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Fall Out Boy Infinity On High (Universal) The follow up to From Under the Cork Tree is similarly high strung but wholly melodic emo pop. The Cooper Temple Clause Make This Your Own (Sequel) A hit and miss third album for this Berkshire quintet which, despite some ingenious experiments with electronics is underwhelming, mostly thanks to tinny production. Damon Albarn and friends The Good, The Bad and The Queen (Par/ophone) Technically this band don't have a name but Albarn and Paul ‘Clash’ Simonon step up to trade in dub basslines and spacey atmospherics in an album of late night headphone music. Various Your Sound Term One (King Tut’s) A compilation of highlights from the first season of Sunday afternoon events at Tut's which showcase the demos of some of the best new local acts around. We Are The Physics, Attic Lights and theonewhoflew are among those here.
Lee Paterson The Grinders Monkey (LP Music) Washboards. Cajun squeezebox. bodhran and lap steel are spun into the mix here on this local singer/songwriters eclectic third long player of acoustic folk-blues.
Various Songs for lnverclyde (James Watt Co/lege) The Greenock Telegraph are among the driving forces behind this charity CD in aid of lnverclyde Hospice. The Lazarenkos and Alec Galloway number among the contributors who won a song competition to promote lnverclyde.
ROCK ZOMBINA AND THE SKELETONES Death Valley High (Ecto) O...
They may have released their first offering five years ago but Zombina and the Skeletones are still waiting to make their big splash. Without a doubt. Death Valley High should be it as not only does it contain their most infectious material to date but it also boasts one of the most original sounds around.
This rockabilly pop- meets-surf-punk. doo- wop concept album about a high school murder surges into life. all blistering riffs. devilish keyboards. sweet female vocals and gorgeous harmonies. engaging the listener in a compelling tale of teenage angst. true love and gruesome revenge. Musically exhilarating and oodles of fun. now go ahead and make it massive. (Camilla Pia)
INDIE
COLD WAR KIDS Robbers & Cowards (V2) 0...
cold Iva r kids
Since we all live in a deathly dull. post—post modern society where we've heard it all before and nothing is new. it is nice to hear something that can fill your belly with a warm glow anyway. Lead single 'We Used To Vacation‘ from this. the Long Beach. California quartet's debut is probably one of the most humdinigingly tree- mendous songs about surviving alcoholism you will hear all century and cunningly illustrates just
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what they do best: blend the reckless joy of Pavement and the melodic guile of Ben Folds with the eccentric jangle of Arcade Fire but add their own slightly nervy edge that makes them that wee bit special. Singer Nathan Willett's adenoidal whine is somewhere between Thom Yorke and Lisa Simpson grates on ocassion but for the most part is oddly begumng.
(Mark Robertson)
INDIE
JAMIE T Panic Prevention (Virgin) COO
Instantly labelled as a 'troubadour'. seemingly this year's music journalism cliche de rigeur. Jamie T and his bass guitar pop has enjoyed a year of steadily conscripting devotees to his cause.
Striking a lyrical balance between mockney Skinnerisms and wistful romance. Panic Prevention is at its best when it's just T and his guitar. The characters starring in songs like 'Back in the Game' intentionally evoke some of the atmosphere of ‘London Calling' era Clash. but others are ham-strung by over production. Early single ‘Sheila' is guiltiest of this sin — a perfectly decent song thickly daubed with unnecessary keyboards and strings — and unavoidany laints an otherwise strong album. (Miles Johnson)
FOLK SHOOGLENIFTY Troots
(Shoogle Records) 0...
Shooglenifty have been around long enough to defuse the element of surprise in their musical fusions. a process hastened by the pervasive genre- expanding influence they
KIDS COMPILATION VARIOUS
Songs for the Young at Heart
(Lucky Dog) 0000
Nostalgia might not be what it once was, but in the Staples and Boulter households, the past is far from imperfect. Stuart and Dave, the guys from the Tindersticks, have lovingly recreated the songs they remembered from their radios, TVs and schoolyards, calling in a few favours from the indie kid likes of Stuart Murdoch, Cerys Mathews, Kurt Wagner and Jarvis Cocker. With the tunes here mainly culled from a pocket of time between the mid-60$ and early 705, you might fear that they’ve all gone a bit happy- clappy, hippy-trippy crazy; not a bit of it.
It’s hard to hear the former Catatonia frontlady wail about ‘White Horses’ without a sense of despair creeping over you (in a good way, mind) while the souls of wee ones would be no more harmed by the beautifully mournful vocal of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s ‘Hushabye Mountain’ were Staples to deliver the song dressed as the Child Catcher.
As flinchingly wonderful as those cover versions are, the delicate theme tune to Mary, Mungo and Midge and the rollicking Bonnie Prince Billy shanty for ‘Puff, the Magic Dragon’ leave just as indelible a mark. Staples own lullabies which bookend the collection work pleasingly enough, though I don’t think Jackanory Junior will be calling on the services of Cocker and Martin Wallace just yet after their respective retelling of ‘The Lion and Albert’ and ‘The Three Sneezes’. Still, all we can say is thanks for these memories. (Brian Donaldson)
have exerted over the years. If it no longer packs the sheer novelty it once did. they have succeeded in continually revitalising their energised music along the way. and this fine new album reveals a notable coherence and
assurance in both conception and execuhon.
The new tune sets. all by the band except Donald Macleod‘s pipe
tune ‘Walter C Douglas'.
are well up to standard. The inclusion of lnuk throat singer Tanya Tagao Gillis (a star turn at their Celtic Connections gig which launched this disc) on the vibrant ‘Excess Baggage. also demonstrates that they still have the odd new trick up their sleeve. (Kenny Mathieson)
INDIE
BLOC PARTY
A Weekend In The City (Wichita) 000
It would seem that all is not well in the Bloc Party camp. On this rather disappointing second effort their lyrics are infinitely bleaker. melodies more melancholy and the riffs leaner and meaner than ever before. 'Song For Clay (Disappear Here)‘ and 'Hunting For Witches' are epic examples of this newly- found vitriol as the album explodes into life.
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