Putting the Ho Ho Ho into Ho-Ho-Holidays

The Cast (Albums) : The Cords, Elisabeth Elektra, Lance Ferguson with the Bamboos, Leit Motif, Mae Powell

The Cast (EPs, Singles and Songs) : Melanie Pain

Making Room For The Light : Mae Powell

Best for : Lovers of classic songwriting with a gentle twist.

Think of an iconic venue you've never visited. Imagine the kind of music that would be suited to it, who it would attract and what it would look like inside. One such venue for me is Nashville's Grand Ole Opry. I imagine it's a lush and opulent building, filled with red velvet and dark lighting. I see it as a remnant of a bygone age, not too far into the past but far enough for it to feel part of our memories. And it would show the kind of music performed by Mae Powell.

That's a paragraph from the imagination amd I certainly wouldn't describe her as a Nashville singer. There's a touch of country in some of the songs, it's true. There's a similar flavouring of jazz vocals and pop too. It's more that her songs are a little jerky and sound as if they're recreated from sepia photographs. They're examples of classic, female, American singer songwriting, inspired by the 60s canon but with an individual twist to freshen them. You can hear as much of the sound of Isobel Campbell as Jonie Mitchell in her songs.

Let's remember too, that no one busks their way into an opera house. These songs are crafted to perfection. There's always a line, an image, a hummable melody to arrest your attention. You'll be snagged by a line such as this from 'Contact High'.

" I'll make you breakfast, and you'll make me smile."

You'll stop in your tracks to admire and appreciate this image from 'Tangerine'.

" My heart is a tangerine that I left in the bottom of my bag / For three days…."

It's quietly brilliant.

Her voice is distinctive. It's full of a thickened sweetness, as if sung through the remnants of a heavy cold. It's by no means unpleasant but you'll need to get used to it. Her songs progress deliberately, sounding a little mannered and serious.

It may sound serious, but there are moments here that revel in the feeling of the first flushes of love. Let's face it. Even serious people fall in love, and this could be their perfect soundtrack.

Taster Track : Where Will Love Go?

The Cords : The Cords

Best for : Fans of stripped back, excellent, happy jangle pop

It's the time of the year bringing joy to the world, and the Cords are playing their part. It takes just the first few notes of 'Fabulist' to appreciate just how much you've missed and needed their style of Scottish indie jangle pop

Too many new bands are wrapped in corporate bubble wrap before they've even released their first song. They're taken way too seriously and are marketed into generic blandness. Not the Cords. They imbue everything they touch with personality. Their Spotify bio shares that they're sisters who are happy that they come from a quaint village with a beach, a really good ice cream shop and parents who influenced them with an excellent record collection. (Good parenting!)

You can track their DNA back through the C86 generation, past the sixties girl groups and as far back as the days of skiffle when music felt spontaneous, natural, organic and instinctive. They play songs like 'Bo's New Haircut' that suggest they're taking what they see around them and discovering for themselves, for the first time, the thrill of making music.

Their simplicity contains pure joy. No matter the time, the weather or your future commitments, you will feel happier listening to this record. They're the kind of band that would have featured in comic strips and had a fanzine dedicated to them. They have captured the no nonsense and short bursts of melodic sunshine perfected by the Teenage Fanclub, the Housemartins, a less polished Camera Obscura and, yes, a less angry and brattish Ramones. They're the music coming from the best Rag Week procession float, filling your heart with benevolence as they pass by.

It's the spirit of this album that is special, but if you want highlights try the clapping beat of 'Just Don't Know (How To Be You)', the excellent opener 'Fabulist' or the lusher closing number 'When You Said Goodbye'.

The Cords - bringing the unfashionable back into fashion, and how!

Taster Track : When You Said Goodbye

L'Ocean de Toi : Lance Ferguson and the Bamboos

Best for : Those whose appreciate the craft in difficult assignments

This is the soundtrack to a film believed lost forever, a French romantic thriller originally due to reach cinemas in 1981. The problem was the soundtrack so Lance Ferguson, with Australian jazz funk band The Bamboos, have given it another go.

A soundtrack to a film no one has seen from nearly half a century ago. It's a difficult trick to pull off. As with all soundtracks it has to overcome the limitation that it can't distract from the film visuals. It ought to stand in the shadows, not wanting to be noticed. But here, for most people, it also has to trigger some idea of what the film was like.

So, what can you tell from the music here? Initial impressions from the title track are that it wouldn't be out of place on Cote d'Azur yacht parties. 'Moonface' sounds like the ideal music to inspire a lava lamp focused reverie. In places, and from a distance, it sounds like film music to fill gaps in the action, to soundtrack a flashback montage or to be heard as the end credits roll. 'Dream Diary' is chilled and anonymously pleasant.

It's cleverer though than it first sounds, and with a clear intent. The band are delivering on a commission, and earning top marks for their performance. One by one, tracks such as 'The Swimming Pool' draw you in, perhaps in opposition to your usual taste in music and against your better judgement. Music like 'Rue de la Paix' is full of Ibizan textures, as good as the 2025 electronica of, say SG Lewis. The bass may occasionally sound as if it is on autopilot, but its repeated smooth riffs keep things together, just as they do with Khruangbin. These are songs played with feeling and respect for their craft. You can feel that in the percussion.

In the end this is as exciting, enjoyable and believable as the work of a master forger.

Taster Track : Dream Diary

Hypersigil - Elisabeth Elektra

Best for : Those who like their pop to venture beyond epic into new fantasy universes.

Elektra is a Greek princess, avenging the death of her father by killing her murderous mother. She's also a villainous Marvel superhero who becomes Daredevil's love interest and ally. More surprisingly for someone immersed in the world of Madonna-esque electropop, she's married to Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite and she collaborates with the band on one song.

In her origin story I can see her as a young girl, listening to Madonna, Tina Turner's Thunderdome and Cher and believing that her destiny is to take that sound a lot further. The only issue with that is that sometimes more is less.

Cynics may suspect that this is a vanity album and the thought crossed my mind too. The connection between Elektra and Mogwai is hard to ignore but, whereas Mogwai smash the mould of rock, it feels as if Elektra inflates it as far as it can go. It's a courgette that suddenly finds it has grown into a marrow, and it's a little bit too much.

This is an album of hyper dramatic songs like 'Yearning' and 'The Dream'. There's a lack of reality to ground them. She sings constantly in character rather than herself. It worked for Bowie, and it was fun while it lasted, but he recognised the need in the end to be himself. I feel that if she freed herself from her character she'd be more real and simply better.

Strip away the bluster and epic production and these are more than competent synth driven power ballads. The good news is that if you penetrate the surface of songs like 'Desire' and 'Poison' you can hear that they have their own distinctive and attractive character rather than one thrust upon them. They're songs worth hearing.

The Mogwai collaboration, 'Broken Promises', is not a typical Mogwai song. That's good. It shows that Elektra is more than an outlet for Mogwai offcasts. All she needs now is to pursue her own identity rather than her character's.

Taster Track : Desire

Vestige : Leit Motif

Best for : People who need music that helps them step back

I love the idea of Leit Motif. He's a performer with next to no online presence, even on Spotify where he has just 25 followers and 5 monthly listeners. The thought of him working on his music in a darkened studio, alone, obsessively fine tuning every sound is exciting. It may, of course, bear no relation to reality but the reality he delivers is pretty good nonetheless.

He brings us deep into the realm of ambient electronica. 'Aonara' is ambient like swimming in clouds - gentle, wafting and peaceful. Sink into it with eyes closed. Just try it, and don't fret that you can only describe it with words like 'abstract' and 'ethereal' that are intrinsically difficult to grasp. It manages to feel both like music of the future and music of the ancient past

This is an album where you won't find much by way of extended melodies. Instead, it's beautiful like London seen from an aeroplane after dark - special and inspiring awe and humility. If adults could experience the Snowman journey without Aled Jones this might be the soundtrack to their flight.

There are some darker tones. 'Anam Cara' contains a sense of threat and more energy with it. It's a threat, though, that has already been made safe, one you can know about without worrying.

There's a risk that, as with any ambient music it could feel cold and impersonal. This never feels mechanical and titles such as 'Before You and I Were Us', 'Welcome Home', and 'Veni, Vidi, Amavi' bring a sweet humanity into play.

Choosing a favourite track from a selection such as this is like choosing your favourite part of a toy. You can't separate it out and expect it to be as good as the whole thing. This is a work where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Nevertheless, I've chosen 'Veni, Vidi, Amavi' for the taster track as the most uplifting part of the whole.

Taster Track : Veni, Vidi, Amavi

EPs, Singles and Random Songs

Melanie Pain is one of the principal guest vocalists with bossa nova covers band Nouvelle Vague. She released a solo album earlier this year called ' How and Why' from which 'Dream Loop' is her current single. It's a sweet and swaying acoustic song that's memorably tuneful in a quiet, understated way. Genuinely lovely, it's the kind of song you'd like to hear sung just for you.