COSMO JARVIS - Think Bigger

BRIGHT and breezy indie pop in the vein of Noah and the Whale is the name of the game for Cosmo Jarvis.

Born in New Jersey but brought up in Devon, it’s easy to see that this singer-songwriter is influenced by music from both sides of the pond.

Love This could easily have been made by UK duo The Boy Least Likely To while Friend Of The Devil is not a million miles away from The Gaslight Anthem.

HUEY AND THE NEW YORKERS - Say It To My Face

HUEY Morgan may have a new band, but this still has all the trademarks of his old one, Fun Lovin’ Criminals.

Stick It To The Man could easily have been on their 1996 breakthrough album Come Find Yourself, which spawned the smash Scooby Snacks, while Dirty Bird is the kind of laid-back funk that peppered the follow-up 100% Colombian.

Huey found his musical formula almost twenty years ago, and there’s no going back, which is seemingly a good thing on the basis of this CD.

AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD - Lost Songs

PUT off by their name - as I’m sure many other people would be - I’ve never listened to this band before.

But what I discovered, on this their eighth album, was a really quite good melodic rock band in the vein of Biffy Clyro and Foo Fighters with thoughtful lyrics.

Tracks like Pinhole Camera even drift off into shoegaze at times.

It is certainly not the kind of doom-core death metal that the band’s name suggests.

Perhaps they should change it.