Quite a week for Belle and Sebastian, Isobel Campbell was formerly one of that band's lead singer. In a new break, this album sees her team up with the enigmatic Mark Lanegan (of Screaming Trees and latterly Queens of the Stone Age), to make one of the most compellingly interesting albums in an age. Lanegan's voice is like low rumbling thunder run through a deep mahogany-imbued whisky, and contrasts wonderfully with Campbell's lighter than air voice. The music is a delightful blend of indie-folk and blues, a mix of singer-songwriter styles, which veers closer to Mark Lanegan Band territory - a super-Nick Cave place of deep, cinematic drama and intrigue. The album ties deeply masculine with deeply feminine in a classic Bardot/ Gainsbourg way, and is as charming as that concept would suggest. Excellent.

ACE rating 9/10

Belle and Sebastian are one of those bands who enjoy a fair size cult of fairly laid-back arty types, who love their non-mainstream releases. Unfortunately for the cult, The Life Pursuit, the seventh album from the Glaswegian super-troupe, threatens to break the non-commercial record. The mainstream has never been so tilted to the left, and Belle and Sebastian's previous twee approach has been gently left behind to produce an extremely consistent single album. Culled from the original double, the subtly sensitive song cores remain, as does the pop sensibility (think The Smiths fronted by Art Garfunkel instead of Morrisey), but the overlaying of a wonderful 70s glam rock sharpens the edge and the energy somewhat. It's not quite Franz Ferdinand, fortunately, but the spikiness of the Life Pursuit makes it the best way into Belle and Sebastian for someone who hasn't yet taken the plunge.

ACE rating 8/10

A record that's far too hard to categorise - it would be like trying to stuff an octopus into a pigeonhole - it is barely easier to say what Fancy Blues sounds like. If you imagine Muse or Jeff Buckley in his smokiest musings had been invited to spend time in rehearsals for Phantom of the Opera with Tom Waits' house band, you'd still barely capture the diversity of the music on offer here. The Glastonbury-centred band reflect the whole of a typical Glasto weekend at some point in this album, with rock, polka, folk, pop, blues and the odd sea shanty, Flipron is a little less theatrical than a band like Pilotdrift. What works however, is that the tongue-in-cheek oddness merely adds texture and interest to some rather excellent music. A band with a character that isn't simply the result of a marketing meeting is truly refreshing.

ACE rating 8/10