This one hits like finding an unexpectedly perfect strawberry in a punnet full of slightly squashed ones. Lemon, the Dutch outfit featuring Mark ‘Bong The Bass’ Bongers, Paul Hesen, Ralf Hesen, and Thomas Gense, lob "Gimme Something True" into the fray, and it lands with a bright, almost demanding, splash. It’s got that sun-drenched, baggy strut of Madchester about it, doesn’t it? A psychedelic...

The moment the jaunty guitar kicks in on John Smyths’ new single, "Now I'm Wiser", you feel a familiar, comfortable warmth. It’s the sound of a good chair in a bar where the floor is sticky with spilled truths. And then the story starts, a classic yarn of a hard-living past yielding to a peaceful present. Smyths, a Dutch ex-metalhead singing country out of...