If it's really between me and him, I don't fancy my chances much.

I've just discovered an awesome website going under the moniker of Zamzar, and it converts files to mp3 online for free! This is fantastic and shiny, as many many tracks on my PC have been metaphorically segregated by their WMA status. Now I can convert them, without downloading numerous programs that will ultimately just cause great grief to my intolerable little mind, and put them up for your listening pleasure! Today I'm gonna treat you to the band who I've most wanted to post up here thus far.

And so it is with great joy and much hoo-hah that I present to you... The Audreys! Never heard of them? Well, that doesn't surprise me in the least, because other than via their own website I myself have not heard a single whisper about them since I saw them supporting the awesome Pipettes at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton almost a year ago.

The Audreys are a four-piece Aussie band who make some of the most summery alt-country pop this side of Alabama. Maybe if Sufjan met Albert Hammond and had a bit of a jam session the end result might just reach the sound of The Audreys. Two songs on offer here: The first, 'You & Steve McQueen', is the opening track on debut album 'Between Last Night And Us' and flirts with the broken country pop that the rest of the album lays down so flawlessly. The second, 'Long Ride' is a slow-burning beauty, and my favourite song of last year by some way. It sounds as if the band sung it in their sleep, or at least when in a druken stupor somewhere between tipsy and tripping over the furniture. Certainly far before that stage where you start vomiting in your cupboard. Eurgh. But this isn't selling the track to you, is it? Long Ride is beautiful, building from a gentle sweetness to heartbreaking harmonies. This is the sort of track you'd play at the end of a long road trip, just about to pull into some dodgy motel where three of the neon letters on the sign are not working, and another one has fallen down, smashed beside the ice cube dispenser. Enjoy, you don't find a song like this everyday.

mp3: 'You & Steve McQueen' - The Audreys
mp3: 'Long Ride' - The Audreys

Buy The Audreys