FFO: Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, John Martyn, George Harrison, The Good Beast, JJ Cale
Bristol-based songwriter and producer Louis Alberry released his second album Milk Teeth via Cuculi Records on 13 December 2025. First single ‘Night & Day’ is out now, following well-received singles including ‘Leaf Mould’ and ‘Never’.
While 2019’s self-titled instrumental debut established Alberry as an exceptional guitarist and arrestingly atmospheric composer, Milk Teeth finds him delving deeper into an autobiographical mode and pulling out a clutch of haunting, charming songs with lyrics that strike a careful balance of confessional and cryptic. The album charts a compelling voyage through explorations of childhood, loss of innocence, growth and acceptance, set amid a carefully woven tangle of guitars and a subtly psychedelic haze.
Milk Teeth nods to the lineage of Nick Drake and Linda Perhacs in Alberry’s mode of succinct poetry, dark whimsy and spiralling arrangements; he also cites Brazilian music as an influence, and the inspiration of lifelong friends and fellow musicians from rural Dorset, including The Good Beast’s Bill Merrick. Alberry’s inquisitive listening is equally matched by his accomplishment as an instrumentalist and producer; his particular style of playing is deeply precise and yet pleasingly elastic, with gently decisive interjections from electric guitar that morph into synth-like shimmers. Above all this, he sings the story of each song on chromatic melodies with unassuming ease. Invoking imagery from the natural world, his lyrics spin a colourful world that lays itself bare in a few choice moments of poignant vulnerability.
It’s almost hard to believe that Alberry recorded and produced the whole album in his Bristol bedroom; it’s a significant feat to have achieved this mesmerising blend of expertly refined audio and intimate DIY warmth. The resulting collection is an exquisitely detailed portrait of a restless spirit in search of itself – and an invitation for repeated, immersive listening.
Cuculi Records 