BMX Bandits, BMX Bandits In Space (Elefant)

From the superb artwork (by Jean Duprez) and the framing kitsch retro instrumental colourings made with vintage associate Sean Dickson of The Soup Dragons that top and tail it, this may be the most elegantly conceived album yet from Duglas T Stewart and his merry band of Bandits.

It is brought to us by a Spanish label, and with the input of a Japanese duo, Plectrum, and a London-based Argentinian, Cineplexx (aka Sebastian Litmanovich), as well as more familiar Stewart associates, so it is global as well as galactic.

Their tunes are very good too, and so is the one written by Stewart with the more local David Scott and given a delicious disco treatment by Limanovich (Elephant Love).

The (friendly) lion's share of the songs, however, are the work of Jim McCulloch (of Snowgoose) and Stewart, and quite superb they are too. There's a waltz, some ballads, rockers and pop from this team – All Around the World boasts a cadence as irresistible as the one in the Alessi Brothers' O Lori.

Stewart's collaborators have produced fine settings for his inimitable honest and heartfelt lyrics in the past, but there may never have been so many of them on a single album.