Album: Meursault, Something for the Weakened (Song, By Toad)

Named after the antihero of Camus' L'étranger, Scots combo Meursault operate where strident folk-rock meets etiolated grunge and ambient electronica, a blend perfectly measured for the melancholy broadsides of Something For The Weakened.

Mandolin, banjo, violin and piano underscore Neil Pennycock's impassioned wail (imagine King Creosote in emotional turmoil) as he sketches gritty underclass tribulations, from the poverty-line abandonment of "Flittin'" to the funereal waltz of "Hole", the songs' darker corners fraught with spiky bursts of electric guitar. Especially moving is the gut-wrenching portrait of old age that is "Mamie", bewildered and wondering "Who are all these people, and why are they wearing the faces of my family?"

Download: Flittin'; Dearly Distracted; Mamie