New Pagans – Making Circles Of Our Own (Vinyl)

The second album from Belfast five-piece New Pagans, released on Big Scary Monsters and recorded at their own Badlands Studios in the Glens of Antrim, self-produced by guitarist Cahir O'Doherty of Jetplane Landing and Fighting With Wire pedigree. It followed their acclaimed 2021 debut The Seed, The Vessel, The Roots and All, and finds the band more poised, curious and outward-looking, trading some of the hard edges for richer textures without losing any of the bite.

Lyndsey McDougall remains a magnetic presence at the centre, her delivery drawing comparisons to Sinéad O'Connor, while the twin guitars of O'Doherty and Allan McGreevy swirl and diverge over the rhythm section of Claire Miskimmin and Conor McAuley. 'Better People' opens with hooks and hope, 'A Process of Becoming' takes a goth-flecked turn, and 'Karin Was Not A Rebel' draws on the lives of artists throughout history, part of a record that pushes back against the industry's obsession with youth and celebrates people proud to be themselves.