In which two English folk heroes collaborate on an exhilarating and unexpected new project. Jim Moray first shook up the folk scene in 2003 with his experimental album Sweet England, while Sam Carter is best known as a thoughtful singer-songwriter with a fascination for American shape-note hymns. Now they are co-leaders of a bravely original folk-rock band. False Lights play mostly traditional songs, now transformed with full-tilt electric guitar work from both Moray and Carter – with Moray also adding bass and keyboards – and they succeed because they are also both fine, no-nonsense singers who concentrate on the narrative of their songs. There’s impressive variety here, from the stomping Skewball to the pained and pounding gospel plea Oh Death. Best of all is the exuberant final track, on which Tennyson’s Crossing the Bar is re-worked with an organ backing, furious drums, bass, violin, melodeon and Latin-flavoured percussion.