"This is Arcade Fire with ration books and gas masks, or Elliott Smith fronting Sparklehorse. Stunning, subtle and romantic" - NME "Delightful, poetic and effortlessly gorgeous" - THE WORD WOODPIGEON, aka one Mark Andrew Hamilton, releases his fifth album, "Thumbtacks And Glue" on fierce panda.

Since 2010's "Balladeer" our bearded, slightly bear-like hero has moved home from Calgary, Alberta to Vienna, Austria (he was in search of "a wildly romantic Bohemia"), so now has a perfect base from which to plot his European tour to coincide with the album's launch.

Expert lovers of gently bruised alt.folk.rock tumblings could well have first clocked WOODPIGEON in 2006 with the "winningly understated" (BBC) debut album "Songbook".

Then came lovingly crafted long players with titles like "Treasure Library Canada", "Die Stadt Muzikanten" and the aforementioned "Balladeer".

As well as swapping continents since the release of the latter WOODPIGEON has toured with Patrick Wolf, Andrew Bird and Junip and quietly, studiously gone about his business with an elegance which befits his winningly understated nature.

"Thumbtacks And Glue"' rolls out the fulsome red carpet, strings and all. Backed at various points by mellotron, violin, harpsichord, oboe and French horn, as well as the more traditional rock "gear" and heaps of backing "singings", here is WOODPIGEON in his creative element: large of heart, subtle of melody and never afraid to fray a nerve or two, judging by the way the pluckily intelligent "Robin Song" sounds like a fraught Death Cab and the discordant squiggles of "The Saddest Music In The World" make like an irked Grandaddy.

Elsewhere you may well be able to hear whispered snatches of Elliot Smith, of Simon & Garfunkel, of Badly Drawn Boy.of men with their hearts in the right place, their hats on their heads and their art at the top of the agenda.