In a musical landscape more crowded than ever, and with the entire history of music available at your whim, it's challenging to create an original sound. But indie-eccentrics The Dirty Projectors, helmed by the ubiquitous David Longstreth, have produced another startlingly fresh collection of tracks that brim with invention only a year after their last release.

Longstreth's work arranging parts and songwriting for artists ranging from Joanna Newsom to Solange tells in Lamp Lit Prose, an album with a curious blend of straightforward pop songwriting and left-field instruments and arrangements. The risk in such a bold album, is whether it experiments past the point of comfortable listening.

This balance is immediately tested in the opening track Right Now, where rising R&B vocalist Syd does battle with some particularly brash brass interjections. The same struggle emerges in That's a Lifestyle (with stunning backing vocals from Haim), in which the sweet 60s singer/songwriter style goes head-to-head with choppy almost Bjork-style vocal edits.

But thanks to Longstreth's care and sensitivity, the two elements balance each other out neatly, with the potentially jarring instrumentation adding flair to quite traditionally written songs.

(Review by Zander Sharp)

8/10