Album

Double whammy from Seattle's multi-faceted finest

Unheralded Chicago-based tunesmith comes of age

Fast-rising blues-rock duo release debut LP after tour with Primal Scream

Northern rock alliance have Love on their minds

Budget-priced samplers of clubland's hot new microscene

Also released this month...

Unmissable reissue of No Wave don's two 1979 albums on one CD

Deep baroque pop from '60s stalwarts and psych-pop from Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da Glaswegians

Much lamented Irish guitar hero's roots exposed

For a man so steeped in the honeyed hickory grit of Gram Parsons, newcomers to Bruntnell could be forgiven for mistaking his English 'burb origins for Bakersfield, Ca. New Zealand-born, Surrey-raised and westward soul-bound, he finally drew acclaim with 2000's superb third LP, Normal For Bridgwater. Its follow-up is equally fine, studded with guitars (courtesy of 21-year-old James Walbourne and Son Volt's Eric Heywood), faint washes of piano, peals of steel and a forlorn, imagistic delivery and way around a melody reminiscent of Joe Pernice.