Album: The Rumble Strips, Welcome to the Walk Alone, (Island)

The Rumble Strips, a band whose name crops up rather too frequently on corporate-sponsored gig bills, are negligible landfill-indie also-rans, surely? Um, actually no.

Welcome to the Walk Alone, with its use of Walker Brothers baritone and Love-style brass, production courtesy of Mark Ronson and strings from Owen Pallett, sounds not dissimilar to the Last Shadow Puppets album (another Pallett arrangement) and is far better than you'd ever expect, even if it's a crying shame that "Dem Girls" isn't actually a Zig and Zag cover.