On his Facebook page on the last day of 2012, Glasgow acoustic singer-songwriter Ally Kerr expressed the hope that his music "will continue to drift further and wider over the next year".
His third album is finally here, and though it doesn't hang around, at under 26 minutes, he may yet get his wish.
Kerr has a cult following in Europe and Asia; in China, his first two albums have been licensed to one of the country's biggest entertainment groups for release next year. His homeland is catching up.
Viva Melodia has been produced by Biff Smith, frontman with The Starlets, and what is striking here is not just Kerr's growing self-confidence as a writer, but the sparing but highly effective use of a string quartet, as well as trumpeter Gordon Kyle and flautist Graeme Brooks. It's a dark, dreamy, captivating album, and the melodic gems, which grow stronger with each listening, include Man's Man (an address to a former lover), Safe From You, Whatever Happens and the instrumental title track.
There are shades, here and there, of Neil Halstead and the much- missed Tompaulin, but Kerr is etching out a sound all of his own.
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