POP/ROCK

Latest CD releases reviewed

CHARLOTTE HATHERLEY
Grey Will Fade Double Dragon Music
****

Ever since Charlotte Hatherley joined Ash, she's been the most interesting thing about them. And her surprisingly great début solo album, which she wrote and co-produced herself, indicates that she really should give up the day job. Opening track Kim Wilde is the album's highlight, a gorgeously spiky homage to the pop princess-turned-gardener that sounds like a catchy cross between PJ Harvey, Sleater Kinney and the Go-Gos (the PJ connection is unsurprising; Harvey's long-time drummer Rob Ellis performed on all tracks). The rest of the album doesn't quite live up it, but it's still an excellent collection of choppy, poppy songs, laced with honey-sweet harmonies and buzzy guitars. Toe-tapping, head-banging summer fun that should establish Hatherley as the new indie-rock princess. Anna Carey

BJöRK
Medulla Polydor
*

Björk's voice has always teetered on the edge of irritating; like thin ice, it could crack anytime and plunge you in a miasma of vocal tics, odd phrasings and unearthly wails. She's largely kept it reined in by wrapping it in chilled-out beats and haunting melodies, but on Medulla, Ms Gudmundsdóttir seems to have let her larynx run free in what amounts to an album comprised almost entirely of pointless vocal exercises. Painstakingly putting on multiple layers of mouth music, Björk has delivered an excruciating album of non-tunes, using moans, sighs and squeals as her musical bedrock, and using technology to bend her voice into a myriad of unwieldy shapes. Björk famously had a traumatic experience making the film Dancer In The Dark with director Lars Von Trier; Medulla sounds like the painful process of recovery. Oww. Kevin Courtney

DAMIEN RICE
B-Sides DRM
**

There's no denying that the commercial success of Damien Rice in the past 12 months has been phenomenal (over three quarter of a million sales of O, a record that Rice owns lock, stock and barrel) and a salutary lesson for those starting off in the music industry who continue to look towards major labels for their pension plan. The problem with Rice's success, in this writer's opinion, is that its momentum has cloaked a marked lack of substance, leaving in its wake a series of barely formed songs that simpering fans go doolally over. Leaving aside Rice's persona (a nice guy, apparently, though prone to hippy drivel that conflicts with his current financial status as a multi-millionaire), the songs contained on this rarities release range from original demos and live recordings to straight-to-walkman tracks and radio remixes. Recycled songs housed in a recycled paper CD sleeve. We await his forthcoming album with interest. www.damienrice.com Tony Clayton-Lea

MARK GEARY
Ghosts Independent Records
**

Reading the charge sheet on this Dublin singer-songwriter, you'd be forgiven for calling the folk police. Intense and fragile? Guilty. Part of the Whelan's furniture? Guilty. Bezzie mates with Glen Hansard and Josh Ritter? Guilty. Playing the coffee bars of New York (including his bruv's gaff, Sin É)? Guilty. Geary gets off lightly, though, as his breezy songwriting style conjures up a more mellow Mundy or a catchier David Kitt; Beautiful, You're The Only Girl, Fanfare and A Prayer for St Rita blend delicate melodies with sonic touches, creating an introspective electro-folk mood while there's a psychedelic flavour to Up & Up and Whisper (Set Your Guns to Stun). These days, any Irish folkie who doesn't set your teeth on edge is a bonus.  www.markgeary.com Kevin Courtney

BENT
Ariels Open
**

They used to sleep over with the other chill-out chancers in the beanbag corner, but Bent's third album is a progression of sorts. Sweeping away the good-natured humour and light-fingered approach that held them in good stead on The Everlasting Blink and Programmed to Love albums, Bent's Simon Mills and Nail Tolliday have looked at what other dance duos have done and have chosen to get a little serious. Guitar chords rather than samples lead the way and it's left to such vocalists as Steve Edwards, Kosheen's Sian and regular Bent voice Katty to sparkle some magic. Unfortunately, there's very little magic in the bag and it certainly doesn't stretch to 12 tracks. Ariels is an album that tries so, so hard to make a mark and a difference but just ends up amplifying the chasm between Bent and their peers. www.bent-world.com Jim Carroll