Snappy Birthday To Me

(Photo by mira mira on the wall)

You know, if you've ever looked through the Betty Archives over on the right-hand-side there, you'll notice that today is the one year anniversary of this blog. It's been a busy month for that, I've noticed a few birthday specials (The Daily Growl, for example, who celebrated his birthday with a great Jeremy Warmsley/Absentee review). I didn't know really what to do today though, to celebrate, so I thought I'd better just post some great music.

It's tipping with rain outside. I've just heard the biggest thunderclap I've ever heard, and the skies opened. I thought the sky was falling on my head, by Toutatis. Some rain music then?

Kristin Hersh - Cold Water Coming (from Strange Angels)
Tanya Donelly - The Storm (from Beautysleep)

Kristin Hersh pretty much defines what good music is for me. Emotional; beautiful; subtle; uplifting; deep. But the more I think about it, there's no reason why her half-sister shouldn't be just as revered. I'm seeing Kristin live in January (very exciting indeed), I've seen her solo twice before (three times if you count Fifty Foot Wave), but I'd put Tanya Donelly at Bush Hall a couple of summers ago as possibly my favourite gig that I've ever attended. The two are quite different now: Kristin is more confessional, more heart-on-sleeve, more... fractured maybe. Tanya is easy-listening by comparison, but for all the lightness of the songs, there's genuine beauty and meaning there. The Storm for example - I first heard this song in acoustic form at that concert, and wow. Biggest goosebumps ever.

Hood - Still Rain Fell (from Outside Closer)

I haven't posted any Hood for a while. This is classic Hood, with the forefront acoustic guitars, the drawled, unison vocals, the pastoral feel. It kind of does feel rainy, it fits in well with today's overcast atmosphere and, I guess, the band's native Leeds, Yorkshire having something of a damp reputation. "Round here, the walks... the walks are so long..."

Ryan Adams - Damn Sam (I Love A Woman That Rains) (from Heartbreaker)

Mr Adams in introspective, poetic mode here. So much of me wants to look at Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker album and see Bright Eyes' acoustic emo, overwraught alt.country, but this short song sums up everything that's good. Adams can get away with "I'm as calm as a fruit stand in New York, and maybe as strange," because he sings it like he really means that. "I ain't never been much for sunny days." This is a future classic album, I have no doubt of it. It's so, so good.

Pixies - Stormy Weather (from Bossanova)

I've managed to select a few of my favourite artists here, and although these days I can't often listen to the Pixies (burnout maybe), there was a time when this band was everything to me. In my final year of university I worshipped the ground the Pixies walked on, and at the time, seeing their show at Brixton Academy for the first reunion tour was the most exciting thing ever. Like, ever. So, a nice track from Bossanova here, one of the more atmospheric in the band's canon, along with others like Havalina from the same album.

I could post loads more, but I'll refrain for yousendit's sake. I hope you enjoy not only listening to today's music, but also reading You Can Call Me Betty (almost) every day as I much as I enjoy writing it every day. Thanks for all your comments and to all the cool kids out there that have made blogging such a fun process, I thank thee all, and to all a goodnight.

Buy 'em all: Amazon

Random Play All: Mais Feliz

(Bebel Gilberto, Berlin 17/6/06 by akimowitsch )

Stupid blogger. I wrote a whole post earlier today then it got mysteriously lost in the ether and here's me having to rewrite something I've already written. I always get confused when I have to do this, although it's not really a rarity, and I get confused quite easily...

Today's Random Play All track is Bebel Gilberto's Mais Feliz from her 2000 album, Tanto Tempo. This album was purchased in a moment of pining for Brazil some time while I was writing a Brazilian Electronica post (as featured on Best Week Ever!), but it's not really an electronica song, or album. What it does have though, is the masterful touch of Mitar Subotic, or Suba, at the helm, both writing and producing. If you come out of reading the Rough Guide... posts with respect for just one person, or looking to buy just one album, make it Suba, and make it Sao Paulo Confessions, a masterfully subtle blend of traditional music, bossa nova, MPB and electronica, making it one of the most essential Brazilian releases since the heyday of Os Mutantes, a good thirty years previous.

Anyway, legend has it that Suba died while rescuing the tapes for Bebel Gilberto's Tanto Tempo album (from whence comes this track) from a studio fire, which only adds to his mystique. What he left behind is another masterfully subtle album, not of his usual eclectica but of more traditional new wave bossa nova, complete with Gilberto's earthy, sensual voice and just the lightest instrumental flourishes.

The album hinges on the balance between Gilberto herself and the gently swinging, sophisticated acoustic guitar, with a hint of brushed snare. This song (which Google translates as happyer, complete with bizarre spelling) is in this vain and has ever such a little bit of electro-trickery just to add a haze, a shimmer if you will. As always with Suba, it's certainly not overdone and does nothing but add to the atmosphere of the tune. So listen up, it's a great tune and a beautiful sound, and will have you scurrying for the Ipanema before you can say Obrigado Simone!

The Music
Bebel Gilberto - Mais Feliz

The 'fo
Artist: Bebel Gilberto
Website: bebelgilberto.com
Recommended: Tanto Tempo
Label: East West
Buy: Amazon
More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws
If you like this you might like: Celso Fonseca - Natural
Tags: Brazil; bossa nova; acoustic; samba; Bebel Gilberto; Suba

AM Radio

Some people have a quirky backstory in an annoying, forced way. Some people just have things happen to them, and so it seems with my subject today. Born in Pennsylvania, moved to a tunnel underneath Manhattan, relocated to a monastery on the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, studied postgrad in New York, moved to Hawaii... He now lives in Homer, Alaska and produces music from what seems along the lines of a garden shed.

Sergius Gregory. As you can see, he also has the kind of name that inspires enigma and speculation. Sergius Gregory from Alaska. I often wonder to what extent locale affects sound: does, for example, recording an album in Nashville infer a subconscious twang, or does recording in the desert add space and distance to a record? Does Alaska give an icy, spacious tone? Well, yes and no. The instrumentation on Gregory's music is as warm as you could wish for, while it's sparse at times, it's also comforting, fireside music - very simple, just minimal drums and picked acoustic guitar for the most part. It's his voice which is the defining factor. Rarely more than a hushed croon, it's high, pure and angelic and harmonises beautifully. Reminiscent of, ooh, Jacob Golden maybe rather than Sigur Ros, that's the angelic I'm trying to describe. The songs are quiet and beautiful, totally unassuming in some ways but timeless in construction and delivery and extremely... nice. I guess that's it. Gregory's songs are abstract little comments on things with an innocence, almost naiveté that's quite charming. I'm currently reading Haruki Marukami's Kafka On The Shore, and I imagine Gregory's life to be a little like that of Nakata's, where the stresses and strains of everyday worries don't really figure, where the present is not some philosophical context to be debated, but just the occasion to sing about.
I'm sure Mr Gregory is actually a perfectly straightforward guy, but these are the impressions I get from the music, and I like 'em.

Look, I've waffled again. Ignore me, please. Just have a listen and relax yourself a little - you can download some songs from MySpace, or stream at Garageband, a really nice idea. Or, you can download here:

The Music
Sergius Gregory - Our Holiday
Sergius Gregory - Bed Of Sticks

The 'fo
Artist: Sergius Gregory
Website: MySpace, Garageband
Recommended: no releases! Check MySpace for updates
Label: none
More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws
If you like this you might like: Jacob Golden - Hallelujah World
Tags: Sergius Gregory; acoustic; Alaska

Loveliest Girl That I Know

(Mark Kozelek by Steve Rhodes)

Compilations. A tough one. Obviously, great way to discover some great music, also a great way to ignore some slow-burners. Enraptured with 4AD's 25th anniversary events last Autumn, I listened eagerly to the 1980 Forward album: just look at the tracklisting, you see how I could gloss over some of the less-known (to me) artists when there's Throwing Muses, Belly, Pixies, The Birthday Party, TV On The Radio, Cocteau Twins... Easily done. So praise be to the random play all of yesterday, for later on (well after the Bonnie Prince), the shuffle function threw up another overlooked gem.

Red House Painters released their more seminal early albums on 4AD back at the end of the 80's/beginning of the 90's, including Ocean Beach, from which the compilation cut, Summer Dress, is taken. Earlier material tended towards the slowcore of peers like, say, Galaxie 500, but the tone was far more personal - try the lyrics for Medicine Bottle, for example, a post-breakup streamofconsciousness notable for it's heartbreaking realism and brutal honesty, as well as it's as-the-thoughts-come structure. By the time Ocean Beach was released, the music was more conventional in some ways - an almost alt.country confessional style, and the deeply personal lyrics were refined into a more subtle, pastoral style. But the music's equally beautiful, and Summer Dress is very much a part of that - coming from Mark Kozelek's heart-on-sleeve background, this is a pretty love song which doesn't expand it's initial thoughts far, but benefits from just that.

summer dress makes you more beautiful than the rest

The more I look at the lyrics, the more I listen to the song, the more I'm convinced that this is how a love song should be written. It's not glossy or sanitized, but raw and delicate. It's not schlocky in the slightest, it's sweet and nice. It's not Hollywood romance, it's tinged with sadnesses and regrets, it's wistful, it makes you want to purse your lips together, half-smile and nod in sympathy.

PS - did I mention this week's Contrast Podcast? I don't think I did. Listen. I contributed White Lines to the Happy Happy Joy Joy theme. I'm so perverse sometimes, mmm cocaine.

The Music
Red House Painters - Summer Dress

The 'fo
Artist: Red House Painters
Website: sunkilmoon.com
Recommended: Red House Painters - Ocean Beach; Various - 1980 Forward
Label: 4AD
Buy: Amazon
More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws
If you like this you might like: Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
Tags: Red House Painters; Sun Kil Moon; Mark Kozelek; Ocean Beach; acoustic

Random Play All: I See A Darkness

(Darkness by Toni Blay)

Random play all. Even 5 years ago these words would have had little of the meaning they have today. I don't know what an iPod says in this situation, but on my mp3 player, random play all signifies listening-to-loads-of-songs-you-don't-normally-listen-to, and today, I'm going to write a post about that.

Basically because I'm at work but have run out of things to do to occupy myself.

So, the first track that comes up when I shuffle my mp3's is Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's I See A Darkness, from the album of the same name. I first got a hold of this album when I went through a spate of listening to the darker, more morbid side of things - we're not talking Venom, or Spear Of Destiny, or whatever, but the album is pretty bleak. Song titles like Death To Everyone, Black, and A Minor Place don't tend to suggest flowers and kittens; don't expect any covers of Happy Talk, or anything. But don't death and it's related subjects make the best subjects for art? The only room at the Tate Modern where I felt I could actually understand all the exhibits was the Memento Mori room, aka DEATH HOUSE (my subtitle). And isn't every murder ballad automatically a classic? From Johnny Cash's (of whom more later) Folsom Prison Blues to Nick Caves Where The Wild Roses Grow, from Le Moz's darkly romantic There Is A Light... to the evergreen Hey Joe (find a more extensive list here), death is, undeniably, a great subject.

Whether I See A Darkness is about The End is debatable. In my mind it's more than likely that Mr Oldham wasn't thinking about frogspawn and chicken eggs when he wrote "then I see a darkness." It's not as explicit as some of his tracks, but as a statement of intent - as the title track of an album should be - it's extremely suitable. There's an undercurrent in the song, that out there somewhere is hope and gladness and redemption, but it's tempered by a savage realism suggesting the song's protagonist ain't going to find it all that easily.

I was expecting the album to entrench itself very deeply, before I bought it. I purchase it on the strength of the title track and A Minor Place, and yes, I do like it very much - I certainly have no other records quite like it. But it hasn't really settled in my mind as much as some other, perhaps less expected records, have - I can recall some, but certainly not all tracks. There's some classic, wonderful, awesome moments (I See A Darkness, Death To Everyone) but apparently I've missed what everybody else has found. Perhaps it needs more time, maybe one day I'll give it what it deserves. It's still obviously a fantastic record, but not - for me at least - life-changing. It hasn't, for example, caused me to seek out the rest of Oldham/Palace/Billy's vast and varied catalogue.

I See A Darkness the song, however, is another matter. It isn't bitter, it isn't overly morbid, it has hope and balance, it has subtility of lyric and music, it has everything a classic song needs, making it a classic. Not to mention it's more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts emotional resonance, something which causes it to stand up as one of the greatest songs of the last ten years. It's become something more than it was now due to the exposure as covered (in duet) by one John R Cash on American Recordings III. That rendition lifted both the profile of the song, and the credibility/respect awarded to Johnny Cash by a country mile and has become maybe the finest and best-loved of his wonderful covers. Cash's late-era covers didn't always work, but a good few of them exceeded the original (Hurt comes to mind). I See A Darkness didn't necessarily better Oldham's original, but it's still a phenomenal and beautiful piece. I think you should go and listen to both versions now.

The Music
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See A Darkness
Johnny Cash (feat. Will Oldham) - I See A Darkness

The 'fo
Artist: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy/Johnny Cash
Website: bonnieprincebilly.com/johnnycash.com
Recommended: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See A Darkness/Johnny Cash - Solitary Man: American III
Label: Domino/Sony
Buy: Amazon BPB/JC
More: Hype Machine BPB/JC; elbo.ws BPB/JC
If you like this you might like: Steve Adey - All Things Real
Tags: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy; Will Oldham; Palace; Johnny Cash; death; darkness; cover

Cover me. I'm going in...#4

I'm taking the contentious, not-posting-the-original route today. Mostly because its the Beatles and Apple are notoriously tetchy about Beatles songs being offered for free, or so I'm led to believe. Anyway, the cover tune is the main point today, and I'm offering one from a band brand new to me, kindly brought to my attention by the good people at Fat Cat Records.

I'm pretty useless at giving promo cd's a timely listen, but I made an effort this time to stick Songs Of Green Pheasant's album Aerial Days on the mp3 player and give it a whirl. And of course, because I'm posting about it today, the day I first heard it, it made an impression on me. The record on the whole has something of the nu-folk about it, but a lot more swirly, trippy psychedelia. In a kind of subtle way though: I'm not talking Love here, I'm talking Simon & Garfunkel a capellas with sitar and just the occasional beat. Even the occasional electronic beat, which is pleasant.

I really like the vocals most about this album. This is where I bring in the S&G reference, because they have that close-miked, heavily-reverbed tone which just suited the slightly woozy state of my head this morning. There's some lovely songs on here, but the reason I'm posting under a Cover Me... banner is, obviously, a cover. Dear Prudence was one of those classic Lennon/guru/India/celebrity hippy moments, famously regarding Mia Farrow's sister Prudence. It's a droney, acoustic number in it's original, and Songs Of Green Pheasant's cover does nothing to take away from the original vibe of the track. Drums are sparse, layered sitar and acoustic wash over you while you soak in the far-away-sounding lyrics. If it wasn't such a well-known song it would be really tricky to make them out, but as literally everyone and their pet gecko knows the song, it's not a problem. Difficult as it can be to record a cover of such a famous tune, I think Mr Duncan Sumpner, for it is he, has done admirably here.

The Music
Songs Of Green Pheasant - Dear Prudence

More Covers: Low/Nilsson; Matthew Herbert/Luna; Prince

The 'fo
Artist: Songs Of Green Pheasant
Websites: Fat Cat artist page
Recommended: Aerial Days
Label: Fat Cat
Buy: Amazon, Fat Cat
More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws
Tags: Songs Of Green Pheasant; Fat Cat; Beatles; Dear Prudence; Simon & Garfunkel; cover

The Christmas lights are taken down

MySpace is an even more brutal world than mp3 blogs. Out of about twenty friend requests from bands that I went through yesterday, just the one grabbed my attention. From a record label rather than an artist, for a start, which is slightly more unusual, and obviously signifies that the guy actually has a deal and isn't just some two bit, poorly bedroom-recorded Libertines sound-alike or grunge survivor. In fact, Grand Harmonium Records are a fairly tiny Edinburgh-based label, and it seems that the main thrust of their promotion at the moment seems to be behind one Steve Adey, Birmingham born and raised. With just cause, it seems, as Mr Adey seems like an extremely talented individual.
The most apt comparison that has been quoted is Will Oldham, which is really spot on. I don't think Adey's world view is quite as bleak as Mr Prince Billy, but the richness of vocal tone, and the hushed reverence of the songs is definitely on the same level - Adey even covers Oldham's signature tune (see below), taking an orchestral approach which sounds really nice.
The other point of reference, for me at least, would be Richard Thompson, with a voice that touches Americana but is still distinctly English. What I'm trying to say, in irritating journo-comparison style, is that he's got a really good voice, and some really good songs. I heartily commend him to your listening apparatus.

Steve Adey - Find The Way
Steve Adey - Find The Way (acoustic)
Steve Adey - Evening Of The Day
Steve Adey - I See A Darkness (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy cover - sample)
Steve Adey - Shelter From The Storm (Bob Dylan cover - sample)

<$>Steve Adey<$>

Tags: Steve Adey; Grand Harmonium; Will Oldham; Bonnie 'Prince' Billy; Bob Dylan; Richard Thompson; MySpace

Fridge's other genius

I haven't posted about Adem. I don't understand. I listened to Homesongs a while ago and came to the conclusion that it's a wonderful, wonderful thing (and all lovingly prepared in North London's own Stokie); I think I've mentioned that before but not so much Love And Other Planets, Adem Ilhan's new album, out on Domino.

I think that maybe this is not as immediately attention-grabbing as Homesongs - Statued (from the debut) is some opening track, and Warning Bells (from this one) takes a little more getting used to. Persevere though, and you find a song easily the equal of anything on Homesongs - that's the theme here; the songs take a few listens to really appreciate. People don't give this sort of the thing the time these days, what with their impatience and their interwebs and the like, but please do. It's a lovely record.

Adem - Love And Other Planets

Adem - You And Moon

Buy from domino/amazon

Meat Is Murder

Morrissey, yesterday

I'd like to think I was immune and wise to the sales charms of major supermarkets. I'd like to think that my level of cogniscence, my basic-but-savvy understanding of the principles of marketing, my keen intellect would cut through the simple schemes designed to draw in the slow-witted and the terminally stupid.

And yet, I find myself in a supermarket aisle surrounded by meat discounted by 25% and I get a little over-excited. This is economics at it's most basic - the further down the price axis, the higher the demand will be - and also pretty basic marketing theory: get people in the shop for one thing, they'll likely buy some more. I did my Economics A-level (despite the best efforts of certain teachers), I understand these things. And yet I get sucked in by the TV advert, and what happens? Not only do I buy a freezer-full of meat, I also buy the chocolate biscuits I never intended to, an A-Team DVD which was cheap-ish, and a bargain 3CD Johnny Cash set.
I must have been in a gullible mood recently, as I've also been suckered by Amazon's Super Saver Delivery: not only does this mean I get my goods slower than I would like, but I also end up spending too much to qualify for the privilege. Those two Nick Cave albums that were such a bargain are suddenly not so good value when you put on top of them a full-price CD that you've been meaning to by for ages.


However: it does mean you get a veritable feast of mp3s today:

Johnny Cash - Get Rhythm! In keeping with the Walk The Line theme of recent days, this is from the Complete Sun Recordings box that set me back a very reasonable £5.97 in Colney Hatch Tescos. It's one of the songs featured in the early part of the film, if I remember, it's the one which follows Jerry Lee Lewis saying "nobody follows The Killer," proving himself both technically and artistically wrong, as this is an ace cut.

Adem - Statued This was that album which bumped me over the SuperSaver mark on Amazon. Adem was a member of Fridge with Keiran Hebden of Four Tet fame though, the chances of this being a wasted purchase was pretty slim. I didn't realise just how good a record this was going to be though. This song, the opening track, caught my attention straight away.

The Smiths - Meat Is Murder This has (probably unintentionally) to be one of Le Moz's funniest ever songs - his lecturing reaches a peak on this track, including the immortal "And the flesh you so fancifully fry, Is not succulent, tasty or kind." Also notable for, "Do you know how animals die?" Well, yes I do actually, I grew up on a farm, my mum used to butcher pigs on the kitchen table. I make sure that the meat I eat is of good provenance therefore, and justify my carnivorism the Fearnley-Whittingstall way.

Accidental Nepotism

I'm told the world is a village these days, and who am I to argue with such crushing logic?

Especially in the face of overwhelming evidence. Do you remember how there was always a boy/girl most likely to at school? The sort that just oozed rock'n'roll credibility and had obvious star potential? At my school, his name was Joe, and he had the lot - the band, the hangers on, the weird name... At the time, he was just the coolest one around - you know the type, designer stubble before most of his peers were shaving.

Course, in retrospect, he's probably another of these that sits in their room playing along to Cream records by now, refusing to acknowledge anything beyond 1972 (despite being born Ten Years After). They say you should watch out for the quiet ones, and lo and behold...

I was browsing Londonist the other day. I like Londonist because I like London, it has a good spread of things, and I like the fact that it poses as almost like a newspaper whilst being hilariously opinionated - in a good way, not a Daily Mail way. Anyway, they had a New Band Interview with one This Is The Kit, whose CD they'd found on a train. They said, we first made the acquaintance of Miss Kate Stables... and my mind arrested. I know that name, I said to myself. I used to go to school with a Kate Stables, her sisters were friends with my sister. So I read on, musing that it was highly unlikely to be one and the same. I've had such moments before, and nothing but disappointment. I've rarely ever been in the presence of greatness more than when I saw Philip Franks in the N1 Centre, and was on the Really Wild Show as a child.

Who's in your band? they asked. Me (she replied)... and sometimes my twin sister Emily. This would be some coincidence I thought, double-checked the proffered MySpace link, and it was the very same. I didn't know Kate all that well, I think I was in a maths class with her sister so I knew emily a little better, but still, weird.

I listened to her music and it was actually very good. The quiet ones, remember. It's very folky, very pretty and delicate; the guitar's along those traditional English folk lines (think Nick Drake if you're not familiar) and Kate has one of those slightly posh English voices that catches you unawares to start with but can grow on you (think Gillian Welch in terms of tonal quality). This is why I recommend a few listens, as it took it's time with me as well.

This Is The Kit - Shared Out
This Is The Kit - For All That Fills

There's more songs on the website, and on the MySpace profile, which I recommend you look at/listen to.

Looks Like Rein, Deer

If I went out onto the street and asked the first person I came across how many famous Finnish musicians they could name, I could probably count the answers on the fingers of a clenched fist. Depending on which street, maybe literally. Anyway, the point is, there just isn’t many. Ask an informed muso and you might be stretching them: I came up with Jean Sibelius and Apocalyptica, who specialise in cello versions of Metallica songs. Ask Wikipedia and you’ll get a handful of extreme metal musicians, the lead singer of Nightwish and, um, the Rasmus. I think I came up with the vaguely more credible options there…

Still, as the young gentleman behinf the red door from last night’s The IT Crowd could probably tell you, one tends to associate Finnish music with the rock, if one associates it with anything. I was still under the impression that Finland’s primary export was racing drivers, maybe I’m not in a position to comment.

It looks a nice enough place though, once you start paying attention: there’s not a lot there by all accounts (possibly attractions akin to St Jonathan’s Stump and The Magic Road, I may be wrong), but it looks pretty beautiful. I’ve been reliably informed that while not a Scandinavian country Finland is, along with Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and possibly Greenland, a Nordic country. Ask someone from that area, they get quite pedantic about these things. It has Lapland though, and we all know who comes from Lapland, don’t we? Yes! Lapps!
So one gets the image of frozen wastes, midnight sun (at the northernmost point of the country, the sun doesn’t set for 73 days in summer, or rise for 51 days in winter), of pine trees covered in snow, of Eskimos digging out the innards of reindeer in order to sleep inside them. At least, I do. But then you find that there’s all sorts of modern technology and the like, and some good food (although not according to comedy world leader Silvio Berlusconi, he of vows of abstinence and politically-charged love songs).

I appear to have digressed wildly from the point I was trying to make. FatCat have the new album out soon from Finnish maestro Mauri Heikinnen, a.k.a. Drowsy – his new record, Snow On Moss On Stone, is out in March.

It was pointed out recently that the first line of the Arctic Monkeys album is “anticipation has the habit to set you up for disappointment,” and without wishing to be facetious (who am I kidding?), it’s fairly appropriate. The first line of ‘Bakery’, track one on Snow On Moss On Stone is “imagination is the mother of bread.” Who am I to say what on earth he’s blethering about, but whatever, it’s ace. Actually, ‘Bakery’ is a pretty unrepresentative song actually, all enthusiastically battered acoustic guitar and raucous vocals – if you want to hear what the record’s really like, try today’s featured mp3, ‘Words Of Warmth’. There’s Sufjan Stevens in there with his half-whispered, half-crooned vocals; the sparse, almost stark accompaniment. If you want to imagine what you’d like Finland to be like set to music, then Drowsy’s a decent enough place to start – it certainly fits the, let’s say, bracing mornings we’ve had here over the last week or two. No rain, everything just sits very still to avoid freezing, it seems like even the air hangs heavy, and that’s what Drowsy does aurally, in much the same way as Stevens evoked Michigan’s chilly beauty on the album of that name.

The album draws to a close with the wonderfully-named ‘Plangent Suite’, as stark as anything on here. And yet, as the album progresses, although you can almost feel the need for a furry hood, there’s a real human warmth that keeps it on the right side of beautiful. Job’s a good’un.

Finn