Released on Leicester-based label For the Sake of the Song, Are You Well? is the eminently loveable debut by four-piece Ambrose Tompkins. Taking their cues from classic English psychedelia, pastoral pop and lilting Americana, the quartet pack a mighty sixteen tracks into forty minutes of pure listening pleasure.

Indeed, there’s a sense of maturity which is far from common on rookie offerings such as this – the gorgeous arrangements and soaring harmonies suggest a feeling of ease with their situation. The folk-blues of It Steals My Eyes sounds like it should have been written by a band of far more advanced years, yet the intricately weaved patterns are intoxicating.

Somebody to Someone, deftly picked and with an understated, plaintive vocal, perfectly encapsulates their combination of melodic pop songs with psychedelic whimsy, while the accordion-led bonus track hints at what might be yet to come, and is reminiscent of a lost Tindersticks composition – deliciously filmic, it could be on the soundtrack to a Jean-Pierre Jeunet movie.

The sweeping Americana of opening track No More Black Times is simultaneously uplifting and melancholy, with a subtlety which serves them well. An assured debut, this is the sound of a band hitting the ground running.

Simon Harper

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