Slow Club: Complete Surrender

The third album by Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor treads a well-trampled path. Soul-pop from the 1960s plays a more prominent role in the Sheffield indie/folk duo's sound than ever before, with Suffering You, Suffering Me and Not Mine to Love sounding like they were culled straight from the Cilla Black Songbook. Their approach to music-making is gentle and sympathetic, with soft orchestration and brass filling every available gap as they swap vocals and duet on the sweet piano ballad of Number One and the brisk strut of the title track. Watson's vocal similarity to Conor Oberst is distractingly uncanny in places – particularly on the acoustic folk bumble of Paraguay and Panama – but it seems like Slow Club are troubled by neither comparisons nor innovation. Just as well. slowclubband.com

Download: Tears of Joy, Number One