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Third album from Berlin’s Maximilian Hecker and the successor to 2003’s 'Rose'. Hecker has always surrounded himself with evocative guitar outbursts and the most epic of pianos, yet although 'Lady Sleep' appears to be more stripped than it’s counterparts, it’s far from stripped of epic emotion and seductive charm. His logic and ambition with album number three is more intimate pieces on a stronger personal level.

Topics of love, death and contemplating his own life are all obvious subjects on Hecker’s young troubled mind - all of which are present both lyrically and in the bleak piano led tracks. So stripped and minimalist is 'Lady Sleep', that only on occasion can the sound of strings be heard in the background, which always rotate around the set up of Hecker’s mesmorising vocals and piano.

At times, replacing his chosen weapon is the acoustic guitar that presents Hecker more in the manner of several popular artists. 'Summer Days In Bloom' is the daytime friendly Keane and 'Daze Of Nothing' is surprisingly more Damien Rice than the doom-gloom of Will Oldham you’d have initially expected. Well-written, confident and throbbing with emotion - the heartbreak album of the year.