In the world of Henry Wagons, it's often a blurry line between drama and melodrama, sincerity and pisstaking. His voice comes with that natural gravitas, and sometimes overwrought stories are delivered with such weight that you miss the wink in the chorus.

The typically off-centre decision here is making the first album under his own name a collection of duets, with a diverse range of distinctive voices playing off his. But even with these other inputs, you're sometimes still not quite sure what you're meant to think from one song to the next. You can namecheck most all of the great country duetters across this. Of course, the American Gothic of Johnny Cash is probably the most easily referenced. To have his voice and that style come up against the sneer of Alison Mosshart on the opening Unwelcome Company over swirling organ and stabs of guitars almost takes it into Nick Cave territory.

It can get lighter, if the downbeat waltz of Give Me A Kiss and its 'just rolled snake-eyes, but we may as well drink' attitude can be called that. Gosling's wisp is the ideal counterpoint. Similarly, A Hangman's Work Is Never Done is leavened with Patience Hodgson's angel-on-his-shoulder presence, even if she is just there to suggest what knot should be used. Serge Gainsbourg and any number of his ingénues more the musical touchstone here.

But probably the most distinctive moment is our 'Enry in conversation with the archness of Robert Forster on I Still Can't Find Her. It's a theatricality that suits both of them well. Altogether a curious, but engaging, little collection.