Album

For a man so steeped in the honeyed hickory grit of Gram Parsons, newcomers to Bruntnell could be forgiven for mistaking his English 'burb origins for Bakersfield, Ca. New Zealand-born, Surrey-raised and westward soul-bound, he finally drew acclaim with 2000's superb third LP, Normal For Bridgwater. Its follow-up is equally fine, studded with guitars (courtesy of 21-year-old James Walbourne and Son Volt's Eric Heywood), faint washes of piano, peals of steel and a forlorn, imagistic delivery and way around a melody reminiscent of Joe Pernice.

Kristin Hersh

Thirty years on, Memphis giant releases sophomore solo album

Full-length debut from Louisville lo-fi trio

Promisingly dazed US singer-songwriter

Unmissable reissue of No Wave don's two 1979 albums on one CD

Deep baroque pop from '60s stalwarts and psych-pop from Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da Glaswegians

Much lamented Irish guitar hero's roots exposed

NYC fivesome get their rocks off. Dave Fridmann produces

With Mushroom having left the band and Daddy G taking a sabbatical from the studio to concentrate on family life, it falls to Robert Del Naja (3D) to carry forward Massive Attack into the beyond, in collaboration with Neil Davidge, the producer of their third album Mezzanine (1998). Without Mezzanine's layers of guitar, which left some Massive Attack lovers narrowing their eyes doubtfully, 100 Windows seems at first subdued. Much as shapes only gradually reveal themselves in an initially pitch black room, so it is with this album, which takes a few listens to become accustomed to.