Mostly Autumn's new release

After more than a quarter of a century and 13 previous studio albums, Mostly Autumn have come up with Graveyard Star, their finest work to date. It’s as if everything the pandemic has done to tilt the world off its axis has given the band a belief that the opportunity to create music should be treasured.

Bryan Josh and Olivia Sparnenn-Josh are in peerless form on the epic title track, which opens the album. The former’s rich, warm guitar tone wraps itself around music that draws from folk and classical ideas, while the latter’s soaring vocals are enticing and beautiful. The country rock flavoured Skin Of Mankind is a little different for Mostly Autumn, allowing the rest of the band to show their skills on a track that eventually breaks into the rhythmic flow of a jig. This Endless War captures the exhaustion and deprivation everyone’s faced over the past 19 months, but leads into the stentorian Spirit Of Mankind, a hymn of hope for the future.

The low-key The Diamond sets up lengthy finale Turn Around Slowly, which is as breathtaking as Graveyard Star and a fitting way to finish a stunning album.