Patrick Wolf doesn’t make things easy on himself or his fans. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of his debut EP he’s re-cast 16 songs from his back catalogue in an acoustic setting, replacing the burbling electronics and atmospherics with plucked harps, rousing strings and a host of instruments no one’s used since 1872. When it works – as on the heartbreaking ‘Together’ and a barrelling ‘The Magic Position’ – it highlights his gifts as a songwriter, but on the dreary ‘Bitten’ and a seemingly endless ‘Vulture’ it makes you long for something simpler to mark his brilliance. A Best Of, maybe?

Michael Cragg