Natalie Prass on the Moon and More

A usual January is quiet for new music until the end when there can be a rush of releases and one of my favourite new releases is the debut from Miss Prass, though compared to the many releases from more established artists it is resolutely retro.

For music that is less retro you can turn to a few great new records from middle aged artists such as Gaz Coombes and The Charlatans and of course Belle and Sebastian. They are all available to stream in the usual places except for the Belle and Sebastian album for Deezer Mobile Premium subscribers as, due to some contractual quirk with some independent labels, some albums are not available to Mobile Premium subscribers but they are to anyone with a free account and a computer....

Fortunately for  Deezer Mobile Premium subscribers you can check out the Belle and Sebastian album via Grooveshark with any old internet enabled device.

It is also striking how many artists that emerged in the 90's are still making music as good if not better now, like the above and along with likes of Damon Albarn, Gruff Rhys, Jenny Lewis, Martin Carr, PJ Harvey to Jeff Tweedy etc etc. I don't think the same can be said for the 60's generation in the 80's - but maybe it was just because it was the 80's or that they had just taken too many drugs or both - as many of them have cleaned up and and produced music far better than their 80's efforts since. 

Anyhow back to Miss Prass - it is a fine if quite short debut that has been along time coming. She has recently been part Jenny Lewis's backing band and the album could be described as Miss Lewis trying to do Carol King but still sounding rather like Jenny Lewis -  which is course quite brilliant. Check it out below.