Ray Finlayson
Contributor at Beats Per Minute
A musician of sorts. Sometimes he talks in the third person. Available for weddings/funerals.
Articles
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1 week ago |
beatsperminute.com | Ray Finlayson
[Invada; 2025]It’s safe to say Tor Maries (aka Billy Nomates) has been through the wringer. In between transitioning to managing herself and dealing with an onslaught of misogynistic hate and abuse from a Glastonbury performance (which eventually had to be taken down), Maries lost her father to Parkinsons. All the while, she was working on her third album, Metalhorse. Presented with all this, many would retreat and abandon work.
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3 weeks ago |
beatsperminute.com | Ray Finlayson
[Jaid Records; 2025]Compare the monochromatic cover art of Joy Guidry’s new album with that of her previous and you’ll notice a significant difference this time round: Guidry herself is absent, leaving hands holding the impressive headdress that adorned her on the cover to her standout album AMEN. The change is notable: on AMEN, Guidry was facing the world, making a bold statement, but on her new album Five Prayers, she’s offering space.
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1 month ago |
beatsperminute.com | Ray Finlayson
[Torn Light Records; 2025]Stratocaster in hand, Michael Vallera sought to create a blanketed, grey world. Back in 2023 he plugged his guitar into a minimal effects chain (which subsequently “fed into a small solid state amplifier”) and conjured his world. The Chicago guitarist and sound artist created music that reminded him of charcoal drawings, monochromatic pieces that thrum and drone like apocalyptic landscapes void of life.
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1 month ago |
beatsperminute.com | Ray Finlayson
[Polydor; 2025]“Music is about feeling better, making other people feel better. It’s about solidarity; strength in numbers.” For Rebecca Lucy Taylor (aka Self Esteem) music is community. It’s the banding together to create comfort, to let others hear and be heard, to show other women that they most definitely are not alone. On her previous album, Prioritise Pleasure, Taylor was offering a beacon for those in need. “I just want to let you know there’s a point in you,” she sang with open arms.
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1 month ago |
beatsperminute.com | Ray Finlayson
[Matador; 2025]Enacting a promise made to each other, Send A Prayer My Way is an album that follows through with a pact to make the music both Julien Baker and TORRES (aka Mackenzie Scott) grew up with, but could never quite see themselves in.
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Merry Tmas to each and every Chris out there! So glad you now finally have your own day!
Hot albums! Get them now while they are fresh! The best the year has to offer! Now including the finest blurbs you ever did see, including some stellar word composition from yours truly about @billieeilish, @charli_xcx, and @HalfWaif
BPM’s Top 50 Albums of 2024 This year, like every year in music, the cream of the crop is a mosaic of styles, moods, tones and textures. We’ve done our best to crochet it all together into a loving patchwork Enjoy: https://t.co/MBlWi0nDtn
The only end of year list that matters! So many hits in this long, long year. Had the pleasure and privilege of writing about a bunch of these amazing songs, including @Beyonce, @TheDecemberists, @TheWeatherStn, @CassFreshUSA, @kendricklamar, and @ChappellRoan.
BPM’s Top 50 Songs of 2024 Fifty songs we think are the best from the long year gone, that hopefully serve as a reminder that these 12 months definitely weren’t all bad. Fifty songs for another year that just kept coming Enjoy: https://t.co/1XOdvUZXQc