Born Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho in Hammersmith, West London, the singer, songwriter and poet is better known by her stage name Arlo Parks. She began her musical career by uploading her demos to BBC Music Introducing, which led to her meeting her first manager. Her first solo release was a track called “Cola”, which brought her critical and commercial attention. Her first EP, SUPER SAD GENERATION, was released in April 2019, followed by the SOPHIE EP in December of that year. Both EP releases were critically acclaimed and set the groundwork for her first full length album. Apart from critics, she also received public praise from artists such as Billie Eilish, Wyclef Jean, Clairo, Florence Welsh and Phoebe Bridgers.

In February and March 2020, Parks began her first headline tour of Europe. However, the tour ground to a halt when the COVID pandemic hit. While in lockdown, she released several singles including “Eugene” and “Black Dog” as a build up to the release of COLLAPSED IN SUNBEAMS, her debut album. Her fan base continued to grow as she became a press darling, appearing on the covers of Music Week and NME and winning the AIM Independent Music Award for One to Watch in 2020. Anticipation of her debut album continued to grow and now that COLLAPSED IN SUNBEAMS has finally been released, Parks has lived up to the hype… and then some!

While the pandemic and politics darkens the news cycle, Parks’ COLLAPSED IN SUNBEAMS offers a quiet, personal heartfelt diversion from real life. However, the lyrics and performances are still rooted in reality, allowing the listener to connect with the emotions that flow from the album. Opening with the title track, a short intro that find Parks reciting her poetry, the album slips into gear “Hurt”, a track that lays the foundation for the rest of the album. Combining Pop, Soul, and Trip Hop influences, Parks offers her own unique take on modern Pop. Tracks like the aforementioned “Eugene” and “Black Dog” rub shoulders with the equally wonderful “Caroline” and “Green Eyes”, creating a full-length album that grows more intimate with each listen. COLLAPSED IN SUNBEAMS is an album that offers comfort by remaining honest, revealing the pleasure and pain that exists within the heart.

Children’s music is much more complicated than you’d expect. The genre extends far beyond the old days of grown-ups dressing like cowboys or clowns and singing silly songs to entertain the special tykes in our lives. Children’s music is no longer created just to make the kids giggle – it now touches deeper and teaches them lessons. Mostly subtle, the messages are sprinkled in songs that sound simplistic yet are extremely sophisticated in their arrangements and dynamics. It takes a lot to inspire the mind, the heart, and the spirit in any person, young or old, so we must really give a lot of respect to those who have made a difference through the years. From Fred Rogers to Joe Raposo (Sesame Street), Raffi to Sharon, Lois & Bram, music has played an important role in every child’s life. And, in many ways, music has played a key role in how many children behave as they grow up. They often leave those treasured musical artists behind, but there is always a new generation being born each day that will embrace them when the time is right…

Modern children’s music has moved away from silly kiddy ditties to engaging family songs. Over the years, parents have been annoyed by the music their toddlers wanted to listen to over and over and they’d eventually become exhausted in their attempts to ignore the tantalizing audio tidbits. In response, the artists have raised the stakes and are now creating music that is still engaging for children but also easily digestible for older kids and parents as well. In opening that door, the music moves and motivates the entire family. Like having a picnic in the park or a day at the beach, children’s music today is fun for everyone. And to top that off, the music doesn’t get old and isn’t always left behind as a child gets a little older. And the messages become more ingrained in a child’s mind when they begin to understand the ways of the world.

The Bright Siders’ debut album A MIND OF YOUR OWN is the perfect example of a ‘children’s music’ album that will stay with a youngster long after they’ve left their diapers behind. Every song is engaging and fun yet far from annoying. The duo – Kristen Andreassen (Uncle Earl) and Kari Groff, MD – bring emotions to life in wonderfully whimsical ways. But they don’t come to the party alone – A MIND OF YOUR OWN features guest appearances from Ed Helms, The War and Treaty, Gaby Moreno, The Punch Brothers, The Hoke, and others. Mixing Pop, Folk, World Music, Latin Music, and other styles, this is an album that speaks to the head and the heart. Tracks like “The Moon & The Stars & Me”, “The Song About Songs”, and “Vamos a Jugar, Let’s Go Play” will appeal to kids from 1 to 92. With the world draped in a pandemic, the innocent hearts of children need positivity and light and The Bright Siders bring that home on A MIND OF YOUR OWN.

In most cases, when a new artist comes along, you have absolutely no preconceptions of what the music is going to sound like. Sure, you maybe read about the artist on some blog or you saw their release (s) in the local record store bin, but in most situations, that doesn’t really help in describing the artist’s sound. So, when you lay the needle down or press play on your CD player, your expectations are completely blank until the music starts. In many cases, you’ll listen, shrug, and file it away for another day. However, if you’re lucky, you’ll be instantly transported to Planet Awesome as the album unfolds. In the case of Pearl Charles’ 2021 release, MAGIC MIRROR, you’re going to feel lucky. Very, very lucky.

Before her solo career, Pearl was a member of Country Music duo The Driftwood Singers and then the drummer in indie band The Blank Tapes. She made her solo debut with the self-titled release in 2015. Mixing ‘60s Pop with a touch of modern Americana, the album was both thrilling and haunting in equal measures. Regardless of genre, the songs were pure and honest, revealing an artist with a knack for writing songs well beyond her years. In 2018, she issued the album SLEEPLESS DREAMER, another stellar collection of great Pop songs masquerading as ‘60s influenced Americana. However, some of the chord changes and melodies revealed an understanding of what made all those great early ‘70s AM Pop and Soul radio hits work so well. For this singer/songwriter, it was pretty obvious that she was going to take flight on her next release…

And now, MAGIC MIRROR has arrived, and, as expected, it soars while also changing course and sailing into a different musical universe. This time, Charles leaves the ‘60s behind and starts exploring the ‘70s. The great thing about AM radio in the ‘70s was that it embraced everything from Pop and Country to Soul, which is exactly what MAGIC MIRROR does. Armed with a cache of great songs, this album pays homage to everything from ABBA (“Only For Tonight”) to gentle, pedal-steel guitar laced Country Pop (“Sweet Sunshine Wine”, “All The Way”) to touching ballads (“Don’t Feel Like Myself”, “Magic Mirror”). On one hand, MAGIC MIRROR can be seen as a departure from SLEEPLESS DREAMER, but it is, in fact, a continuation of the album’s deep and emotional connection between then and now. Charles is moving forward as an artist yet she is fully aware of Pop music’s history and how it inspired her, directly or indirectly. We all need more artists that show us their roots while taking the listener on a journey to the next destination, wherever that may be. Pearl Charles inspires us to trust her musical instincts. And we do…

Soul music, when done correctly, will touch you right down to your… ahem… soul. Anyone can repurpose the Soul and R&B formulas and create something that vaguely resembles the sound of Soul, but it isn’t Soul if it doesn’t have the heart or the passion to affect the emotions of the listener. For the music to really mean something, everything has to be ‘right’: the singer, the song, the arrangement, the production, the band dynamics, etc. However, one must not confuse ‘right’ with ‘perfect’ – they are two different things. Soul music has to have ‘feel’, which doesn’t always come from perfection. For a song to have the right ‘feel’, it has to contain a certain amount of magic… and that magic comes from the human soul.

Bloomington, Indiana’s Durand Jones & The Indications is a band that understands Soul music from the inside out. The group also knows that Soul is not one dimensional – it can be funky like James Brown’s “Sex Machine”, as sweetly sad as Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ “Ooo Baby Baby”, and as passionately joyful as The Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)”. While Durand is the focal point of that band, drummer Aaron Frazer is more than just the man that provides The Indications’ backbeat. Frazer is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist loaded with talent… and a whole lot of Soul. Since not all of Frazer’s musical ideas could fit on albums by his main band, the only way for him to get them out was to record them on his own… and the world is now a better place because of it.

2021’s INTRODUCING ANDY FRAZER is a soul-stirring collection of songs that are driven by Frazer’s falsetto vocals, which adds an extra emotional layer to the music featured on the album. Produced by Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), the album blends a modern Neo-Soul sound with lovingly constructed songs that delve the depths of emotion while also having a whole lot of fun. While the album initially hits you in the heart and soul, your entire body will fall prey to the music in no time at all. Tracks like “Over You”, “Bad News”, “You Don’t Wanna Be My Baby”, “Can’t Leave It Alone”, “Have Mercy”, and “Love Is” travel down different soulful avenues and are loaded with a passion for real Soul music and emotional connection. This is an album that will stay with you long after the final note fades into the ether. And it will inspire you to hit the ‘play’ button over and over again…