Celebration – 'Diamonds' (4AD) Released 28/11/05

Debutants Celebration make music for grown-ups with a sophisticated sense of melodrama. 'Diamonds' is a fraught plea of a song, cranking up the emotional gauge with a sweeping music hall organ complementing former Jaks and Love Life singer Katrina Ford’s subterranean urgings. You can almost see Ford baring her soul in a grand gothic French chateaux somewhere, as 'Diamonds' whirls off the decaying timbers. Judging by the other songs – particularly New Skin and Holiday – included on their sampler, the Baltimore trio have more immediately accessible, if no less dramatic, work to follow on their forthcoming album.