Kathryn Williams & Neill MacColl - Two

Musical collaborations often have the tendency to disappoint – for every Campbell and Lanegan there's a multitude of gut-wrenching shite like Plant and Krauss or, worse still, Bolton and Dylan. So, it's perhaps understandable that the release of Kathryn Williams and Neill MacColl's new LP Two may be greeted with a little trepidation. Fortunately, the folksome duo have disregarded the sticky wicket of joint-ventures past and produced a breathless record brimming with tear-stained laments and creaking acoustica. Swaying to the sound of wispy melancholy, shapely cuts like the beatific Weather Forever and the equally starry-eyed 6am Corner seep effortlessly into the conscience as Williams' innocent purr blows softly in tandem to McColl's tender fret plucks. Sadly, fleeting moments of limp-footed tedium are uncovered when Innocent When You Dream's grating whine infiltrates the ear-drums but in the paranoid, viola strains of Grey Goes Williams and MacColl gloriously prove Two is their magic number. [Billy Hamilton]