(Vacilando ‘68)

Having collaborated on previous ‘solo’ projects with, variously, Fatima Mansions, The Blue Aeroplanes and Travis, the former Katydids frontwoman has now flown across the Atlantic to team up with south-western alt.country outfit Calexico. Unsurprisingly, the new album, recorded at the band’s Tucson studio under the auspice of regular producer JD Foster, is shot through with Calexico’s signature frontier mood. Hug’s sultry vocals are a good fit with the laidback Arizona sound, although the Tokyo-born, now London-resident, who spent her formative years on America’s West Coast, brings her own sunshine pop/psychedelia sensibility to this very easy-on-the-ear longplayer.