Scott Walker wannabes may be ten a penny these days, but London-based Cousteau plays the part a lot more convincingly than most. Liam McKahey, originally from Cork, is the sharp-suited front man with the suitably big voice and he's well backed by the band's widescreen arrangements and luxurious orchestration. Cousteau specializes in dark, doom-laden torch songs that relate tales of lust and dislocation with an innate sense of grandeur. While they veer dangerously close to cabaret territory at times, their unerring instinct for wresting the beauty out of squalor makes this one of this year's most auspicious debut albums.

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