There Is Love in You is tinkly, syncopated, almost ambient music that could be found in a club lounge but is also more interesting than that. Like my heroes Tangerine Dream and Can, Four Tet builds up slowly varying tapestries of rhythm and melody. Tracks that I keep playing while working include the loping, eclectic drum-anchored ‘This Unfolds’; ‘Circling’, which does just that with a simple piano melody; ‘Plastic People’ which layers lovely snippets over a pleasing beat and quiet melody; and the treated female vocals holding up ‘Angel Echoes’.

Imaginative and sonically lovely. 3 stars.

Modern, basic punk. 3 stars.

Perfect for a road trip with the windows open. 2½ stars.

Mercer writes nifty, slightly askew alt-pop songs with Stipe-ish, involving lyrics. His clear, high singing has the expressive quality of the voice of Tim Booth (of James fame). The Broken Bells release is relatively short at ten tracks, but each one is polished, rhythmic, melodic and expressive. Much of it could have come from a Shins release, albeit with a keyboards orientation, but he does branch out into some more funky or dubby songs. In all senses of the word, this is a collaboration: the keyboards of Danger Mouse range from burbling synths to roaring organs to tinkling keys, he contributes all the drums, and he and Mercer share bass duties. Top track picks include ‘The High Road,’ which kicks off with bubbling synth percolation and settles into a lovely repeated coda; the delightful keyboard intro and high vocals of ‘October’; and ‘Sailing to Nowhere’, with its acoustic guitar and keys intro overlaid by falsetto, morphing into Mercer’s lovely chorus backed by organ, finalized by an extended musical finale. But the truth is, this album is very much a unified pleasure.

Buy anything James Mercer puts out! 3½ stars.

The first of the two, The Night Before, is a revelation, seven familiar yet adventurous tracks of varied, upbeat, full-band rock, underpinned by Booth’s pristine, expressive vocals. The band has lost none of its imaginative arrangement skills, and each song ebbs and flows in classic James style, complete with full-on choruses. Standout tracks include ‘Porcupine’, with its slide guitar and ambience wonderfully reminiscent of the classic Laid album; the driving ‘Crazy’; and singalong ‘Dr Hellier’, with wonderfully obscure lyrics that seem to conflate Iraq and psychoanalysis.

A pity The Night Before is not a full-length album, but it’s not far off one and it’s a ripper. 4 stars

The Winter of Mixed Drinks is an album to grow into, for the apparent directness revealed on first listen unfolds layers of complexity with repeated listening. Singer Scott Hutchison’s appealing, lilting voice rises, soars and moans in perfect synch with the lyrics, which alternate existential angst and hope. Highlights include the radio-friendly ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’, with its catch cry ‘are you a man or a bag of sand’; the stark ‘The Loneliness and the Scream’ with its hand clap beat; and ‘Not Miserable,’ Hutchison entreating over building keys and guitars that he’s ‘not miserable now’ in a wonderful Scottish brogue.

You’ll catch yourself humming snatches of Frightened Rabbit in the shower, it’s that good. 3 stars.

• How long have we waited for High Violet by The National?
• I’d never heard the distinctive sound of The Besnard Lakes until recently, now I’ll try The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night
• The new Jackie Leven, Gothic Road
• I once owned an album by frenetic Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, let’s see what the highly regarded Brutalist Bricks is made of
• Highly praised but as yet obscure power pop group The Telepathic Butterflies has a newie, Wow & Flutter!
• Latest Aussie sensations Tame Impala and their debut Innerspeaker
• Double album Measure from British art group Field Music
• The long-awaited James comeback EP The Night Before
• Who can resist yet another New Pornographers CD, Together
• And last but not least, the exquisitely voiced Band of Horses return with Infinite Arms

• Fresh from his role in the the Monsters of Folk triumph, M. Ward switches to the duo of She & Him; if Volume Two is as good as their debut, it will be a pleasure to hear
• James Mercer, the glowing light behind the magic of The Shins, is back teamed up with Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse); Broken Bells arrives with freighted expectations
• Do the Liars really have no influences, as they claim? Sisterworld will reveal all
• A rare punk album for me, The Soft Pack’s self-titled release
• Spoon shouldn’t work but they do, so Transference is much anticipated
• The oddbeat nu-folk of Tunng returns on And Then We Saw Land
• More folk-rock: Sparkle Lane by Edward Rogers
• A limited range of electronic music used to be one of my favourite genres but in the last decade most of it has headed to the dance floor; this month I’ll try two, beginning with Pantha du Prince’s Black Noise
•  . . . and also Four Tet’s There Is Love in You
• Turning up the volume is Frightened Rabbit’s The Winter of Mixed Drinks 

I didn’t mean to disappoint you

I’m just sorry that I had to

I didn’t mean to disappoint you

I’m just sorry that I did

And yet this chorus struck me as the most perfect chunk of lyrics I’ve heard this year. It synchronises snugly within the highly rhythmic track, with every syllable meshing. Singer Erland Cooper’s honeyed voice imbues it with a huge sadness. The variation from the second to the fourth line rounds it off with great drama. The delivered effect is just so damned catchy, you find yourself singing these four lines for days.

(Yes, I’ve breached copyright by printing them. But consider this as a recommendation – go buy the album!)

• This year’s Port Fairy Folk Festival was embracing and inspirational (should I learn guitar?) but only one artist matched my sensibilities enough to prompt a CD purchase. On Songs for Sooner, singer-songwriter Rory Faithfield reveals himself as an earnest folk-rock artist in the vein of Luka Bloom, possessing a gift for lyric-laden songs. Although a handful of ordinary tunes ill suit Faithfield’s frail voice, ‘Big Blue Western Sky’ deserves hit status. 3 stars
• Take a folk singer, Erland Cooper, with a mellifluous 60s-tinged voice, mix trad folk songs with Cooper’s sterling self-penned tunes, and rope in multi-instrumentalist Simon Tong (The Verve) to construct stomping, post-modern arrangements, and you get a minor miracle, namely Erland And The Carnival. This skewed band’s self-titled debut roars with triumphant, catchy, weighty songs, with not a dud track to be heard. Folk-rock but not folk-rock . . . one of the year’s standout releases. 4½ stars