The Redlands Palomino Company: Broken Carelessly

Here's a catch-up that's worth catching up with, especially because this longtime British band's fourth album of Americana has an end-of-an-era feel to it. Broken Carelessly was recorded ostensibly because drummer Dan Tilbury was moving to Denmark. But there's a sense, not least on Band Song, that the grind of endless one-nighters with little recognition and even less reward was wearing them down. Nonetheless Hannah Elton-Wall, who wrote 10 of the 12 tracks, sings that the "pedal steel still makes me want to cry". And so the twanging guitars and sweet harmonies go on. Her songs focus mainly on relationships, troubled but generally enduring (just as well, as her husband Alex plays guitar in the band). The title track, The Big Freeze and the slow-burning ballad Perfect Forever are notable songs on an album with a warm, understated feel to it. redlandspalomino.co.uk

Download: Perfect Forever, The Big Freeze