The Wireless Stores are a band based in Nottingham, England formed on June 2002. The following year saw the release of TWS’s debut mini-album Historic Sites of Scenic Beauty ..1. A soaring mixture of booze-addled country melancholia and the righteous, heart on sleeve ire of classic Minneapolis punk rock, this first record would set the stall for the TWS agenda – music for the underside of a bar-room table (where one of the songs actually finds itself), the musical equivalent of drunken introspection, tightrope-walking between euphoria and despair – and then back again.

With Historic Sites of Scenic Beauty ..1 under their belts, TWS are now to release a new, full length album entitled Dust Ghosts. Picking up where Historic Sites of Scenic Beauty ..1 left off, this album also represents a musical advance. From the upbeat and driven sounds of the opening track 43 Pence to the lush lilt of the album title track we find ourselves in more elaborate territory than TWS have ventured into previously, with the addition of the new members adding textures of sound that can swell and surge when required – or just plain put their foot to the floor. As before, TWS have taken the bleary-eyed wistfulness of American country rock and permeated it with something altogether British – loyalty cards, soap suds and shrink-wrapping have never sounded so romantic. An album both of passionate grandeur and whispered mournfulness, it continues the unfaltering commitment of TWS to making eloquent emotional music.

Long may it continue ...