IGNORE the title, the sun shines through the seventh album from Minneapolis's wistful Jayhawks.

"To me, this record sounds like everything, yet nothing we've ever done before," says front man Gary Louris, as spot-on as Rainy Day Music itself. This warming, acoustic music instantly sounds as if it has been around for ever, the yearning country rock of Gram Parsons-era Byrds, Dylan and even The Beatles being the forerunners. Recorded "the old school way, live, with no computers", the 14 tracks are pared down and sparser than 2000's psychedelic Smile, fashioned on a time-honoured template of cooling harmonies and ripe melodies. Aching tales of heartbreak and mature reflection, sometimes meditative, other times melancholic, glide by like a summer river. Pretty and pretty much perfect.

A sunny disposition also accompanies the sabbatical work of The Minus 5, a sporadic pop collective led by Scott McCaughey of The Young Fresh Fellows with participation from REM's Peter Buck and The Posies' Ken Stringfellow. Jeff Tweedy's Wilco are there too, as the house band, hence that Down With Wilco title on a lovely, loose, dreamy record that casually plays around with rock and country with a pop twirl. A side project rich with unhurried pleasure.

Updated: 09:23 Thursday, April 03, 2003