Refreshingly, for a singer-songwriter, Flake Brown doesn’t go down the commercial route of trying to sing like James Morrison and strum an acoustic guitar drowned out by strings and over-production. Instead, Flake sounds like a happy Bert Jansch; a very merry Bert Jansch singing in a tavern. In Cornwall. With a gut full of ale.

The songs on the album basically consist of just Flake Brown and acoustic guitar. His style of playing is very much ragtime; jolly and folky and influenced by the likes of Belgian gypsy genius Django Reinhardt. Vocally, he’s a one off. Rambling and shambling surreal lyrics through shanties and jazz-folk songs at pace, muttering incoherently or even emitting a low hum at times.

The guitar playing is pretty hit and miss at times, with a cracking bit of picking one second a trio of missed notes the next. What’s good about this, however, is you get the impression Flake doesn’t give a toss and there’s a real rawness about the album, from vocals to guitar to overall production.

Perhaps with a bit more time and a few more takes, songs and guitar playing will relax and mature and old Flake will find a bit of focus.

It’s a good enough debut, however, for the listener to get an idea of how much better it could have been.