The Monthly Wrap | 08 | September
Inside: The Welcome Wagon, Jess Ray, Ian Yates, We Dream Of Eden and more.
Hi Pal.
Welcome to the monthly wrap for September. The Monthly Wrap is a monthly newsletter where I give a rundown of my favourite musical highlights of the past month.
Stick around for the updated playlist at the end. Also, you can check out the singles and albums on all platforms using the embedded links on the titles.
Under The Lights
A number of my favourite releases of September dropped today — as this is one of those months where the last day of the month is also a release Friday. I have been on a listening spree since I woke up and here are 10 of my favourite albums and EPs from the month.
September was a month of instrumentals but it kicked off with some beautiful indie folk by Zach Winters. Technically, Other Side is not a new project. He released Other Side A and B as EPs in 2021, but with the remastering of Side A; listening to the songs as a complete project is a different experience.
The month also gave us two hymn albums that could not be more different. Hymns of Grateful Praise by Emu Music is one of the best stripped-down acoustic singer-songwriter albums of the year while Hymns for Morningtide by Salt of The Sound is an ambient masterpiece with neo-classical undertones.
I will never get over how prolific these ambient artists are. Every artist that dropped an album or EP this month has at least collaborated on another project earlier this year. We Dream of Eden still somehow dropped two projects: an EP called Innerspace and Garden Heart: Reworks, a remix album for an album he dropped earlier in the year, which now features a number of collaborations with interesting tweaks to the original songs.
Dear Gravity and Simon Wester also collaborated on the soothing ambient EP, Take Heart. Exalt Vol. 1 by Daniel Irambona also whetted my appetite as a quiet and meditative piano EP.
The final projects on my list all dropped today. Needless to say, I will still take more time to digest these albums. Still, it’s easy for me to tell you that Full Hearts, Empty Spaces by Allen Odell is one of the best indie folk albums of the year. It has a wonderful easy-listening storytelling quality about it.
I can also tell you that Jess Ray outdid herself on Born Again. All the singles have been great and the album is wonderfully put together. Between The Joy And The Sorrow (Part 2) by Ian Yates is the answer to my biggest cliffhanger of 2022. While Part 1 was quite mellow and soothing, there is a kick to this one and I love it.
Video Interlude I
Little Drops
Whether as part of upcoming projects or as standalone songs, here are five of my favourite singles from September.
Make Myself At Home by Eva Swanson
Always Will Be by Christian Singleton, Sam Bowman
This Love by Jonathan Ogden
Isaiah, California by The Welcome Wagon
Light of Your Love (Subjects) by Young Oceans, Amanda Cook
Video Interlude II
On The Horizon
Young Oceans: With two singles released, Eric Marshall of Young Oceans has announced via his Instagram page that on November 9th, he will be releasing a new album called Subjects In Motion. He has said that the album will feature 10 different artists. If the first two singles are any indication, it will most likely be mostly reimaginations of older songs, although, I won’t put it past him to sneak in a couple of new tunes. He has also asked us to expect one more single which will most likely drop in October.
Jonathan Ogden: The new album, Future Forever, finally has a release date — October 21st. Ogden is also calling for people who are interested in hosting listening parties for the album on October 20th. See his website for details.
The Welcome Wagon: Esther by The Welcome Wagon is dropping on November 4th. The first single, Isaiah, California is one of my favourite releases of the month. So I’m fully expecting a cracker of an album.
That’s it for today.
See you soon!
What is your favourite song on the playlist? What are you looking forward to in October?