A bluegrass concept album about Death Row?.

It goes without saying that when Nick Cave's wife is away on a modelling assignment he doesn't phone up all his mates and invite them round for a dope-fuelled Nintendo session followed by a pissed-up jam. But if he did, it would probably sound an awful lot like this.

So this is the sound of a grown man, james Closs, pretending to be a cowboy singing hilarious ballads about gout, evil landlords and awaiting execution in the way that only middle-class postgraduates seem to be able to pull off. But beneath the slightly deranged concept there is an adept songwriter with a genuinely keen ear for country, bluegrass and blues. 'Truckstop Funeral' is the sort of song that Cave himself would be proud of if he wasn't spending so much time trying to get taken serioulsy on The South Bank Show. 7/10