I was reading an interview with some surly pop star the other day, and he was going on about how bad the current music "situation" is: how much crappy music there is out there, how folks like N'Sync and Britney are hogging the ears of the world with their pap. And I thought, "What in the hell is this guy talking about?"

There's so much great music out right now that it makes my bum quiver. Sure, commercial radio is sucky, but what do you expect? And if you only shop at Walmart you're probably not going to stumble across much great new stuff. But you have to try pretty hard these days to ignore the fact that it's gotten very, very easy for many, many people (especially pop stars) to get access to lots and lots of great, weird, crazy, beautiful music from all over the world. Geez.

Anyway, I've got great music on the brain because I've been discovering exceptional recordings left and right these days. The latest of these is the new release from Mojave 3, British purveyors of sad, pretty country-pop-folk tunes that'll move even the toughest of football houligans.

Two of the folks in Mojave 3 were in Slowdive, and while Excuses for Travellers probably isn't going to inspire much shoe-gazing, the simple, slow, quiet songs aren't likely to disappoint Slowdive fans...or non-Slowdive fans, for that matter! It's hard to imagine how a song as pretty as "My Life in Art", with all its reverby nostalgia and broken hearted vocals, could fail to touch any reasonably sentient being.

The music on Excuses for Travellers is uniformly excellent, with subtle touches of slide guitar, horns and banjo in all the right places. The songs manage to be both sparse and lush at the same time, creating the perfect atmosphere for Neil Halstead's tired and sad but comforting vocals. Add to that lyrics that range from cautiously optimistic ("Got My Sunshine") to positively heart-breaking ("In Love with a View") and there's not much more I'd dare to ask for from something as simple as a shiny plastic disc.