POP/ROCK

Latest CD releases reviewed

ANNIE
Anniemal 679/Warner Music
****

Music to put a big fat grin on your gob, Anniemal contains more giddy highs per square inch than you will find on any other pop album released in the next few months. Hailing from Bergen in Norway, Annie Berge-Strand's fjord focus is on producing great, stylish, sophisticated, occasionally melancholic electro-house pop. It helps, of course, that her co-writer, producer and collaborator on the album is Richard X, a man who shows that X marks the spot where bona-fide cheeky pop hits reside. Add Röyksopp's Torbjørn Brundtland to the backroom cast and you have an all-star team capable of crafting much musical mischief. They don't disappoint, the knockout punches coming thick and fast with the playful Chewing Gum, the seductive Me Plus One, the vulnerable No Easy Love and the gently fizzing Greatest Hit. Trust me, the Norwegian word for all this is "fantasien". www.anniemusic.co.uk

Jim Carroll

KATHLEEN EDWARDS
Back To Me Independent
****

The inner sleeve images on this eagerly-awaited second collection from the Ottawa singer-songwriter tell a tale: motorcycle boots, a transistor radio, a guitar, an amplifier and a pretty dress hanging from a paint-peeled door. These are the clues to help work out these 11 mostly excellent tracks, music that hits the spot immediately and then gets better with each listen. Edwards has stepped up her game considerably since her much-lauded 2002 debut, Failer. The songs are better, more mature and the performances meatier and more nuanced (take a bow, guitarist, producer and now husband Colin Cripps). Playing around the world since her debut could have burnt her out but instead it has helped her hone a recognisable sound - guitar-driven folk-rock, imaginative and reflective themes and a measured, assured voice. Very impressive. www.kathleenedwards.com

Joe Breen

AMOS LEE
Amos Lee Blue Note
***

Hailing from Philadelphia, former schoolteacher Amos Lee now earns his crust as a singer-songwriter and, going on this charming set of subtle, folky soul, education's loss is entertainment's gain. He's already toured with Bob Dylan and Norah Jones, perfect book-ends for where Lee is coming from. On the one hand, he covers the traditional singer-songwriter beat with confidence, tipping the hat to John Prine, Neil Young and occasionally Ben Harper. Yet there's a distinctly soulful scat to his easygoing singing style that will have you thinking of Bill Withers, Curtis Mayfield or Van Morrison when he was still scouring the horizon for the mystic. The songs, though, are robust, even in their bare-bones arrangements; the caustic Soul Suckers in particular, with its warnings about listening to bad advice, coaxing you further along the Lee path. www.amoslee.com

Jim Carroll

FRED
Making Music So You Don't Have To RCM Music
***

Fred, like mono-monikered Cork bands Microdisney and Stump, pull off that rare combination of sounding fecund and feckless. This five-piece can hop from the cheeky tango of Djin Djin to the plaintive, percussive Summer's Coming and regain their sense of fun with the '80s calypso feel of Boring. Over the usual bass/guitar/drums combo they layer strings, brass, and, on standout closing track The Capital Song, a 32-piece choir. Unsurprisingly, Fred cite The Flaming Lips and The Beatles as influences, both of which seep into St Helena. It's an album of contrasts and they have opted for subtle, unfussy production, despite the complex string arrangements and harmonies. Warm, and largely worth it. www.fredtheband.com

Sinéad Gleeson

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE
School of the Flower Drag City
***

The latest name to be lumped in with the new school of twisted folkies has every right to be miffed about his inclusion in that class. Over the course of seven albums, Ben Chasny has produced many mesmeric, experimental, psychedelic nuggets, causing a flood of John Fahey comparisons to lap at the feet of the California-based guitarist and occasional Comets On Fire member. Ironically, it's the addition of kooky, folky vocals to his free-rock, blissed-out, guitar improv that is bringing Chasny's name overground. School of the Flower is certainly an exciting proposition, Chasny's wildly gleeful and occasionally bewildering guitars making their mark time and time again against a backdrop of found sounds, sonic interference and Chris Corsano's light, impulsive percussion. Don't be surprised if tracks such as Home or Lisbon still reverberate in your eardrum many hours later. www.dragcity.com

Jim Carroll

BRIAN FLANAGAN
Dreaming Road RMG Chart
***

Mayo singer-songwriter Brian Flanagan has hit a West Coast chord with his debut, which is more reminiscent of Sunset Boulevard than Castlebar. With a set of vocal cords that are perfectly twinned with those of Eric Bibb on a cover of Bibb's Where The Green Grass Grows, and seven original songs (influenced largely by The Eagles and James Taylor), Flanagan speaks a language that's unapologetically MOR, with the occasional nod in the direction of a sanitised Tom Waits (a highly sanitised one). Coated in the smoothest of arrangements, this is music that's more likely to find its spiritual home in LA, where ripples are relished, and waves are to be avoided. Flanagan's first album is pristine and pitch perfect, but lacking an identity that's all his own. www.brianflanaganmusic.com

Siobhán Long

ADRIAN BELEW
Side One Sanctuary
**

There are two main types of trio: the tightly-coiled threesome with punk attitude and pop sensibility (Police, Jam, Green Day), and the grandiose triumvirate with prog proclivities (Rush, ELP, Muse). The current King Crimson frontman's band falls into a lesser-known third category - the noodly, angular, avant-jazz three-piece. Belew is the session guitarist whose inventive, swooping style added to the heady delight of Talking Heads' Remain In Light and Bowie's Lodger; his umpteenth solo album is a mostly-instrumental affair, Belew and his cohorts bouncing ideas off each other like a three-ring circus of sound. An exercise in applied musical mathematics, and difficult to engage with except in a detached, academic way. www.adrianbelew.net

Kevin Courtney

BILLY IDOL
Devil's Playground Sanctuary
**

"Ye cannae change the laws of physics!" pleaded Scotty from Star Trek, before going ahead and changing them anyway. Billy Idol wants to change the laws of physics, too, to escape from his 1980s MTV-generation universe and find a wormhole into our own. But is our universe ready for the return of the perma-sneering, leather-clad punk-pop hero? Sure, Billy rocks like an older, wiser Billy on such retro rockers as Super Overdrive, Rat Race and Body Snatcher, but he hasn't learnt any new tricks in the 20 years since his hell-raisin' heyday. The boyish yell of yore has been replaced by a broader, throatier bark, and his band, featuring old mucker Steve Stevens, chug along competently, like School of Rock alumni. Billy's had it tough, what with that career-killing motorcycle accident and a descent into drug addiction, so who'd begrudge him one last roar around the block? The entire universe, apparently.

Kevin Courtney