Album: Sons and Daughters

This Gift, DOMINO

Sons and Daughters have been threatening to make a really good album for half a decade and, third time around, Bernard Butler has brought it out of them. The former Suede man has given 'This Gift' a production that's dry and jagged like a rusted saw (an attractive abrasiveness which is assisted by Adele Bethel's admirable insistence on singing in a Scottish accent), and the songs ooze intrigue and drama. "The Nest" sounds like Edwyn Collins' "A Girl Like You" recreated in the late Sixties by Fairport Convention, and the dirty bass and rockabilly drums on "House in My Head" are irresistible.