As summer crawls lazily onwards, Crime & the City Solution's Simon Bonney provides the perfect musical accompaniment - with this collection of steel-string countrified ballads.

It's not hard to think of ex-Triffid David McComb when listening to 'Forever', and believe me this is a very good thing. 'Now That She's Gone' and 'The Sun Don't Shine' have the same windswept elegance as McComb's 'Blinder By The Hour' or 'Stolen Property; there's the same nostalgic regret for purer times - the same lucid imagery of parched, lonely wastelands. This is music from the wilderness; music with a cinematic favour - given added drama by its sparse forlorn instrumentation. 'Ravenswood' brings to mind Leonard Cohen at his most contemplative - and illustrates perfectly that this album is keeping alive the dying craft of the emotive singer/songwriter. Apart from McLennan, Forster and, of course, McComb - where else could you find such richness, such maturity at this stage of the game?