LENKA Good Days (Skipalong Records) THERE’S A LIGHTNESS mood in Lenka Kripac’s new album which is not a reflection of the topics as such – though a title like Good Days isn’t hiding that light under a bushel and even the label’s name, Skipalong Records, is kicking up its heels – but of intent. Everything about it has the feel of a record made to celebrate being able to make a record like this. Now that may sound circular, but well before the end – an end that arrives not qu

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Being a fan of music has always been “a really lovely feeling of kinship" for Sarah Cracknell of Saint Etienne. GOOD GOD, THAT’S NOT supposed to happen! Sarah Cracknell is non-music-industry punctual (“I know. I am, I can’t help it. I hate being late.”), reassuring even when plans are thrown out the window (“Oh dear, I’m scared now. No, I’ll cope.”) and has the kind of laugh that warms. A good human from a band, Saint Etienne, no one has ever knowingly said a bad word about.

"A light bulb in a world of moths". Carrie Fisher. Photo by Stuart Spence Here we have the next instalment in What Comes To Mind, an alternative series in the Wind Back Wednesday space, based on the work of the brilliant photographer Stuart Spence. Each time, he will dig out a photo from his archives going back almost 50 years and challenge me to respond with what comes to mind when I look at that image. It might be serious or ridiculous, personal or historical but it will be

OLIVIA RODRIGO you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love (Geffen) SOMETIMES THE BEST and right answer really is this simple. Over the weekend I saw an exchange online where someone was asking why is Robert Smith such a fan of Olivia Rodrigo (taking it as read that there’s no need to ask why is she such a fan of him and The Cure) and the response was not a list, not an angry defence, not a spirited explanation, but simply, “because she’s good”. And it was enough. How good? S

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A waiting Jess Klein. Photo by Rodney Bursiel IF YOU’RE HEARING it first on her new record of pop songs that come from earthy roots, when Jess Klein sings “I’m done being small/Wanna grow my heart so big, my spine so tall”, it’s handy to know this isn’t new, Klein told us a while back in a song that she was tougher than she seemed. that you’d be wrong to assume a quiet voice, a small frame, a willingness to listen and change was a weakness to exploit. Now a long-term resident

Les garcons de la plage (sans Bruce Johnston) Later this month, one of the last of the original (or near enough to original to not matter) Beach Boys, Al Jardine, will be touring Australia backed by a band comprising many of the musicians who once backed Brian Wilson in his 21st century revival/return. It is both an easy and a hard sell, a moral question and a musical dilemma. The Al Jardine And The Pet Sounds Band show offer (sadly) no Wilsons and (thankfully) no Mike Love a

DANNY WIDDICOMBE One Note At A Time ( Futurfonic Records) THERE’S BEEN A DELAY in responding to this album on my part, but I’m pretty sure Danny Widdicombe will be relaxed about my tardiness, for three reasons. Working backwards, number three is that one of the key players here in the band being called The Wand'rin’ Stars, is a local country legend in pedal steel player Michel Rose, a Mauritian – yes, one of us. And I can confirm that as well as our parents loving old schoo