Richard Hawley collaborator Colin Elliot produced this album in Sheffield and the inspiration of Hawley's deep-voiced romanticism all over the sound.
Here are ten songs to swoon along to as the swelling strings and widescreen arrangements celebrate sensitivity and put to shame swaggering macho types everywhere.
As<Drinking For Two makes clear, you're more likely to find singer Simon Aldred stifling back tears alone in a bar than spending a night out with the lads.
The first single, and opening track, Clear Skies Ever Closer sets the mood. The song is packed to the brim with emotional heartache and reminds us that love is just as likely to weigh you down as have you leaping for joy.
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None of the other tunes hint at much in the way of levity so even a throwaway line like "pull the other one because it's got bells on it" (Fragile Reign) is delivered with all the intensity of a lovelorn poet.
With references to high-rise blocks and saw mills, all this alt.country-tinged melancholia takes place against black and white Northern working class backdrop far removed from the Tecnicolor gloss of Hollywood.
Droll and dour it may be but it's never drab.
Cherry Ghost's website
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