1 CENT CD: Noah & The Whale 'First Days Of Spring' 2009

Condition of CD:  Mint Condition CD!

2009 sophomore album from the British Folk/Pop outfit. The First Days Of Spring is released to coincide with their film of the same name. The album was recorded in London and New York with producer Emery Dobyns (Patti Smith, Antony & The Johnsons). The film, meanwhile, was shot on location in London and Surrey, with Charlie, who has in the past shot promo videos for his band, in the director's chair. The film has an ensemble cast which includes the model Daisy Lowe, and was given its first public airing in a special presentation at Latitude Festival this July. Features the single 'Blue Skies'. Mercury.

One review reads 'Poor Charlie Fink. His south London band, formed with his brother and some mates, features two girls on vocals. Both leave to do their own thing: Emmy The Great to make music with her own band, Laura Marling to become a Mercury-listed singer-songwriter and one of the hits of 2008. But part of Marling's success is down to Charlie - he produced Alas, I Cannot Swim. He was also her boyfriend. Double-pleased.

Then Laura chucked him.

So Charlie Fink goes away. As his heart plummets his imagination soars. Soon his reflections on love and loss will find form in an album and accompanying film. Both will be called The First Days Of Spring. One song, a folk-blues lament with tear-dripping brass, is called My Broken Heart ("I saw my world cave in"). Another, I Have Nothing, begins with a choir humming and rain falling. The film is unveiled at the Latitude festival next weekend. It will, I suspect, be wonderful.

This is a beautiful album. Moving rather than maudlin, uplifting rather than depressing. Instrumental #1, all strings and brass and piano, is like the overture to a David Lean epic, not least because it leads straight into the mighty, hot-stepping, choir-driven Love Of An Orchestra.

"This is the love song that I write while still in love with you," Fink sings over booming drums, and more choral backing vocals oh the standout Blue Skies. Next to the irresistible-yet-twee-ish indie-pop of last year's Top 10 summer hit 5 Years, he's upped his game quicksmart.

Impressionistic symphonic-pop maestro Sufjan Stevens, back this autumn with a new album, had better watch his back. Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch, cooking up his own long-gestating, musical-film project, has been served notice. Here is a song-painter blessed with huge talent.

Rich Charlie Fink.'