Possibly too much in thrall to their influences, A Singer Must Die serve up a succession of near-covers on this, their debut album. From the Scott-Walker-inspired ‘Croydon Road’ to David Bowie’s ‘Starman’ reborn as ‘Marlon R’, Today, It’s a Wonderful Day comes across as a rather less honest version of, erm, Mark Ronson’s Version. An impression hammered home by closer ‘In a Hovel’, Suede’s ‘This Hollywood Life’ by another name.

Taking their appellation from the title of a Leonard Cohen (yet another of their idols) song, A Singer Must Die are French duo Philippe Le Guern (music, piano, keys, guitars, and bass) and Manuel Ferrer (lyrics and vocals). Le Guern recorded an album with Les Occidentaux which was released by Virgin more years ago than he’d care to remember. Ferrer, the son of Italian and Spanish immigrants, grew up on a musical diet of Nick Drake and the aforementioned Bowie, so no great surprise to find him regurgitating the stuff to this day.

Nor that A Singer Must Die are signed to Grand Harmonium Records, an Edinburgh-based label. With a manifesto of promoting “many categories of music…from heavy to quiet, from brutal to beautiful”, hooking up with ASMD makes perfect sense. Seeing as the band themselves veer between dark and light, cruelty and love.

Monsieurs Le Guern and Ferrer should be old enough to stand on their own four feet by now. However, for those in need of inspiration, the likes of Bowie, Cohen, and Walker aren’t a bad place to start. If A Singer Must Die, though, aspire to be followed as well as followers, they’re going to have to commence forging a rather more original path.

(3½/5)