Sweet Billy Pilgrim: Twice Born Men

Into the breach with my inaugural review – Twice Born Men by Sweet Billy Pilgrim. A few things I'd heard about this album

• recorded in a shed
• sounds a bit like Elbow
• maudlin

None of them out-and-out bad, but none giving any real clue about the contents of the album.

The opening track Here It Begins starts with atmospheric glitches and a snatch of dialogue from the movie The Music of Chance – that took some googling, by the way – before building into something which I wouldn't be surprised to hear emanating from the aforementioned Elbow. This, thankfully, is the extent to which the album is a carbon copy of The Seldom Seen Kid. It turns out that the voice-over is a fitting herald to a journey through eight songs evoking a yearning yet contented feeling before resolving in the neat bookend of There Will It End. I do like a bit of structure in an album; something we've lost in this magpie age of downloads.

To give you a few points of reference, there's moments where the music reminds me of

• Matmos produced Björk albums – particularly Vepsertine
• Radiohead
• The Divine Comedy on downers – both vocally and melodically
• occasional snatches of Vangelis and Tunng

Overall this album maintains a really nice downbeat mood. I've probably played it through seven or eight times – at just over 40 minutes an easy enough proposition – and keep hearing fresh nuances each time. The stand-out track is Kalypso which combines folky, woozy glitchyness with a tune which had me singing along in the car from the first listen. I've also got a soft spot for the title of track seven: Joy Maker Machinery, which reminds me of Joy Mining Machinery – one of my favourite ever building signs visible from the M1 somewhere near Nottingham.

My verdict? This is a little jewel of an album which delivers a lovely selection of songs without overstaying its welcome. I'll certainly be putting my money where my mouth is and adding it to my collection.

You can listen to the album on Spotify. Alternatively visit the band's website or myspace page. If you want a more detailed review than I could hope to compose, I'd recommend this one at Blurt.