From man Andy Hull has found, like Dave Grohl and Will Johnson, that there isn't always a natural fit for more acoustic numbers when the 'day job' is great rock music. Hull's 'other' band, Manchester Orchestra, is one of the fastest-rising rock bands around, based (like Grohl's Foo Fighters) on intensely great songwriting that enjoys its rock layering. Stripped down, those same songs display the same intensity, but also a delicious vulnerability. Right Away Great Captain began as an additional outlet (with a naval theme), but with this album it has matured into an outfit at least as compelling as Manchester Orchestra. With a sound like Bright Eyes on testosterone, the songs are intense and lyrical - no shard of glass is spared to drive a story sharply into the conscious, akin to Tori Amos' debut. Yet, when Hull does beautiful, the songs are hypnotic, and addictive - a singer songwriter's singer songwriter (watch for how many covers he inspires), like Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard. An amazing disc. Album of the week.

ACE rating 9/10

There isn't much information available about Aaron Thomas, but here's what you need to know (listen carefully as there are two..., and it would be a real shame if you bumped into the other one). Follow The Elephants, which recently became available via emusic.com and iTunes, is what you might have expected if Jeff Buckley had fronted Beirut. Soaring and inventive, folky, but with the odd gypsy rhythm, the album mixes an Andrew Bird sensibility with a Frank Turner lyrical gift and an occasional Tom Waits spin. In its individual elements, there is a lot of interest, but it is the ease with which the whole is spun that this album achieves its magic - its rolling, lilting easygoing and laid back feel is just gorgeous. Even when the rock is cranked up, as on Kill This City, the melody is the prime winner. Follow The Elephants may have been around for the best part of 2008, but it is a late breaking contender for the album of the year lists. Aaron Thomas is an Australian by birth, but currently lives in Madrid. Let's hope the attention this album should bring him brings him over here.

ACE rating 8/10

(Note that this album is listed as Twisted Desire on Amazon...) Two Cow Garage are a band from Columbus, Ohio, who have filled the spot vacated by Drive By Truckers' move into a more experimental space - straight, wizened, alt-country Southern alterna-Rock. 'Straight-ahead attack' describes the methodology pretty well - the songs are delivered at 100 mph, with little room for breath, or subtlety (when they do lift off, on the Nick Cave-like The Heart and The Crown, the wheels fall off). However, in the right place, there aren't many bands who do this so well - it is hard not to imagine a US roadside bar whose atmosphere wouldn't be enhanced by Two Cow Garage at full volume. The piano adds some sophistication to the punk attack, but only of the order that a napkin adds sophistication to a chilli dog. Speaking In Cursive is a blast, if you're in the mood for it.

ACE rating 7/10