Peter Von Poehl
‘May Day’
(Tot Ou Tard)

There’s a lot to be said for anyone who manages to be both Peter Gabriel and Cat Stevens in the space of one song – which happens to hugely endearing effect here in ‘Carrier Pigeon’ – but, if we’re being honest, Peter von Poehl’s second album often struggles to match the effortless excellence of his debut. He still has his moments, mind: ‘Lost In Space’ is a summery strummer whose indolent banjo works the same sort of magic it did on Travis’ ‘Sing’, the woozy wheeze of ‘Dust Of Heaven’ has a certain unsettled rustic appeal, and ‘Moonshot Falls’ is a muscular, string-laden marvel that could easily become his big-league breakthrough. These, however, only serve to highlight how distressing the weaker parts of ‘May Day’ really are…

Iain Moffat