Album: Lucas Renney, Strange Glory (Brille)

When pop's fickle finger briefly pointed towards Sunderland about five years ago, Renney's band the Golden Virgins were swiftly signed up alongside the Futureheads and Field Music.

The GVs now disbanded, his first solo album features songs as gloriously mournful as any ever written about heartbreak and lost love. It's the sort of album Elvis Costello would make if he didn't feel encumbered by his new wave past and could stick to one genre long enough; as warm as a hot toddy and as sad as a broken dream.