ENTHRALLING second album from the Parisian art-pop folkie

Syd matters warrants your attention... and that of all your mates. His second album drips with invention, beauty, melody and sonic challenges - all of which are a pleasure to play.

Calling on influences as diverse as English folk music, prog-rock, free jazz and post-punk pop, Syd weaves magical tales on soundscapes that are beautifully, perversely constructed. Passe Muraille begins life as an avant garde exclamation with mixed time signatures before giving way to a richly drawled vocal refrain. It's not uncomfortable, but it's a song to be absorbed rather than merely listened to - typical of an album that manages to shut out the rest of the world for its duration. Obstacles is a jaunty pop number; Watcher has a feel of Ron Sexsmith; Middle Class Men uses vocodered vocals to mesmerise.

The record owes as much to Sonic Youth as it does Bright Eyes, there's a whiff of the Divine Comedy about it, even Mogwai, but really it inhabits its own space. Elegant, creatively unrestrained and rich with feeling, find it and be consumed. You deserve it.