In Movement, Urchin ***

Pearse McGloughlin's likable debut album, Busy Whisper (2009), marked the Sligo man out as an artist who recognised songwriting as a craft that took time to master. In Movement sees McGloughlin and his band producing a wonderful series of gentle songs, atmospheric tumbles, elegant sounds and smart hush-a-byes. The blue hue with which McGloughlin coats such songs as Antelope March, The Lonely Track and Caught in Craft is pitch-perfect, a neat example of how the singer's melancholic timbre and the musicians' downplayed emotional rub embellishes what are often the simplest of tunes and ideas. Such rigorous streamlining makes In Movement another album for the wee small hours, a place he seems comfortable to inhabit. A set of songs that, confidently and astutely, carry McGloughlin further along an upwards trajectory. pearsemcgloughlin.com

Download tracks:The Lonely Track, Caught in Craft