carlile ever known how to slow down and smell the roses? ‘Returning to Myself’ is her way of stepping out of the shadows of her famous friends and looking at herself in the mirror. 

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