I AM Kloot's Johnny Bramwell writes like fellow waspish Mancunians Morrissey and Mark E Smith and sings in a John Lennon rasp; a cynical, dashed romantic voice of the North.

Chris Thorpe-Tracey writes with a Boswell and Ray Davies eye for urban detail, and sings like a more psychedelic Robert Wyatt, chronicling the London life others pass by.

What unites them is a troubadour's gift for a lyric that has you listening attentively for the next line, often with a smile or a raised eyebrow, occasionally with alarm.

I Am Kloot's Natural History was the best British debut of 2001 and Bramwell's trio return with more misanthropic torch songs with stings in their acoustic tales. As with Morrissey, Bramwell can seem a misery but his self-effacing humour and insidious way with a scuffed, Sixties beat deserve to push him to the fore alongside northern lights The Coral and Elbow.

By day Chris T-T is a sub-editor for the Press Association; by night his politically agitated, urban folk tales should be as cherished as those of another whimsical beardie, Badly Drawn Boy. After the London bus route stories of 2001's The 253, he essays another low-budget concept album, this time set on the River Thames, travelling east.

This offbeat journey takes in the life philosophy of Britain's giraffes; a mother drowning her child; Arthur Conan Doyle's spiritualism; and London Bridge falling down courtesy of a terrorist attack.

Just as London is sinking in these vignettes, so those living there are sinking in London, Chris T-T among them. Yet where Bramwell is a jaded cynic, T-T is a more affectionate, hopeful soul: the half-empty versus the half-full glass.

Updated: 09:15 Thursday, September 11, 2003