Album: Delaney Davidson, Bad Luck Man (Voodoo Rhythm)

This New Zealander's second album is a rattling, twanging, guitar-thumping celebration of the inebriated underdog as tragicomic hero.

It's a road much travelled by the likes of Tom Waits, but Davidson's skills as a songwriter, multi-tasking musician (he's the best new-style one-man band since Son of Dave) and arranger keeps things fresh in a rotten-to-the-core kind of way. "You're a Loser" must be a contender for best country-blues ballad of the year.