Ever wondered how a relationship is like eating an orange? This and other romantic metaphors are explored on Absentee’s wonderfully titled second album.

Mixing downbeat Silver Jews-style Americana with the intelligent pop of Belle and Sebastian the London-based quintet have recorded a song cycle detailing the ups and downs of that old story - boy meets girl, boy fucks things up etc.

On the touching ‘Shared’ and ‘We Smash Plates’, lyricist and vocalist Dan Michaelson displays a level of po-faced, mocking sincerity to rival Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner. Is he being serious, sarcastic, ironic, or all three, many listeners will ask? What raises Absentee’s star even further is Michaelson’s deft - and often blackly comic - killer lines. “There is always someone who makes you wish you hadn’t settled down so soon”, he quips on the rousing ‘Bitchstealer’, while on the breezy ‘The Nurses Don’t Notice A Thing’ he croons “you had a snack, but you know that you shouldn’t have.” Too clever by half and all the better for it.