Shack - On the Corner of Miles and Gil

Pastoral folk songs, skewed vignettes about acid spiked tea, jazzy sea-shanties... Nice to see that Mick and John Head and their merry band of cosmic Scousers are still mining a familiar furrow on their new album 'The Corner of Miles and Gil'. What could be tedious territory in lesser songwriters' hands is transformed into a thing of real beauty by virtue of the siblings' effortless craftsmanship. There's nothing here that will shock seasoned Head watchers. Guitars chime, harmonies soar, and timeless melodies worm their way into your brain, put their slippers on, and settle down for an extended stay. What does come as a surprise is that after two plodding efforts – 1999's 'HMS Fable' and 2003's 'Here's Tom With the Weather' – Mick and John have roused themselves out of their middle-aged complacency to make a shimmering album that should go massive but probably won't. [Duncan Forgan]