- I've always had a bit of a soft spot for English rapscallion and grandiose troubadour Patrick Wolf. His first records were dark, brooding, epic collections of songs created by a young, emotion-ridden man, not entirely sure of himself, struggling to find his place in the world. Though a little rough around the edges, it was this expedition to find himself that would give a spark to these tracks, and with his lack of any sizeable budget to his name the minstrel used a ramshackle collection of found sounds, a splattering of random instruments and fell-back on electronics for anything he couldn't create naturally - leading to gorgeous songs that dripped feeling, yet remained unexpectedly upbeat. Earlier this year - and, sadly, I finally had had too much: joy turned to frustration as I struggled to get much out of Lupercalia, Wolf's 5th full-length - with only one or two tracks receiving much love outside the brief period I spent reviewing the record. When new, digital only, wintery feeling EP, Brumalia came out of nowhere, a kind-of companion piece to the very same album I didn't really dig, it went against my better judgement to put myself through reviewing it - but here we are - and quite honestly I kinda dig it - though it's still a little hit-or-miss, there are more hits than misses this time around, definitely a ratio I can live with - and if nothing else it's a shift in the right direction. It sees Patrick back to writing songs that have just a bit more of a kick to them - taking more chances. If there's one battle that Patrick Wolf is always engaged in, it's his heart vs. his head and clearly he's just gotta go with his big, dumb heart a little more in the future. New track Nemoralia, is definitely my favourite new Patrick Wolf tune for quite some time, finally finding that balance of organic and electronic instrumentation, being engaging and catchy yet never verging on soppy-ol'-love territory. Thumbs up Wolfman.

- Jay Edwards.