Creatures of an Hour Sub Pop****

What you hear in the space between the notes will coax you closer to the speakers on this debut from London's Still Corners. Creatures of an Hourunveils its dramas and beauty with slow, stately elegance and panache, like scenes from a smokey black-and-white French New Wave flick. Whatever about how Still Corners have been pitched (the word "shoegaze" come to mind), this is a record with great dollops of beguiling charm, mellow mood-enhancing sighs and a fierce determination to push parameters to their limits. Between the simple, graceful timbre of Tessa Murray's voice and the manner in which Greg Hughes & co embroider these broody, effective soundscapes with all the right inflections and impulses, Creatures of an Houris a magnificent reason to be grateful for such classic melancholy. See facebook.com/ stillcorners

Download tracks: Cuckoo, Endless Summer, The Twilight Hour