COUNTRY

It doesn’t matter what anyone says, you can’t beat a good song about death. Nick Cave’s made so much dough out of this kind of lark that he could fur trim his entire Transylvanian castle twice over, so kicking off their debut album ‘Hang Me Good’, a big, doomy lament about what is quite clearly a bonkers girls who has done her man seriously wrong is a geat idea. This is as good a song about deception, infidelity and capital punishment as you’ll ever hear in your lifetime. And what follows is similarly magical. We have spirited campfire songs, shuffling up next to resonant religious annunciations, with prickly, banjoed jaunt-alongs nestling alongside. This stuff is darker than the entire contents of Johnny Cash’s underwear drawer but is wrought through with a vein of wistful, understated brilliance.