Darlingside – ‘Birds Say’ (album stream) (premiere)

What’s so impressive about Darlingside’s new album Birds Say is how fully developed it feels. From the first minute it has an identity, its acoustic arrangements and rich, four-part vocal harmonies hearkening to ’60s folk (the CSNY influence is massive) yet the foursome still take the music in a direction that feels contemporary. It’s rooted in traditional music but has a very subtle experimental mentality that gives the music a quirky charm of its own. It’s not easy for a band to sound like they hit the ground running, but Darlingside do that on a record that, if there’s any justice in this world, should click in a huge way with the indie folk crowd.

Birds Say will be released on 18 September (pre-order it here), and we couldn’t recommend listening to the album below highly enough.