Some smooth grooves from Robin Thicke and Cherry Ghost's first album head the list of this week's top CD releases

FOLK
Elvis Perkins
Ash Wednesday (XL)
*****
Since my first encounter with Elvis Perkins, I have become quite the groupie. We had a five-month wait for his debut album - which took seven years to perfect, but perfect it he did. The tragic family history - father Anthony "Psycho" Perkins died in 1992 and his mother was on board a hijacked 9/11 plane - drapes itself over the songs without sounding too melancholy. While You Were Sleeping is lullaby loveliness and during Emile's Vietnam In The Sky he insists "take better care of your heart".
This is the album to do just that and if you don't adore it, you didn't have a heart to start with. MARTHA DE LACY

POP
Robin Thicke
The Evolution of Robin Thicke (Interscope)
****
This is going to be huge. Imagine, if you will, a grown-up's Justin Timberlake who looks a little like JT, a little like Charlie from Lost (nobody's perfect) but who sounds like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Throw in slick, classic soul grooves - and laydees and gennelmen, we have a star. Thicke is already huge in the US with this, his second album, and he appears set to repeat the feat here.
Got 2 Be Down, the lead track, has a loose-limbed grace to it that's reminiscent of Let's Get It On-era Marvin Gaye, Would That Make U Love Me features vocals that echo both Gaye and Stevie Wonder, while single Lost Without You is surely destined to be a Capital Gold staple for years. It's five tracks too long but you'll have such fun cherrypicking you won't care. PAUL CONNOLLY

INDIE
Cherry Ghost
Thirst For Romance (Heavenly)
***
Simon Aldred is Cherry Ghost and the Mancunian's debut album is, implausibly, totally in thrall to the Americana of Johnny Cash, Wilco, Willie Nelson and, er, Hobotalk. The last reference, a Scottish one-man band who released one classic album, Beauty In Madness, in 1999, before disappearing under the radar, is perhaps the most relevant, especially on the gorgeous chug of 4am. Elsewhere Aldred's raspy voice recalls another British band, Starsailor, and if some of the tunes can verge on dreary, the overall atmosphere of romance and wonder, especially on album closer, Mathematics, ensures that this is a creditable first album. PAUL CONNOLLY

New Young Pony Club
Fantastic Playroom (Modular)
***
These indie-dance-punksters are more east London chic than the country bumpkin cuties their name suggests. Half Egyptian vocalist Tahita Bulmer has led her two-girl, two-boy band to the nu-rave frontline with a debut album that shimmers with indie-disco beats. The minimal electro-pop bounce of Ice Cream has already found its way onto telly in the form of an Intel ad soundtrack while the spacey, synth-driven Get Lucky was remixed into Get Dancey and optioned by labelmates Cut Copy to hold a well-deserved, coveted spot on their FabricLive 29 compilation. If a teenage Kosheen fronted Sunshine Underground and convinced them to whine apathetically instead of roar with passion, the result would be very close to this toy box of dancehall treats. MARTHA DE LACEY