There’s a particularly prevalent strain of singer-songwriter at the moment – we’ll call them piano-men. Sharing a love of Billy Joel and specialising in a sensibly-crafted brand of airplay-thirsty pop, it’s a group that includes the up-and-coming likes of Jack McManus and Doug Walker – and the rather less up-and-coming, but nonetheless talented, Julian Velard.

Velard has one of those sturdily plaintive voices, reminiscent of The Fray’s Isaac Slade, that American record-buyers go feral over. It’s ironic, then, that the Brooklyn-raised singer-songwriter got his big break here in the UK last summer, when he was signed by EMI, prompting a move to London (“I’ve seen enough asymmetrical haircuts to last a lifetime,” he says ruefully of his adopted home).

Velard likens his music to “a Guys and Dolls-era musical starring Steve McQueen and scored by Harry Nilsson,” which gives a sense of the vibe at work: jaunty, but with a hint of widescreen emotion bubbling underneath.

Our nominal Track Of The Day is Joni, which finds Velard reprising the rubber-ball piano-bounciness of Ben Folds Five (and can be heard on Myspace), but we’d also like to draw your attention to his sensitive cover of Bjork’s Hyperballad.