Compost move into even more ‘serious’ territory with this debut from the interesting (in an odd way – have a look at the cover) Joesph Malik. It’s got – gasp! – songs with words on it. But despite an initial fluster, hotpress got settled in and got to know Mr Malik. And we liked what we heard.

Joseph is essentially a soul boy with a bit of a twist – the twist being the quite-often excellent downtempo beats coming from producer David Donnelly. Take the languid opener ‘Melodies’ – all gentle acoustic guitars, mournful strings and Joseph’s smooth, soulful vocals – and you’ll see this is indeed music for the laydeez. Ditto on the rolling, jazzy breaks of ‘Soul Blues’, the warm, sparkling ‘Ibotribe’ and the uptempo cracker that is ‘Take It All In And Check It All Out’ which could be Sly And The Family Stone if you really close your eyes.

There’s some nonsense near the end that really doesn’t hit the heights of the earlier tracks, but overall, this is a fine modern soul record.