Record Rack

No matter the trends, there always seems to be a place for sensitive Brits. And the Anglophiles and pop aesthetes who follow such things have tabbed this London collective for a few years as the one to watch. Though smoothing out some of the winningly rough edges of earlier efforts, this album starts to deliver on the buzz-band support.

Chamber-pop arrangements recall the ‘60s pop group the Left Banke, and the alternating of two male and two female singers evokes a softer version of the Mekons--into Romantic poetry rather than revolutionary polemics.

But it’s frontman Stuart Murdoch’s wispy voice and fragile lyrics that give the album its identity. In capturing the nature of an easily bruised psyche, he seems directly descended both from ‘70s tragic hero Nick Drake and from Morrissey at his most vulnerable and resigned.

Sure, it’s all a bit twee and pretentious (um, the album title?). But it’s also engaging, thoughtful and charmingly eccentric.

*

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.