Album: I Am Kloot, Sky at Night (Shepherd Moon)

Climate and weather have always provided a rich source of imagery for I Am Kloot songsmith John Bramwell, so the shift to the nocturnal heavens on the Guy Garvey-produced Sky At Night seems only a slight extension of his habit of keeping an eye on the emotional weather.

As ever, the prevailing moods are of regret, romantic enervation and resignation, with a veneer of crepuscular, Hawley-esque melancholy settling over songs such as "To The Brink", where the strings are like dust-sheets over furniture in a deserted mansion of the heart. The pace rarely rises above funereal, while the glum tone speaks as much of the bitter consolation of alcohol as it does of the pain of isolation in songs such as "Proof" and "The Moon Is A Blind Eye". It's stylish, but more bitter than sweet.

DOWNLOAD THIS Northern Skies; To The Brink; Radiation