MATT Ward's cool. Proper, auteur cool. Cool like an American original should be.

Handy with a melody and right tasty with his playing, he cooks up hooks that don't let go and tunes that take you in their arms and make you feel all warm inside.

And yet, this album's stand-out track is Ward's full-hearted honky-tonk cover of Daniel Johnston's To Go Home which'll have you sobbing and grinning in equal measure while singing: "God, it's great to be alive".

Elsewhere, Requiem sounds like a rag written by Kurt Cobain, Today's Undertaking could be a dustbowl I Am the Resurrection, while Chinese Translation sounds like a conglomeration of bone-dry Americana with indie guitars.

This is the sound of rules being broken.