Lord Cut-Glass is the new vessel of Alun Woodward, formerly singer of Scottish band The Delgados. His first solo album is released this week on Chemikal Underground. If you’ve heard The Delgados earlier, this one will probably strike you as more upbeat and cheerful than its predecessor. Lord Cut-Glass is an album full with rich arrangements and nice pop tunes.

Scuzzy noise-rock three-piece Future of the Left features members of Mclusky and Jarcrew. When both these band fell apart, FOTL was born. Their debut album Curses was released in the fall of 2007. A live album, 2008′s Last Night I Saved Her from Vampires, became the band’s 4AD debut; early the following year, the single The Hope That House Built signalled Future of the Left’s heavier attack on their second album, Travels with Myself and Another, which arrived a little while ago.

White Denim is a bluesy, garage-rock trio, hailing from Austin, Texas. Their new album Fits fuses together garage rock, dub, soul, country, post-punk, blues, psychedelic and folk with home-based recording, intense looping work and unusual song structures. A very inventive threesome, Fits is an album you should really hear, definitely one of the best surprises this week.

Tinkering about somewhere between the earthy and the ethereal, Sweet Billy Pilgrim scrape strings and tap away at laptops trying to make beautiful things with steady hands and empty pockets. A track of their latest album, Twice Born Men, was already featured on the Wire Tapper 21, and this is probably indie at its best. Ian Mathers of Stylus wrote, “Sweet Billy Pilgrim’s debut album has swallowed me whole.” That’s even more likely with Twice Born Men, a richer, sadder, and even more engrossing experience.