Azure Ray - Azure Ray

For me, Hold On Love was one of those albums that, bought on spec, turned out to be a real gem, growing on me more and more over time. This, their self-titled debut lp of 2002, is touched by the same delicate magic, twinkling mysteriously with its hushed vocals and quiet instrumental sussurations; it drifts along so dreamily and gently melancholically that it's over before you know it, and it's only then that you realise that you've been taken on a bit of a journey. The vocals are lower in the mix than on Hold On Love, and perhaps as a consequence there are fewer spine-chills (though "Displaced" is as good as anything on that later album), but there's not much to complain about with this record.