Because of the throbbing great adjective in their name, you wouldn’t naturally assume that My Sad Captains are the merriest of bands. Indeed, ‘Orienteers’, the opening song on ‘Fight Less Win More’, contains the unsettling lines, “I will reserve the right/To decompose in front of your eyes”. But peel away the lachrymose lyrics and you get a warm, dewy guitar part and a crumpet-soft bass plod – the motherly arms that go on to cradle the rest of the album. In fact, the melody of ‘Little Joanne’ hints that MSC aren’t that sad after all. Maybe they’re not even captains.

Matt Wright