When Robert Post outshined Aimee Mann at her recent Academy 1 gig, it was obvious that there was a real talent about to take off. However, this Norwegian singer-songwriter is far from raw, having been a jobbing musician for quite a while, with one song on this self-titled debut album dating back to the early nineties. The confidence that exudes from the music is therefore not surprising.

Post is a very engaging live performer, but the acid test of course is whether he can still have that spark on record.

Any such fears are literally blown away in the first three songs, which are all simply stunning and instantly memorable. The best description you could come up with for his music is early-Radiohead playing Beatles covers, as he squeezes in the passion of Thom Yorke with the whimsy of Lennon and McCartney.

Opener There's One Thing will surely be a single later this year and deserves to get plenty of airplay because it is easily superior to anything the likes of Coldplay, James Blunt, Daniel Powter or Athlete have come up with in terms of anthems.

With a belter of a chorus and Post's appealing voice, you can almost forgive the photo on the back cover of him sitting in his pyjamas on an amp, playing guitar wearing no shoes and a cow mask on top of his head. Almost. Incredibly, Got None is even better, as many of you will know from hearing it on the radio hopefully.

Certainly our favourite song of the year so far, it is the perfect distillation of Post's influences and talent, showing a knack for a melody that so many singer-songwriters lack these days. Silence Makes Him Sick completes the opening trio of songs with another anthemic tune, despite the strange title and subject.

If it was all this good, we'd be talking a serious album of the year contender here, but sadly there is too much filler after these three songs, and Post lets the pace drop a few times too often. Not that his slow songs are bad, with closing song Come Home a real highlight of the Academy 1 gig, but some of them are non-events.

However, there's more than enough on display here to suggest that Robert Post will be one of the singer-songwriter stars of the next few years if he can build on the stunning songs he has here. He's certainly worth seeing next time he comes back to Manchester...