At LMC Home Entertainment, we believe that part of the joy of owning great hi-fi is also about discovering great music. Rather than revisiting the usual audiophile favorites, our Album of the Month spotlights exceptional recordings that deserve a place in every listening room.
A Ticket Out of the Heat
September in Arizona is summer that refuses to leave. So this month we picked an album that does what a good record should: it takes you somewhere else. Up and Away, the Sub Pop debut from Athens singer-songwriter Σtella, is a one-way ticket to a breezy Greek island — sun on the water, a bouzouki drifting up from a taverna below, and a voice that sounds like it has all afternoon. Press play, close your eyes, and the desert is a long way away.
A Match Made in Athens
Σtella (Stella Chronopoulou) has long built her songs on the bones of mid-century pop, both American and Greek. On Up and Away she leans all the way in. British producer Tom Calvert, better known as Redinho, caught one of her shows on a visit to Athens, reached out, and the two quickly clicked. His stated goal was to make the record sound like a rare 1960s gem discovered in a box of old vinyl in an Athens flea market, and he got there. Σtella, for her part, wanted a deeper Greek touch this time, and it fuses with the pop so naturally you would never guess it was a decision.
That Greek sound is what makes this album unlike anything else in your collection. Christos Skondras's bouzouki appears on five tracks, sometimes tender and sometimes blistering, and Sofia Labropoulou's kanun, a plucked Middle Eastern zither, wraps the final two songs in a haze of dreaminess. These are instruments with centuries of tradition behind them, and hearing them tangled up with sixties girl-group harmonies and an indie-pop rhythm section is a small thrill every time.
Layered, Relaxed, Transporting
The magic of Up and Away on a serious system is the layering. Σtella stacks her own honeyed harmonies into thick, unmistakable choruses, then floats them above strings, hand percussion, and those shimmering bouzouki runs. The vocals pop right out of the speakers, yet the whole thing stays loose and unhurried, like a record that has never once been in a rush. On a properly voiced system every layer has its own place in the room: the whistle on "Titanic" hanging in the air, the cicadas that close out "Nomad," the guitar riff on "Black and White" circling back on itself while the bass keeps its easy stride.
If the heat has you dreaming of somewhere cooler, this is your escape. That's why Up and Away is LMC Home Entertainment's Album of the Month for September 2026.
More Albums of the Month
Read: Album of the Month — August 2026: Gorillaz
Read: Album of the Month — July 2026: Fatoumata Diawara
