Album: Lyle Lovett, Release Me (Wrasse)

Lovett is celebrating his "release" from 27 years' attachment to Curb Records in the US. And as is conventional with contract filler, this is not going to be a go-to album in the canon.

Perhaps it should be taken as a summary of good times past – winsome covers ("Baby, It's Cold Outside", groan) set alongside winsome originals and blues shuffles. But it is well made, western-swinging and melancholically insouciant. "Dress of Laces" is the one you want to hear.