Amy Rigby: Hang In There With Me (Tapete Records)

Record reviewing can be a frustrating business. Often, the promise offered by a catchy single fades as the realisation dawns, several frustrating hours later, that the rest of the record doesn't match up. Not bad, just a bit... meh. However, if you keep panning for gold, every now and then you come up with a nugget.

Amy Rigby has been honing her craft for decades: her songs have been hailed by the likes of Television's Richard Hell and Steve Earle, covered by Ronnie Spector, and lyrically compared to giants such as Randy Newman. They're right. To really hit home, this kind of stuff needs a strong, believable point of view and Amy sounds like someone you'd love to spend time with - funny, ballsy and wise.

Hang In There With Me is a very strong collection, eleven potential singles combining the classic feel and survivor cool of Lucinda Williams and Tom Petty with melodic DIY garage-rock touches and insightful, witty words. It addresses the shit everyone must wade through as life's clock keeps ticking (ageing, disappointment, death - all the fun ones) - but keeps a sense of optimism. What else are you gonna do? Just keep rockin' on: it's what Amy does and it makes her happy. Without sounding like they are trying too hard, these often country-tinged tunes all have an anthemic, singalong quality. The rockers swing like crazy, the slowies touch the heart.

It sounds like it was a lot of fun to make: producer Wreckless Eric (of Whole Wide World fame), whose availability was undoubtedly improved by the fact that he is Amy's husband, has done a really good job of keeping the songs feeling organic and classic, while still maintaining an edge. Various music legends and art heroes (Scorcese, Dylan, Johnny Ramone) are referenced as touchstones to show you can keep your integrity as you get older. Amy's voice is out front and centre, telling stories that keep you interested and jokes that keep you on her side.

Highlights are many and various: punningly titled opener Hell - Oh Sixty sees Amy taking stock of her life, rattling off the decades and sounding happy to be where she is ('Twenty was funny, twenty was tough...'). It's pretty much a synopsis of the album's main lyrical themes. Life can be a pain, lovers and friends come and go, and so does the money, but if you hang on in there and stay interested, all sorts of magic can happen. Too Old To Be So Crazy meshes weird synth squidges, Stonesy rhythm guitar and Zen perspective ('Trust the mystery').

Dylan in Dubuque is a joy, yet another swinging mid-tempo groove telling the true story of the great man returning to his hometown for a killer 90s gig. A Revolver-esque guitar riff is welded to wonderful words that do as well as anone could to summarise the appeal of the ultimate singer-songwriter, that wonderfully weird and unknowable icon of artistic integrity, from his point of view: 'I am shameless, I am grateful...'

Bangs is a hymn to the style details that matter. Attitude is important in rock'n'roll and at 60 Amy still wants cool hair. It gives shout-outs to a roll-call of icons incuding Johnny Ramone, Nico, Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Marianne Faithfull - another nod to the album's cultural perspective. The attitude and aesthetics of the great 60s bands and icons and 70s punk rockers are what fire these songs.

Largely acoustic, The Farewell Tour is lovely, moving and elegiac. Bad In a Good Way pays tribute to a classic music industry guy, a touch dodgy maybe, a womaniser of epic proportions but a friend nevertheless - and let they who are without blame cast the first Stone, eh? Super-catchy garage-pop banger Bricks is that rarity, a break-up song that doesn't paint the other party as a bastard. Refreshing stuff and funny as hell.

After Heart Is A Muscle brings that classic Keith groove once more, Last Night's Rainbow ends matters in suitably honest but glass-half-full fashion ('Today is shit, today's a bust... last night's rainbow told the truth...'). It's an appropriate end for an album which distils a whole life's worth of experience and makes it all seem like a great adventure. Wonderful, life-affirming stuff. 4/5