I first encountered Sweet Billy Pilgrim via the sitcom The IT Crowd. In an episode in the fourth series shouty departmental boss Jen somehow ended up dating the keyboard player. The keyboard player lost his job and subsequently lost shouty Jen, but in reality the Aylesbury quartet are winners. 2009's Twice Born Men was nominated for a Mercury Prize and their latest release, recorded on a larger budget in the cottage of songwriter Tim Elsenburg, is even better, a thing of pastoral beauty, full of heart, soul and compelling off-kilter magic.
Progressive music and anything with a hint of rhythmic counterpoint usually gets short shrift from me, but Crown and Treaty has a charm that transcends categorisation, from the moment the wistfully melancholic overture of "Joyful Reunion" kicks in, mixing tweet Supertramp symphonics with backing provided by 40 Facebook fans. And just as you fear they are about to break into a chorus of "Greensleeves", tracks such as "Blakefield Gold" take their folk tendencies and push proceedings into a grandiose pop direction, blending the traditional with the electronic. Elsenburg's vocals are light and airy, but there is more than a hint of the swoony muscularity of Elbow's Guy Garvey here too.
Each song is artfully constructed. Complex but never pointlessly elaborate. Elsenburg shares vocals with recent recruit Jana Carpenter, but Carpenter usually plays second fiddle, mostly adding accompanying harmonies to Elsenburg's mournful lead. There is certainly a lot going on here. Take "Blue Sky Falls", which goes from farmyard banjo intro into a full balls-out, swirling finale. Some bands do epic brilliantly, some bands do lo-fi brilliantly. Sweet Billy Pilgrim do both brilliantly within the same song. 2012 is shaping up to be the year of hotly tipped bands fulfilling their potential. Maccabees did it, now Sweet Billy Pilgrim have followed suit. Another one to beat when end-of-term prizes are dished out.
Watch Sweet Billy Pilgrim perform "Future Perfect Tense"
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