Latest releases reviewed

RADIOHEAD My Iron Lung Parlophone ****

Previously only available as an import, this extended EP (eight tracks) was the bridge between Pablo Honey and The Bends. Though officially a collection of B-sides, it is a coherent mini-album, mainly thanks to the quality of the songwriting. There's very much a Sonic Youth feel to the tracks as the band lay down early markers for their later change of direction. The title track alone is worth the admission price, while other highlights are The Trickster and the marvellous Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong. Perhaps better to view this as a companion piece to The Bends - it makes more sense that way; the only letdown here is a strangely muted acoustic version of Creep, which does no one any favours. Listen very closely and you'll hear where they got the idea for Ok Computer from. Brian Boyd

EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL Adapt Or Die (Ten Years Of Remixes) Virgin ***

After the success of Todd Terry's 1994 beat-driven remix of Missing, the protean Everything But The Girl's Tracy Thorn and Ben Watt abandoned their bossanova-inflected pop of the 1980s and embraced house and drum & bass on their groundbreaking electro-pop 1996 release, Walking Wounded. 10 years and two albums later (Temperamental and the best-of Like The Deserts Miss the Rain) comes this retrospective re-mixathon, which features unreleased remixes by Todd Terry and Kevin Yost, and new remixes by DJ Jazzy Jeff, King Britt (Rollercoaster) and Kenny Dope of several EBTG classic tracks - Mirrorball, Missing and Wrong. Although their lyrical and musical savvy still courses through the re-inventions - Thorn's voice is particularly aching on Watt's mixes of Temperamental and Driving - one can't help thinking EBTG have given up their bedsit introspection and clubbing brashness for Ikea coffee-table nostalgia. www.ebtg.com Jocelyn Clarke

PAUL BRADY Say What You Feel Compass Records ***

Paul Brady is a happier camper these days. Singing in a lower register, his voice may be betraying some of the signs of the road, but there's hardly a whiff of the tortured soul from songs such as The Island. Brady thinks of himself as "an Irish soul singer", but the distinct absence of clearly articulated emotion on this album suggests that he's only managing to skirt around the periphery, rather than hitting the bullseye where soul music lives up to its name. With the finest of musicians in the shadows, (Bonnie Raitt, Viktor Krauss) and enough space in the arrangements to accommodate a pavilion tent, this is basking sofa music: long on easy-listening curlicues but short on the perfect pitch he's hit so often in the past. www.paulbrady.com Siobhán Long

VARIOUS Festival International de Benicàssim 2004  Pias ***

This Spanish festival turned 10 last summer, and its latest compilation provides countless explanations as to why thousands of fans and dozens of bands continue to make their way to this small Mediterranean coastal town every August. Over four nights, a bewildering array of acts and musical styles hold sway, ranging last year from international party people Franz Ferdinand, Snow Patrol, Primal Scream and The Dandy Warhols amongst others, to such lesser-known (but by no mean less interesting) acts as Marc Nguyen Tan's Colder, the minimal electronica of Superpitcher and the simple, shiny pop of Her Space Holiday. Indeed, many of the better moments on this compilation are provided by Spanish acts yet to make a splash beyond the Iberian peninsula, including The Sunday Drivers, La Casa Azul and Cooper. If you don't get a ticket for Glastonbury, there's always Benicàssim. www.fiberfib.com Jim Carroll

LOU BARLOW Emoh  Domino ***

Ever go in your front door and discover that everything's gone topsy-turvy? Then you'll feel right at home here. Emoh is the first official solo album from the Sebadoh and Folk Implosion man, although he's already put out lots of home-made material under the Sentridoh moniker. This was also mostly recorded in Barlow's home, with help from various musician friends including Sebadoh's Jason Lowenstein, and, though it lacks the trademark tape hiss that runs through Barlow's many other lo-fi efforts, it more than makes up for it with a warmth, maturity and a natural instinct for picking out fresh folk-rock pathways. Barlow's beechwood-aged vocals and oak-smoked acoustic guitar picking form the heartland of this record, but the peripheral presence of drums, keyboards, cut-up drums and even a cat's miaow bring a sparkle to Caterpillar Girl, Royalty, Morning's After Me and Mary, the latter a mildly blasphemous retelling of the New Testament tale. www.loobiecore.com Kevin Courtney

CASS MCCOMBS PREfection  4AD ***

Smart, literate, with a certain rakish charm and a sound reminisent of the sharp end of 1980s indie - it would be unfair to label the Baltimore troubador the new Lloyd Cole, but not completely off the mark to imagine Ian McCulloch in his raincoat-wrapped prime. McCombs impressed with last year's debut, A, and this cavernous follow-up should ensure he'll never be lumped in with the B-division. Equinox, Subtraction, Multiple Suns and Tourist Woman are all dark, reverberating guitars, swirling-vortex organs and subterranean drums; over it all, though, McCombs's voice soars confidently like Spider-Man in a plastic mac. Sacred Heart is an almost-redemptive pop anthem, McCombs's voice conjuring up the kindred spirits of George Harrison and Roy Orbison. Cuckoo, Bury Mary and City Of Brotherly Love evoke a restless, less brooding Interpol. This is how the past should really be reflected - through a dark, rain-flecked looking-glass. www.4AD.com  Kevin Courtney