"Loose, sprawling, stoned-sounding country/folk/slacker-pop." Another reviewer attempts to nail the new one from The Mendoza Line. Go on, it's Spring, the daffs are up, the clocks are going forward - time to get Lost in Revelry...

And when (if?) the Summer finally hits, the baton should be ably taken up by Chapel Hill's finest: "The new Mayflies USA cd is finished!". Their exclaimation not mine but trebles all round, surely? Debut album Summertown is positively awash with sparky, jaw-slackening jangly pop-rock and remains a 'must' for Fanclub types. For reallyrather follow-up The Pity List didn't quite hit those peaks but others disagree. Still, Walking in a Straight Line will be an automatic purchase. Tracklisting, production details here. OK guys, its in the can, nice big smile now...

Not a million miles away is the sound of Champale whose debut Simple Days was one that got away in '01. They're on David 'Cracker' Lowery's Pitch-a-tent label which reckons they "play a glistening, literate kind of American alt-pop...think Big Star's Third woven into Dusty in Memphis, or a citified Lambchop". It's half a good album - reallyrather plays about six of the tracks fairly regularly. Motel California could have come straight off either of the last two Teenage Fanclub albums, an uncanny replication. Low-key, langurous horns take it away from pure jangle country, down a more urban soul alley. Worth a detour...