Butcher Boy – Helping Hands

Without straying far from their indie-pop template, Helping Hands is nevertheless Butcher Boy's most diverse offering to date. Through a careful layering of strings, guitars and piano arrangements, the Glasgow eight-piece’s third long-player relies less-so on John Blain Hunt’s emotive vocals as the lynchpin, instead merging myriad instrumentation into one exquisitely-rounded whole.

Opener J is For Jamie sets the tone, one of three all-instrumental tracks, while album highlight I Am The Butcher stands out as a tender folk song duelling with one of Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western classics. It’s also just about the loveliest thing these ears have heard from their enchanting catalogue so far. Satisfyingly off-kilter arrangements arise elsewhere, with first single Imperial rolling along on vintage ‘boom-tish’ drum machines, and Whistle And I’ll Come To You marrying pained hush-hush vocals with cello-laced synthesizers. It all smacks of a band continuing to flex their musical muscle: growing, experimenting, having fun – and making another damn fine record as they go. [Anna Docherty]