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UNKLE War Stories Surrender All ***

What's most striking about the third album from the James Lavelle- fronted collective is the fact that UNKLE actually have made it to album No 3 at all. Lavelle has always aimed high with UNKLE, but often failed to turn such expectations into anything other than a well-meaning, fashionista-friendly mess (debut album Psyence Fiction was more cluttered than a busy pub at chucking out time, with DJ Shadow, Thom Yorke, Richard Ashcroft, Mike D and Badly Drawn Boy just some of those trying to make elbow-room for themselves). Here, though, Lavelle seems to realise that less is more when it comes to marshalling the various men from UNKLE. Ex-Cult singer and would-be Jim Morrison Ian Astbury is surprisingly efficient, if a tad bombastic, on Burn My Shadow, but the darkly soulful clatter of Twilight with collaborator 3-D and the rolling, menacing punch of Chemistry are easier to digest. www.myspace.com/unkle JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Chemistry, Twilight