(Heavenly) ***
SIMON Aldred, aka Cherry Ghost, has a way with words and deftly tucks them in with more than a debut album's usual share of winning tunes.
Mountain Bird, recent single People Help the People, 4am and the poptastic title track are laden with hooks strong enough to hold Il Duce and his missus.
Aldred can also conjure a tidy couplet or two and delivers them with a warm, rascally voice that echoes outsiders like Jackie Leven, Mike Scott and Talk Talk's Mark Hollis.
Doves frontman Jimi Goodwin chips in with drums on a couple of tracks, but the Cherry Ghost vision is Aldred's.
The record tails off in the second half - Alfred the Great sounds like Yank bar-room-rock-by-numbers and Here Come the Romans isn't much better, but there's much to feel hopeful about.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article