We like M Tellier in the Review Corner — indeed, two of the corner walked down the aisle to his La Ritournelle — but he’s wilfully annoying. We saw him live at a festy once and he came on late and faffed around so much that the stage cut the power, because he’d used…

We’ve been enjoying this tuneful album from the Bristol five-piece, which is up there with a couple of other classy rock/pop albums we’ve had this year (notably Breton’s excellent War Room Stories). For bands you might have heard of, Bombay Bicycle Club’s effortless and pleasing sound is a good benchmark. Trademark sounds are falsetto vocals…

Ever since Emilíana Torrini’s Fisherman’s Woman a decade ago we’ve had a soft spot for whimsical female singers from Iceland. Hafdis Huld? Even her name’s appealing.She sounds exactly as we would have wanted: it’s the kind of music fairies would play of an evening after they’d bedded down the unicorns for the night.Maybe it’s because…

Pearson is a singer songwriter and plays nice tunes, centred round his acoustic guitar. He reminded us a lot of Bernard Fanning, lead singer of Australian rockers Powderfinger, whose solo stuff is a mixture of blues and acoustic folk; as well as musical similarities the two have got similar voices, most especially on Pearson’s Wishing…

Ms Lewis was in the excellent Rilo Kiley, whose pop/country More Adventurous was excellent, with the follow-up Under the Blacklight more commercial and very Fleetwood Mac. Since then she’s released solo music on her own, as part of the duo Jenny and Johnny and with the Watson Twins. This new album harks back to Under…

We’re fans of Mr Petty, and think this is his best album in years, if not ever. There are no obvious standouts but it’s top class throughout and we are enjoying it immensely. American Dream Plan B opens the album with a grungy Neil Young-style riff: it’s Petty saying: “I might be 63 but I…

Some weeks we get one good album, others none but this week we’ve got three and it’s difficult to know where to start. On balance we think Vena Portae, an Anglo-Swedish alt-folk band, just nick it from that Tom Petty. We didn’t have high hopes: one third of Vena Portae is folkie singer songwriter Emily…

We like this; it reminds us of Tracy Thorn’s 1982 release A Distant Shore, a student classic: nice to listen to as you discussed life without being too demanding. Watson plays pleasant acoustic songs with simple lyrics, ready-made for radio play or indeed, repeated plays in students’ halls of residence. Opener Stones Around The Sun…