Zak Whitefield’s To Anywhere EP sounds, at first, like it could slip onto the playlist of a major retailer. Polished, sun-lit and alluringly HD, it has the self-assurance of something with a massive audience in its sights. Add the big, confident voice, and Whitefield’s gift for a certain kind of cliff-top chorus, and there are few artists around these parts who look a safer commercial bet.

But don’t worry, there are positives too. These are early days for the Belfast man. There’s a lived-in sensibility that augurs well for the long-term. Zak’s championing of hope and optimism is all the more winning because there are genuine shadows in the periphery of his vision. As he progresses as a songwriter this tension between light and shade promises to make for an interesting dynamic.

Tony Wright has been working on his debut album as Verse Chorus Verse for long enough now that memories of him playing in ASIWYFA are surely starting to dim. With the record out, the distance between his noisenik (lyric-less) past, and his tuneful (lyric-heavy) present is vast enough to make it seem almost ridiculous that the same guy could be involved with both.