From its opener "There's A Crisis In Your Past" onwards, Airport Girl's Slow Light invites comparison with Mazzy Star.

The groups share a certain plaintive, dusty sound, not quite spaghetti western but with all the wistful loneliness of that endless desert horizon.

They're not identical groups of course - Airport Girl lack a vocalist as compelling as Hope Sandoval as well as Mazzy Star's more psychedelic twists.

However they have a folk/Americana streak to them that gives them their own identity, harmonica, banjo and violin cropping up at different points.

Though sadness permeates Slow Light, there are moments such as "Don't Let Me Down Again," which starts out like kicking around town on a lazy, hot afternoon and whose chorus includes as its secret weapon a brief yet perfect interruption by trumpet.

It calls to mind another name in Americana, that of Sufjan Stevens.

And then there are times where Airport Girl verge on the cinematic, such as the sweeping violin line that underpins "Show Me The Way."

It's a marvellous effect, and it seems a shame that they didn't choose this song to close the album.

Still, the album closer proper, "Bullfighting", has its own epic qualities.

A wailing electric guitar line punctuates the music at every chorus, as does a plaintive harmonica and distant vocal cries that have something ethereal about them.

If there's nothing new and revelatory about Airport Girl, then they make up for it with a naked honesty that is subtly moving.

It's not a record that can be easily thrown on in the background, rather it invites closer listening, to be drawn into its aching heart.