The latest releases reviewed.
EMMA BUNTON Life in Mono 19/Universal ***
Things have been quiet in Spiceworld lately, apart from the usual tabloid tattle, but now here's Baby Spice with her third solo album, another collection of shagadelic '60s-type tunes that scream "please can I be in the next Austin Powers movie?" Bunton seems to be the only former Spice girl with anything resembling a musical vision: Apart from a nondescript ballad (All I Need to Know), the songs pay tribute to the slinky lounge grooves of the 1960s, and Bunton's sighing, Olivia Newton-John tones are perfectly suited to the style. Mischievous, Perfect Strangers and I Wasn't Looking (When I Found Love) feature John Barry-esque orchestrations (the title track is a John Barry composition), while He Loves Me Not is a brassy bossa nova and Take Me to Another Town features groovy go-go beats. And, just in case Mike Myers doesn't get the hint, there are bonus covers of Petula Clark's Downtown and Cilla Black's Something Tells Me (Something's Gonna Happen Tonight). www.emmabuntonofficial.com Kevin Courtney
CAP PAS CAP Not Not Is Fine Skinny Wolves Records ****
Things to note about Dublin outfit Cap Pas Cap: they sound arty as hell while being masters of minimalism; they make skewed electro-rock you can dance to; they've got originality in spades; and just when you think it can't get any better, you catch them live, where they fizz and wail over growling riffs and dark pop rhythms. Most notable of all, they're the most inventive band to come out of Ireland in ages. High praise, perhaps, but then opener See & A is pithy and perfect, all slamming drum pulses and tinkling glockenspiel. Said Say It is built on synth ripples and guitar hooks, with Gavin Duffy's distinctive delivery before a cowbell declares a riot for an ending. What better way to end 2006 than with one of the brightest hopes for 2007? www.cappascap.net/ Sinéad Gleeson
DR DOG Takers and Leavers Rough Trade ***
Anyone still hoping that The Beatles might someday release new material could do worse than check out this Philadelphian quintet. Dr Dog are unashamedly in thrall to '60s pop and lo-fi recording techniques, and their work sounds as if it has just emerged from an Abbey Road time capsule. This, a six-song EP to bridge a gap between albums, is at its best in the sweet McCartney-esque tune Ain't It Strange, fleshed out with Beach Boys harmonies and jingling sleigh bells. The recreation continues with Goner, channelling George Harrison's guitar and an off-kilter wail that suggests Bowie on guest vocals. Such slavish excavation of style soon begins to grate, though, coating everything with a dusty reverie - a final dodgy poem even wonders if, 100 years from now, children will "hate all their own songs and everything new?" For Dr Dog, it seems that day can't come soon enough. www.roughtraderecords.com Peter Crawley
MÚM The Peel Session Fat Cat/BBC ***
It's obviously too silly to say that Múm's the word, but there's something about this Icelandic group that just makes you want to spread strategically placed paragraphs about them from north to south. Like fellow barking mad countrymen Sigur Rós, Múm take recognisably structured slabs of sound and change their shape; they tend not to want to scrape the stratosphere, however, but rather slither down closer to the ground, leaving wisps and all manner of idiosyncratic aural trails in their wake. Múm fans will have heard these tracks before: Now There Is That Fear Again and The Ballad of the Broken String have appeared elsewhere, but these are significantly different versions that once again highlight the appeal of gorgeous, slightly strange and mostly instrumental music. www.fat-cat.co.uk Tony Clayton-Lea
VARIOUS ARTISTS Gerry Ryan's Christmas Collection EMI **
Fanning's got his Fab Fifty, but here's Ryan with his reindeer rockers, a selection box of festive standards in aid of Temple Street Children's University Hospital. Mrs Ryan must do all the Christmas shopping, because Gerry doesn't seem to realise that 99 per cent of the tunes on here are stale chestnuts that lost their Christmas flavour long ago. Songs by John & Yoko, Band Aid, Wizzard, Jona Lewie, Bing Crosby, Cliff Richard and Aled Jones have been on permanent rotation in the shops since the beginning of November, if not the beginning of time, so anyone who buys this double CD will be doing so purely to be charitable. To his credit, Gerry also sticks in a few homegrown holiday songs, such as The Thrills' I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Sinéad O'Connor's Silent Night Holy Night and Ronan Keating and Maire Brennan's take on Fairytale of New York. Alas, Gerry didn't include Frank Kelly's mighty Christmas Countdown. But, buried deep in CD2, there is one little emerald gem: a fairytale of old Erin called Christmas Time in Ireland by Ruby Murray. Kevin Courtney
