The wonderfulness of Glaswegian four-piece Stapleton could be judged on the quality of those who have been influenced by them alone: Tellison, Johnny Foreigner, The Xcerts and Dartz!; with only the latter matching Stapleton’s craftsmanship. That Andrew Cook (guitar/vocals), Gordon Farquhar (drums), Alistair Paxton (vocals/guitar) and Nico Weststeijn (bass) have been playing together since 1997 and this might be their most accomplished album yet is even more remarkable.

Their fourth LP is subtle and understated, but bold of heart and unafraid of emotion just as ‘Hug The Coast’ and ‘On The Enjoyment Of Unpleasant Places’ were previously. Their relative quietness, compared to their 2000 debut ‘Rebuild The Pier’, is what makes every brilliant melody, charming lyric and emotional pull stand out. Their own voice becoming more and more confident with every release (gone is the slightly American twang of some of their earliest songs), Alistair Paxton sounds, well, more Scottish on songs such as ‘Tonight We Will Carry Him Home’ – like Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil when the bearded one really sings.

‘Rest And Be Thankful’ doesn’t necessarily grab the listener straight away, but after a few plays the likes of ‘Versus The Underground’ and the upbeat ‘Passing Place’ (emo in the 1997-2001 sense of the word) reveal themselves as sentimental, handsome songs of the highest order. Mixing Built To Spill/Promise Ring style emo with touches of the post-rocky (‘Borovets’, ‘Dear Dusk’, ‘Absent Friends’), Stapleton’s guitars might be fiddlesome but they exude elegance and warmth rather than math-rock standoffishness.

A new version of ‘Chez Chef’ – which as gone down better with some fans than others – is the most obviously accessible moment, which could easily clock up radio play if the band and Xtra Mile were into that kind of thing. But as it is they will probably, unfortunately, remain a favourite cult concern, despite ‘Rest And Be Thankful’ being an excellent, excellent record.