Album review: Stornoway, You Don't Know Anything (4AD)

This six-track mini-album offers fresh slants on the Stornoway sound, though their warmth and charm are retained for “When You Touch Down from Outer Space”, which welcomes aliens (or babies, depending on your view) with a net of delicately embroidered guitar. “You Don't Know Anything” espouses the reading of books, and “Waiting on the Clock” evokes the first flush of love: there's a Belle & Sebastian flavour to its reminiscences of making mix-tapes for a girlfriend – small memories with large impressions. Things go slightly awry with the stodgy prog-rock textures of “Clockwatching” and “The 6th Wave”, but it's the work of a band obsessed with a multitude of musical directions, which has to be A Good Thing.

Download: When You Touch Down from Outer Space; Waiting on the Clock; You Don't Know Anything