Every Friday, On Vinyl features 88Nine music director Erin Wolf and Lilliput Records co-owner Tanner Musgrove delivering their top picks and a list of this week’s other releases, so the can’t-miss new albums don’t pass you by.
Land of Talk, LASTS
Elizabeth Powell, the singer-songwriter and guitarist behind Land of Talk, has a knack for writing melancholic and breezy indie pop that hurts your heart and tickles your brain. The Montreal-based artist has long been championed by fellow singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten, and it’s easy to understand why. Digging back through their past catalogue, you hear a voice that’s unforgettable and songwriting that’s unique.
Performing as Land of Talk for 20 years, Powell admits they considered laying the guitar down in recent times. But it was only a passing thought. “Life can become so unbearable, and music is where I go to metabolize it,” they explained. “I know the music was the only thing that was going to help me.”
As both their parents suddenly became ill, Powell was forced to reflect on the last time a person might walk or talk to a loved one. Yet watching their parents near the other side of life’s arc also made Powell consider all they had survived across their own decades on this earth, channeling both rage and gratitude. LASTS became a way to honor that reckoning.
Snoh Aalegra, Legendary Love
It’s been a few years since the Iranian-Swedish R&B artist has released an album, and her newest one is a stylish entry featuring Nile Rodgers on guitar and Raphael Saadiq on bass, while also marking ’80s inspirations such as the foundational Babyface and Prince (her former mentor).
Snoh is onto something when she identifies what the decade’s pop-music canon was all about: love, which is core to her journey and this new album. It’s not just for show, either. As she shared about her latest swoon-centric material, “I don’t think the greatest love stories are measured by how long they last. They’re measured by who they ask you to become.
“Every song holds a piece of who I was, who I became, and who I will continue to be because I allowed myself to love this deeply. This love brought me back to the era of music I fell in love with growing up. It carried the same longing, romance, and nostalgia that first made me dream of becoming an artist.”
Radie Peat, No Human Tongue Can Tell
The Dublin-based folk singer and multi-instrumentalist, who’s also a foundational member of modern folk band Lankum, uses her plaintive voice to cut through the heart of her songs, which teem with a choir of vibrational instruments like Fender Rhodes piano, harmonium, Mellotron and Wurlitzer. The effect is haunting and invigorating, all at once.
Peat shared of her debut LP that “the seed for this album was planted a long time ago. It’s been ticking along in the background of my head for probably 15 years or so….[these songs] are largely songs of female struggle, suffering, strength and endurance.”
Her universal-yet-unique vision and emotional depth, paired with her powerful voice, are enabling her to reshape modern folk with one hand in the past and one raised to the future.
Lilliput pick: Kim Deal, Live at the Barbican
On March 1, 2025, Deal hosted a once-in-a-lifetime sold-out performance at London’s historic Barbican, playing special orchestrated renditions of songs from 2024 debut solo album Nobody Loves You More, followed by tracks from The Breeders’ back catalogue and earlier solo work. That evening is finally being released here, and for any fan of The Breeders or Kim Deal — as well as the trajectory between her time spent in that iconic band and watching her grow as a solo artist — this album will be a treat to relish.
More of our picks
- Aesop Rock & Blockhead, Trouble Mountain
- Jake Bugg, Alamo
- Krill, Secret Language
- Spacey Jane, Exit Wounds (vinyl release)
- U2, Carnaval De Luz
