Clara Mann Delivers Exquisite Folk on ‘Wishbone’
Clara Mann’s Wishbone posits that even if love isn’t predicated on chance, it doesn’t lose its poetic appeal. That’s why love is poetry: it chooses you.
Jack Walters
Jack Walters is a staff writer for PopMatters. His latest book is Bob Dylan: Song by Song: Volume 1: 1962–1969 (2026). His essay, “The Philosophy of Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour”, is published in The Dylan Review. He can be reached by email: jackwalters [dot] lc [at] gmail [dot] com
Flora Hibberd Takes a Turn with Latest Art Pop Record
Where the folk-pop of Flora Hibberd’s Swirl exudes sophistication, the synth-driven Mammoth is expansive and fantastical. You could be watching a Mummers’ play with Keats and Shelley.
Brody Price Lays It on the Line with ‘Leaf Miner’s Daughter’
Brody Price is unafraid to sit with dark emotions without letting them destroy him or his compositions, because the darkness will transfigure into the light.
Albert Camus’ Anti-Ideology Message for Our Times
Albert Camus’ The Complete Notebooks evince a writer who saw the perils of abstraction, as humans potentially become subordinate to ideology, ciphers instead of flesh-and-blood.
The Sick Man of Europe Fight Against Digital Passivity
The attention economy is built upon passivity. Yet the Sick Man of Europe’s music is a pail of cold water to wake us up in the age of complicity.
Elanor Moss Accepts Contradiction on ‘The Knife, The Needle’
Elanor Moss’ The Knife, The Needle shows what the songwriter set out to answer: you can live with contradiction. Indeed, love is a knife and a needle.
Nina Winder-Lind Is Prophetic on ‘Wild Love’
That you feel more alive after listening to Nina Winder-Lind’s album is a testament to life. Yes, Wild Love is for all generations of women, but, equally, it speaks to the now.
Heading Down the Same Bob Dylan Road
Although How Many Roads isn’t an essential Bob Dylan biography, not all books have to be necessary to be effective and rewarding.
Michael Bracewell’s Pop Fantasy ‘The Smiths: A Novella’ Is a Stunning Evocation
Michael Bracewell’s latest novella is a Proustian, circuitous meditation on the 1980s zeitgeist, shaped by personal recollections of the Smiths.
Camille Camille Rides the Waves in the ‘Enchanted Sea’
Camille Camille’s Enchanted Sea is a gentle and, indeed, an enchanting album. It’s chanson disguised as folk, full of longing, like two lovers separated by sea.
Gun Outfit Reach Higher Ground on ‘Process and Reality’
Gun Outfit’s Process and Reality imbues a cosmic existentialism in which celestial instrumentation coils and twists, like a serpentine trail in a canyon.
Modern Woman Feel the Rage in ‘Johnny’s Dreamworld’
Modern Woman’s operatic Johnny’s Dreamworld offers a range of sounds, from post-punk to art rock to chamber pop.