Dermot Kennedy: The Weight of the Woods review – A landslide of dude dirges

The Irish star’s album is a missed opportunity. As the wonderful Turnstile makes plain, he should be making more indie rock with a pep in its step

Bon Iver: Sable, Fable review – From carefree Supermac’s fan to angsty melancholy and, now, romantic yearning

Advance press described Sable, Fable as Bon Iver’s “sexiest” album yet, which is misleading. There’s a lot of romantic yearning, however, as Justin Vernon traces the arc of a relationship from infatuation to connection to contentment, a journey that he explores via blissed-out yacht rock (Everything Is Peaceful Love) and fuzzy Radiohead-style dirge rock (If Only Could Wait, a duet with Danielle Haim)

The National have just released a surprise album. Here’s how we rate Laugh Track

Album will be thrill for fans whose tastes veer towards fervid dynamics of old

Slow Moving Clouds: Starfall review – experimental roots trio shoot for the stars

New artist of the week: The Murder Capital

Plus songs you have to hear from Phoebe Bridgers and Big Red Machine

John Prine: ‘The country music they play now is just bad pop’

The great American musician on his love of Ireland and the Trump song he can’t write

With Ásgeir, javelin throwing’s loss is music’s gain

Born to be Vile

Kurt Vile’s last album cemented his new-found popularity. The psychedelic indie rocker explains how going from lo-fi cult hero to in-demand musician takes some adjustment

DIT honours Chieftains for outstanding contribution to music

DIT president stresses group’s role ‘in bringing Irish culture to new audiences around world’

Bastille Storm The Charts

With his intricate and eccentric songs that meld indie and pop into a stadium-sized whole, Bastille’s Dan Smith is being hailed as a bright spark who might just start a revolution