Beautiful things happen every day, but I wonder if we are even looking out for them. So often I find myself looking at the clouds behind the cherry blossom, and I miss the beauty right in front of me. This week’s gorgeous selection of music has been giving me a chance to take some time to think about what I see when I gaze out at the world.

We start this week with the lyrically perfect ‘Glasgow Love story’ by Tidelines. It is a gorgeous love story that tells us “we’ve got no way to turn back the time all we can do is look back when we say goodbye” and that sets us up brilliantly for this week’s list which is about lifting your head and looking out at the world and being ready to receive some beauty. I really love Tideline‘s new album and you really should check it out.

The Scottish influence continues next with the ‘Queen of Argyle‘ by the spectacular ball of energy which is Siobhan Miller. I’ve taken this track from her album Bloom because the whole album fills me with joy and it is hard not to fall in love with the work of Miller. She is currently touring extensively with her trio and I’m so excited, about it, I will be seeing her in Cambridge this week so look out for a gig review of that show. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about nature, and the beauty that’s right in front of our eyes this week and that took me right back to the amazing Cara Dillon. Her stunning album wanderer from 2017 is an absolute love letter to the natural world and fits perfectly in slot three this week.

Now we turn our attention to something more introspective with ‘peaches and cigars‘ by Rachel Hill. It’s from her 2023 album ‘words left unsaid’ and focuses on the beauty inherent in the love between two people. In this incredibly intimate piece Rachel talks about how it feels to kiss, and the sensation of having knuckles white on the helm of a relationship. This week Rachel Hill was crowned acoustic act of 2025 at the Cambridge band competition and is busy touring and performing all over the UK and Germany throughout the summer.

Next up is the wonderful vocal and acoustic performance from Stornoway. They released the ‘Best of unpicked’ album last year, and it was a huge and sensational album. Featuring some of their finest work reimagined in a rapturous new way. I love the force in ‘Between the Saltmarsh and the Sea‘ which deals with the way one person can impact on another. It is a delightful piece of work worthy of this weeks list.

The new album from ‘Kate Rusby‘ is of course sensational. What did we expect? I have chosen ‘How the World Goes‘ for this list because it is lyrically beautiful and carefree in a way that seems fresh and really encapsulates the central idea of this weeks list. She repeats that “from the top of our head to our toes, we care not how the world goes” which is something in this trouble time we all get behind.

This sentiment echos perfectly with our next track from the brilliant “Grace Petrie“. Since it’s release in 2024 I have (as we all have) been completely in love with the ‘Build something better’ album, which is true to form rebellious, self assured and mind bindingly honest. ‘King and Country‘ challenges us to rethink the order of things and recognises that we should demand better from those who should not need reminding.

Next up we have an exquisite, gentile and sanguine treat from one of Brooklyn’s finest, Nan Macmillan, this brooding and complex exploration of the heart is brilliantly crafted. I love the way she builds her latest release ‘Flight of the Birds‘ which sets just the right balance.

I have always thought that we must understand our pains in order to see the beauty beneath, and ‘The Ballad of Little Mary‘ does just that. Winter Wilson, in this cold and simple track, delivers the heart wrenching pain and dark truth behind loss but as the story goes there is an inherent hope at its heart.

Satnam Galsian, is a Leeds-based British Asian folk singer who collaborates with artists to explore the relationship between North Indian and western musical traditions. In the challenging and provocative ‘Whispered Messages‘ she challenges the outdated traditional values of what it means to be a woman and tells us that ‘while tradition has a valuable place’ that ‘it is time to move on from the outdated’ with the central idea that ‘you have but one life’ and to ‘follow your heart’ a powerful message in a world asking itself deep questions right now.

I am so pleased to include the silky sounds of Sakara. This wonderful a-cappella vocal performance was delivered in a chilling performance at the Cambridge Folk Club’s open stage last year. Recently recognised by BBC introducing she is going places and is my “one to watch” this week. I have chosen to include “Ocean’s Daughter” but I with a new release already on the platforms I am sure it is not the last time Sakara will be appearing on the list.

While we are getting all “oceany” with Sakara’s siren call, I have followed the theme now with Filkin’s Drift, who bring us on a brilliant traditional lament in ‘The Water is Wide‘. The fluidity of the strings in this piece is simply gorgeous and the whole piece hangs together like a rolling swell on a gloomy sea.

Don’t Tell Daisy, bring out something perfectly formed and glistening from western Australia in “City Lights”, this is a lyrically brilliant, awesome sound from this reasonably new four-piece. Formed in 2023 this sister and friends team create truly great melodies to accompany their desperately honest songs, which are accessible and enigmatic. Their catalogue is growing rapidly and always worth a listen.

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This is the Week 18 list published on 28th April 2025 and running until 5th May, 2025.

The List. #18.2025