THERE was a time when the sunset had fallen on Leith and we were contemplating The Proclaimers, no more.

Yet the resurrection that began with Persevere in 2001 has grown with the musical Sunshine In Leith, a cameo turn in Family Guy and a number one single for Comic Relief.

Life With You, the Reid brothers' fourth album in six years, marks their return to a major label. Behind the trademark specs, Craig and Charlie's politicised focus is as sharp as ever, lacerating George Bush (The Long Haul), the champagne Left (In Recognition), fake religion (New Religion), real religion (If There's A God) and misogynistic rappers (Here It Comes Again), but their soulful folk songs are never as heavy as their accents, and their melodies still roll like Scottish mist.

As with the Everlys, the brothers are struck by the thunder of love, on the stomping title track and a hollering cover of Whole Wide World, or when tumbling in the joys of lust in Blood Lying On The Snow or embracing heartbreak like REM in Harness Pain.

The kitchen-sink tendency to throw in everything from strings to church organ leaves the arrangements as over-egged as a Jose Mourinho metaphor, but when they hit the mark, as on the Blair-bashing piano ballad, S-O-R-R-Y, they nail political folly in a manner feared lost since the peak of The Specials and Elvis Costello.

The Proclaimers play Hull City Hall, October 4; Bradford St George's Hall, October 5.