Album Of The Week: I Am Kloot - The Sky At Night

Released earlier this month, I Am Kloot's fifth album received a richly deserved Mercury Music Prize nomination last week, and I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about what is a slightly quirky but utterly compelling collection of songs.

This trio of gnarled, scruffy Mancunians certainly don't look like rock stars, which is probably because they're not. For the past decade, they've chugged along very much on the margins of the north west's music scene, a secret cherished by the few in the know but largely a footnote compared to more successful neighbours such as Doves and Elbow. Their bittersweet songs lack the epic dynamics of both those bands, but singer Jonny Bramwell's eloquent tales of outsiders, underachievers, drinkers and dreamers on the margins of society are nevertheless just as memorable in their own way.

Take second track The Brink for example, which paints a vivid picture of a down at heel pub of the same name. 'They've got no rule of thumb, so on the counter I strum with my fingers. And I adore the surprise, of tomorrow's sunrise, so I linger," Bramwell croons lugubriously, backed by a sumptuous string arrangement that, like much of this album, brings to mind the best work of Richard Hawley, another highly literate northern songwriter. The pace throughout The Sky At Night is stately and unhurried, showing a group comfortable in their own skins and confident in their musicianship.

Other highlights are Lately, a bluesy late night delight, Proof, an early song re-recorded here and boasting an unforgettable hook, the country-inflected ballad It's Just The Night, and The Moon Is A Blind Eye, which matches anything in Elbow's canon for soaring atmospherics without succumbing to Guy Garvey and company's empty bombast.

Funnily enough, Garvey and his bandmate Craig Potter produce The Sky At Night, seemingly keen to help I Am Kloot join Manchester's musical aristocracy, and you wouldn't bet against them succeeding. This often sublime album may be a little understated and melancholy for some tastes, but the quality is undeniable throughout, with added orchestration bringing a fuller, more accessible sound than Kloot's early, stubbornly lo-fi releases.

Rating: 8 out of 10. There's few better songwriters in Britain today than Bramwell, and The Sky At Night may gain this splendid band a wider audience at last. A surprise Mercury winner?