Isobel Campbell Bow to Love LP (Yellow Vinyl)

An inquisitive, complex and fully matured album from an artist who has travelled long and far. Isobel Campbell was first noticed as a teenage founding member of Belle & Sebastian, before she released two dream-folk solo albums under the name The Gentle Waves and left B&S in 2002. Two records under her own name followed, leading to a union with late rock-carved growler Mark Lanegan for three albums of gravel'n'honey Americana duets, where Lanegan would stand aside while Campbell called the creative shots.

A move to LA and a near-decade of label troubles followed; the latter ended with There Is No Other in 2020 before – as Campbell puts it – "the world went down the crapper" for the pandemic. And on Bow to Love, suggests Campbell, the world's ongoing troubles are clear. "Anyone with two eyes, a brain and a heart can see that people are struggling, and I suppose I have a lot of thoughts about that. And it's this album."

An album that also, says Campbell, has thoughts about how the future remains unwritten. "I feel like we're living in some kind of dystopia, but I think it's up to us what we buy into and what we react to. We do have a choice, even if sometimes we think we don't. You can still see acts of great kindness. In all the bleakness, that's what I hang on to. We are co-creators. Where we go next is up to us." Mounted with clear-sighted artistry and care, Bow to Love is a light in the dark of uncertain times.

New single '4316' is halfway between Motown bop and LA strut, a wavy piece of psych-speckled pop music with a killer chorus