What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and Katie from Belwood favourites The Lunar Year sounds just as divine when releasing music under a new solo name. ‘Put You Away’ is a beautifully assured first venture under her new moniker Katie Bird. It opens with just soft acoustic guitar and her crystal clear vocals; delicate yet at the same time all-consuming, like awaking on a winter morning to a world gripped by ice and frost. Gentle piano melodies slowly start to fall into place, each note ringing out like falling water droplets from the thaw. As it draws to a close the song ends on a high as the arrangement expands into something more warm, lush and inviting. It’s like a golden sunrise announcing the arrival of spring, and just melting your heart along with it.
the lunar year
Top Ten Songs of 2017
Hope you all had a lovely Christmas! It’s that time of year again; as 2017 draws to a close we’ll be talking about Belwood’s highlights of the year gone by, starting with our favourite songs. It’s been no easy task to whittle it down to just ten tracks, there’s been a lot of outstanding music released this past year. With a healthy mix of acts both old and new, large and small, it’s our strongest list yet. Hopefully you can find a few hidden gems here that you missed first time around, or just jam along all over again! Continue reading
Interview: The Lunar Year
Philadelphia band The Lunar Year has easily been one of my favourite new discoveries of 2017. Combining pensive and poignant piano ballads with raw indie rock, they made one hell of a first impression with their debut album Herodias. Having offered some of my personal highlights of the year, naturally I just had to find out more about the album. With her unique vocals and affecting lyricism, I was overjoyed to be able to chat with frontwoman Katie Burke about the new record: Continue reading
Album Review: The Lunar Year – Herodias
The Lunar Year – HerodiasTop Tracks: The Lunar Year – Backyard Deck
Belwood favourites The Lunar Year are back with their new single ‘Backyard Deck’, taken from their upcoming debut album Herodias out 16th June. While the previously featured ‘Porcelain‘ focussed on the unrelenting pull of love, this new track reflects on long passed memories of youth, but with all the same heartfelt sincerity and enthrallingly passionate delivery. Beginning as an introspective, piano driven track, the song soon builds into a more expansive sound, complete with hazy guitar tones and by far the most compelling, yet understated, drum work I’ve heard all year. ‘Backyard Deck’ shows a new side to the band with its hints of dream pop and indie rock. What makes The Lunar Year so special is the honesty within their music, the sense that the band are revealing to you some fragile and precious part of their souls, making each song feel like a gift.
Top Tracks: The Lunar Year – Porcelain
How often can you say, in all honesty, that a song took your breath away? That was exactly what happened when I first heard ‘Porcelain’, I daren’t do anything to disturb the divine calm of this song’s delicate beauty. This heavenly piano ballad is the kind of track that pulls you into a trance and makes you forget the rest of the world exists. Philadelphia band The Lunar Year have crafted a song that captures the atmosphere of confession, that fragile moment when you first tell someone that you love them. When you are at your most vulnerable, when you risk your whole world falling apart, but you cannot keep that long overdue declaration of devotion within you for even a second longer. Listening to this song, it’s difficult to tell whether it reminds you of being in love, or whether it’s making you fall in love all over again.
Belwood Music 