Michael Nau's new record is a deeply compelling masterclass in traditional songcraft

Nau’s first solo outing featuring a full band, Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread consists exclusively of material that is at the very least good and often much, much better than that. The record’s named in honour of the band who grace its tracks for a reason: from the sturdy beat that drives the wee small hours southern soul vibes of “Smudge” (which nods towards Nixon-era Lambchop) to the breathtakingly pretty vibraphone motif that closes “Can’t Have One”, The Mighty Thread make Nau’s songs sparkle like never before; the performances were reportedly captured quickly and very much live, and it shows in a positively loose, energised way. Add to this uniformly strong tunes that suggest some seriously sweaty workouts at the songwriting gym and Nau’s increasingly resonant vocals (hints of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, perhaps?), forever pitched precariously between the brink of tears and just about managing to suppress a guffaw, and you have a deeply compelling album that deserves to be ranked as one of the finest to emerge so far this year.

We’re not about to face the reinvented wheel or come to terms with a brand new way to slice bread here: Nau’s roots remain deep in folk-orientated, crooner-ly and often forlorn cult singer-songwriters from the late '60s and early '70s. However, Nau’s idiosyncratic grasp on songwriting manages to twist oft-sampled reference points into compelling new shapes. With the band on hand to apply subtly lysergic touches that distort the tune’s earthy country-got-soul vibes in the sweetest possibly way, “What’s a Loon” is quite audibly a song drenched in heartbreak and trouble. Yet you don’t often hear songs of doubt and emotional unrest start with lines as unexpectedly bizarre as "what’s a loon without the crazy / just feathers and fluff’’. Nau might be down here, but he’s not on a downer. That the carefree tone takes nothing away from the sincerity and emotional resonance of songs such as the cosmically jangling opener “Less Than Positive” - imagine an Americana-ised Richard Hawley - is a testament to Nau’s increasingly firm grip on songwriting.

"There’s no second-guessing the real / I don’t ever know how I feel", Nau offers on the horizontally sparkling happy/sad rumination “Funny In Real Life”, possibly the album’s highpoint alongside the bruised pop of “On Ice”. Equal parts easygoing and eternally troubled, upbeat and melancholy, silly and profound, Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread certainly sounds like the real thing, and it’s bound to leave you feeling pretty good indeed.