Merz is solo artist Conrad Lambert ”“ a British singer songwriter often classified as “folk” (it even says so when uploading his album to iTunes), which, on the evidence of this, his third album, is a somewhat misleading categorisation.  This was my first encounter with Merz’s music, and a rather pleasant encounter it has mostly been. There appears to be a theme at work here, with many tales of disenchantment, loneliness and disillusion. Far from being depressing, though, a strange sort of alchemy is worked by the combination of his warm, sometimes intimate singing voice (most touchingly deployed on 'Call Me'); restrained yet always to-the-point instrumentation (lots of acoustic guitar, occasional brass and strings, a few judicious touches of electronica) and, importantly, a gorgeous way with melody and balladry.Thus opening track 'Moi et Mon Camion (The Eviction Song)' sees the narrator thinking “The future looks bleak to me”; while in 'Lucky Adem' he is feeling “like a pitiful fool”, and in 'No Bells Left to Chime' he sings of living in an area where he finds “No open arms, just disorderly brides / No chewing of the fat, just a few brief lines”. 'Call Me' ”“ one of the album’s highlights - is, thematically, very close to Simon & Garfunkel’s 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' (which I’ve always had a soft spot for”¦), and even features a comparable piano break. The vocals here are at their most warm and immediate. The pictures evoked by 'Malcolm', another great track, are quite brilliant. Taking the prosaic dropping of a mobile phone into the road as a starting point, a series of striking images are produced, which deserve to be quoted here quite fully:My phone it fell into the road (”¦) What with the water on the road Overhead electric cables From my shattered phone Rose a corkscrew in rainbows Drew up to the sky the names and numbers Of everyone I know (”¦) Now every number is a satellite Each name a moon’s craterAn effective and original metaphor for lost and/or fading friendships.The only tracks on which I could hear a faint echo of what I would normally class as “folkie”-ness were 'Silver Moon Ladders' (faintly influenced by Cat Stevens’ 'Moon Shadow' perhaps?), where the vocal has a slightly folk-like lilt to it; and the end of 'The First and Last Waltz' (another great track, notably infused with optimism to end the album) where a “fiddle”-type violin is featured. Other tracks could be described, with just as much justification, as jazzy electro ('Shun (Sad Eye Days)') or lounge-influenced (parts of 'Call Me').Fundamentally, however, you can call this artist whatever you please. To me he is a pretty marvellous new discovery, and one in which I have found plenty to enjoy, and a little, in fact, that I will truly treasure. 75%Links Merz [myspace]