Has The Skinny missed some sort of significant cultural shift or did somebody declare 2007 to be the year we make a complete return to the sounds of medieval times? It's typical: civilisation spends centuries getting over the darkest days of plague and scurvy when no less than two joust anthem creators come hurtling at you for an impromptu melee within seven days of one another. Last week we had Conor Oberst making like a Camelot bard, now we've got Fran Rodgers stepping up to replicate a similar and less polished stance. Think Vashti Bunyan and all her dreamlike vocal substance intertwined with Heart's penchant for almost whispered harmonies, delivered in ye olden style made famous once again by Joanna Newsom and we're in the right Shire. Rodgers produces the melancholic goods alright, but the product is far removed from this era. Although, taking a look at the kind of chest-beating, Clash-aping, faux-hemian shite we often see zipping around the airwaves these days, this particularly unorthodox temporal wave is somehow strangely welcome. [Johnny Langlands]