VALERIE JUNE: OWLS, OMENS AND
ORACLES. ★★★★
While current global events would seem more likely to inspire dark or depressed music, the Tennessee-based, Grammy-nominated, Bob Dylan-favoured Americana singer-songwriter Valerie June is pushing back. She describes her sixth album as "a radical statement to break scepticism, surveillance and doomscrolling" with the aim that the listener will "celebrate your aliveness".
Producer M Ward marshals a cast including Norah Jones and the Blind Boys of Alabama and instrumentation ranges from June’s piano to a honk of New Orleans brass. With June’s inimitable vocals at their most pure, freeform and childlike, the songs draw on folk, blues, gospel, gentle psychedelia and soul. — Dave Simpson
