I just have a handful of MP3s to go on, but they make it perfectly clear that newcomer British band Sweet Billy Pilgrim's debut full-length, "We Just Did What Happened and No One Came," is something very special. The songs are sung in a weak and whispery voice that sounds undistinguished but somehow captivates, in part because the songs are written so delicately and so well, and because the voice is surrounded by silvery, beautifully detailed production, with various sounds -- both familiar and not -- shifting dreamily in and out of focus. "Ain't No Jesus in Here" is a lazy-day-smudged country song with a terrific opening line ("This here's no heart of darkness/It ain't no heart of gold"), "Forget to Breathe" is an introverted, slightly twisted parlor version of Coldplay-style stadium balladry, and my allegiance has been shifting between them, so definitely download both. Also available for download is the lovely "Experience," hazy and a little bit sinister, and "God in the Details," which is a little bit too explicitly Tom Waits-y for me. Many thanks to Sixeyes for leading me to this band.
-- T.B.
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