Another month, another set of monthly highlights from the Picky Bs team.
Tom Burrows – Seven years ago, in a land before Covid, Fran dished out a few albums for each of us writers to review. I was handed Designer by Aldous Harding, an artist I’d never heard of, but who Fran “fucking loved”. I thought the album was odd but quietly compelling, but after submitting the review I didn’t think I’d listen to Harding much again.
Yet here we are in 2026, two albums later, and I’m listening to Harding’s Train On The Island on my own accord. Her music is still very odd, bit it’s more compelling than ever. Her lyrics have this way of seeming nonsensical on the surface, but they get under your skin, hinting at deeper, profound thoughts and feelings.
There’s the minimal yet arresting opener ‘I Ate The Most’, where striking imagery hints at an uneasy mother-daughter relationship (“if I’m safe, then love is a spectrum / sweet like lemon”). ‘If Lady Does It’ seems to question what happens if patriarchy is challenged (“if lady does it, who will be left outside?”). ‘Coats’ centres on people’s misguided good intentions (“big thick coats on the dogs of people just trying to help”). It feels like this is as close as we’ll get to the person behind the music, and it’s all the more beguiling for not spelling it out. One of my favourites this year for sure.
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Rick Larson – About three years ago I reviewed feeble little horse’s second album Girl with Fish. It had an offbeat charm, and I liked it quite a bit. I looked forward to the recent University of Pittsburgh grads touring in support of the album, but that tour was canceled before it got started, necessary mental health care the stated reason. The lead guitarist then left amicably to pursue a solo career. It seemed like that might be it for the band. But, on May 26 the band dropped a new album, bitknot, and announced a tour. Giddy up.
The guitars and drums are fiddled with, distorted, interlaced with static, fuzz, beeps and bloops. There’s a stray drummer’s click track on ‘Dior’ and, wait, is that a recorder on ‘Poison’ or a good mimic? At their core, though, these songs, like the wise man’s house in that banger the Sermon on the Mount, are firmly built on rock. In the opening song, ‘Doorway’, the band swings like Mötley Crüe on the chorus. The apocalypse will take out Autotune, but backbeats will survive for eternity. ‘Guts’ surprises with an affecting tune that reaches way back with a woozy Brill Building sound. This brief album is playful but has heft, a chimera with a strong backbone.
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Will Collins – Time hasn’t been on my side this month, so new musical discoveries have been limited. But where quantity has been lacking, the quality has been high. First up, there has been the new track from Arab Strap: ‘You You You’. Like much of their recent work, it’s a punchy, uptempo track built around dancefloor-adjacent synths and Aidan Moffat’s wry spoken word delivery. I’ve always enjoyed Moffat’s lyrics and the way he deftly balances humour, introspection and ire, but now I’m a father pushing 40, they speak even more directly to me. The world weariness of the lyrics, which reflect on the singer’s life and the world around him, taking stock of life as he sees it, feels at times like looking into a mirror. It helps that the song underpinning these reflections is an absolute banger too. If you’re not yet familiar with their work, this is a great place to start.
My other pick of the month is a late entry, only released on Friday. It’s Inferno’, the new record from Boards of Canada. I haven’t managed to listen to it too many times since (so I’ll be brief), but I’ve been completely entranced by it. Somehow, they continue to find new ways of wringing atmospheric beauty out of their particular brand of analogue electronica. As with previous releases, the songs create their own almost cinematic world into which you are drawn completely and immediately. Here, they are all suffused with a sense of doom, in places bubbling under the surface, elsewhere more pronounced. It’s apocalyptic music, fitting for these mad times we find ourselves living in.
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Fran Slater – There’s absolutely no question about the best thing I heard in May.
It was a month full of cracking albums and gigs, but Ellen Beth Abdi at Band on the Wall blew me away. I was already a huge fan, but this show took it to a whole new level.
Joined on stage by supremely talented musicians on piano, double bass, and drums, Ellen treated us to a masterclass in performance. She absolutely comes to life on stage. If you’re yet to check out her music, now’s the time.
Find more recommendations from our writers in our past monthly highlights.
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