Latest releases reviewed

VARIOUS
Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys
 Anti
****

While it was director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp who hatched a plan on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest to do an album of sea shanties, it was producer Hal Willner's wit, wisdom and contact book that turned this notion into a rollicking good listen (see cover story). As far as Willner is concerned, sea shanties were the original punk anthems, but I doubt if any snotty punk rock brats ever had as much fun as the pirates and buccaneers Willner assembled in various ports for this outlandish joust. A lot of grog seems to have been consumed as an armada of stars came to help the producer work out just what to do with the drunken sailor. Gavin Friday tackles Baltimore Whores with considerable relish, Mary Margaret O'Hara banshees her way through The Cry of Man and Loudon Wainwright III is as bawdy as you want him to be on Good Ship Venus. Throughout, you can hear Willner conducting his all-star cast to new and more exquisite lengths. A real treasure chest. www.anti.com - Jim Carroll

GET CAPE. WEAR CAPE. FLY
The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager
Warners
***

The fact that Sam Duckworth aka GC.WC.F is barely out of his teens might excuse the OTT pseudonym, but there's nothing whimsical about his music. From guileless opener Once More with Feeling, Duckworth displays a lyrical savvyness and extraordinary skill with an acoustic guitar. He's also partial to throwing around laptop beats and percussive shapes when you're not expecting them and, once in a while, a mournful trumpet shuffles in. The sound is Ziploc tight, possibly because Duckworth has spent so long touring (more than 160 gigs since the start of 2005). A heartfelt intensity conquers every track, from the moodiness of Lighthouse Keeper to the drippy beats of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. If the album suffers from one thing, it's the similarity of some of songs. But when most of them are so likeable, who's com- plaining? www.getcapewearcapefly.com - Sinéad Gleeson

LLOYD COLE
Antidepressant
Sanctuary
****

Was Lloyd Cole simply too cool and smart for his own good? He had the matinee movie star looks, what with his hair falling just so, and he had a pop music vocabulary second to none. In the face of opposition from the likes of Bros, however, he broke up The Commotions and slipped off to New York, where he released solo records of wit and diminishing returns. No wonder his crown slipped. Well, you can put it back on again, because Cole is back with one of the best albums of his career. Referencing his classic Commotions songs, it hums along with all the svelte elegance of a Brandy Alexander at twilight. The songs are consummate same-but-different derivations of the glory days - a mixture of erudite, witty wordplay and supremely melodic pop music. It's so good, in fact, that when its final song (Rolodex Incident) fades out, you'll wonder where the past 20 years have gone. - Tony Clayton-Lea

VARIOUS ARTISTS
The Record Shop - 30 Years of Rough Trade Shops
V2
**

Rough Trade has been flogging good records to discerning customers for 30 years. To celebrate, it's asked 30 high-profile record buyers to pick their favourite tunes from the alternative archives. With such luminaries as Björk, Seymour Stein, Laurence Bell, Don Letts, Geoff Travis, Thurston Moore and Jarvis Cocker making the selections, this compilation can't lose, right? Wrong.There may be a few buried treasures uncovered here, such as Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock, The Mekons' Kill (so that's where Clap Your Hands Say Yeah get their sound) and Bongwater's His Old Look, but mostly this double CD comprises long-forgotten curiosities which are probably best left forgotten. While it's hard to argue with the choice of The Modern Lovers' Pablo Picasso, The Soft Boys' I Wanna Destroy You and Swell Maps' Read About Seymour, it's harder to find much lasting merit in Adam & the Ants' rather obsolete Xerox, Stereolab's droning Simple Headphone Mind and Lard's plain stupid The Power of Lard. - Kevin Courtney

THE FRATELLIS
Costello Music
Drop the Gun Recordings
***

This scruffy Glaswegian trio, named for their bass player, are the antithesis of Franz Ferdinand's art-rock, but their rabble-rousing tunes (a raucous blend of skiffle and Supergrass with a dash of Dodgy's summery vibe) have taken crowds by storm. So expect this album to find a place beside similarly exuberant debuts by The Automatic and The Kooks. Featuring hits Creepin' Up the Backstairs and Chelsea Daggers, Costello Music is a kind of aural Confessions of a Window Cleaner, charting the adventures, mishaps and misdeeds of yer typical cheeky chappie. From the strategically misspelt Cuntry Boys & City Girls and Doginabag to Vince the Loveable Stoner and Got Ma Nuts from a Hippy, this is a glam-stomping ladfest all the way. But the lads also pull a couple of rabbits out of a deeper hat in the form of Baby Fratelli and Everybody Knows You Cried Last Night. www.thefratellis.com  - Kevin Courtney