Learning, Organ/Turnstile ****

It’s the quiet dramas on this debut album from Seattle’s Mike Hadreas that will draw you in. The erie, muted piano shapes a state of melancholic splendour, providing the perfect backdrop for Hadreas’s slightly cracked voice and beautiful, subtle, bruised slow-mo songs.

You may detect shades of Sufjan Stevens (Mr Peterson, in particular) and Antony Hegarty (especially in the way Handreas phrases his lines), but such influences never dominate. Instead, you get the confessional tales of a singer who has known trouble (these heartbreaking torch songs were apparently written while Hadreas was in rehab) and is looking to rid himself of his demons. Such compelling, evocative sadcore may not allow any light to shine through, but it’s an album where the fragile, tender blue moods are all that really matter.

See myspace.com/kewlmagik

Download tracks: Mr Peterson, Gay Angels, No Problems