Formerly leader of 80s Newcastle upon Tyne underachievers Hurrah!, were Handyside to never pen another song he would still warrant singer-songwriter immortality for the title track of his solo debut. Little short of a modern day hymn with a soaring arms-linked swaying chorus that builds to a jubilant, uplifting finale as he sings 'let now every heart rejoice', it's hard not to find the words Rufus, Wainright, Buckley and Jeff rising unbidden to the lips.

The same is true throughout the album where you might also see parallels with Martin Stephenson (with whom he's collaborated on a Grant McLennan tribute), but which unfolds to reveal him as very much his own man. Working with producer Rob Tickell (who also plays bass and Hawaiian Weissenborn guitar) and Hurrah! drummer David Porthouse, he's crafted an album steeped in dusty Americana, English folk and church music. Indeed, that hymnal quality is also forcefully to be heard on the no less outstanding Midwinter's Feast with its hallelujah chorus, lines about church bells and wheezing harmonium and the closing piano backed, emotion quivering Peace In Our Time as he sings "God bless our bombs and the guns we are firing, caught in the crossfire of lies we told."

Dealing in themes of love, loss uncertainty and disillusion, the album's musical textures are simple but rich. The opening piano ballad Beautiful Thing hints at Brel and Buckley equally (you could also imagine hearing it on an early Scott Walker album), Darkest Night is brooding, muscular bluesy soul flecked folk, River Of Song harks to Irish trad folk swayalong while acoustic Americana warms the heart of The Slow Road and the yearningly gorgeous Whisper In Your Mind with its pedal steel and Paul Heaton colours.

There's not a weak moment here but it would be remiss not to also make special mention of Let The Lights Go Down, a spare, romantically bruised acoustic song of pleading and resignation that features shared vocals with Maria Yuriko and curls around the ears like aural aromatherapy. Hopefully it won't mirror Hurrah!'s fate of critical acclaim but little commercial success, because Handyside truly deserves to be discovered on a global scale. Let now every heart rejoice, indeed.

(Mike Davies, www.netrhythms.co.uk, June 2008)