Latest releases reviewed

SINEAD O'CONNOR
Throw Down Your Arms
That's Why There's Chocolate and Vanilla
****

Recorded in just two weeks at the legendary Tuff Gong and Anchor Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, O'Connor's new album is obviously a heartfelt tribute to a genre of music that has influenced and inspired her over the years. Produced by the formidable team of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, the singer takes on tracks by Burning Spear, Peter Tosh, Lee Perry and Bob Marley, and always gets a result. What impresses most here is O'Connor's intuitive feel for the rhythm and meaning of reggae music. Far from "covering" these songs, she really inhabits them. Highlights here are Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey and Door Peep. The only criticism is that O'Connor does seem a bit too reverential at times, but then she would have been on t a hiding to nothing if she had radically overhauled these classics. Here's looking forward to Vol 2. Listen and learn, UB40. - Brian Boyd

SHERYL CROW
Wildflower
A&M
****

Like her partner, legendary cyclist Lance Armstrong, Sheryl Crow is a class act who can go the distance. Often dismissed as relatively lightweight since her debut in 1993, Crow has quietly matured into an intelligent singer and songwriter of great purpose and assurance. And this new album, an excellent collection of adult crafted pop, is more evidence of her ability. Crow doesn't do confessional, nor do we get a sense of a life on the line like, say, Aimee Mann. However, she does reveal enough to keep our interest, though the real pleasure lies in the rich pop melodies, her sensual singing and a layered production that is as imaginative as it is apposite. Whether that means strings or neat guitar solos, big ballads or slinky soft rock, it all sounds perfectly in place, and before you know it you'll be singing along to Sending a Letter to God (or Perfect Lie or Lifetimes or Good Is Good or I Don't Want to Know). www.sherylcrow.com - Joe Breen

SOULWAX
Nite Versions
PIAS
***

Naturally, it was only a matter of time before Soulwax remixed themselves. Given that Soulwax's Dewaele brothers have a hugely lucrative sideline as mash-up electro-pop gurriers 2 Many DJs, it would be fair to say that Soulwax didn't have far to look. Nite Versions contains new takes on their Any Minute Now album, turning its lumpy and dull Brussels sprouts into extended beaty, freaky workouts capable of captivating any dancefloor. While some of the reworkings were already in circulation (NY Lipps, E Talking), it's their collaboration with New York producers DFA on a slamming Another Excuse and the electrified, barnstorming cover of Daft Punk's Teachers that really hit the back of the net on this occasion. More than anything else, though, it's the delirious twists and tweaks that the Dewaele brothers produce which will leave you reeling. More DJs, less Soulwax in future please. www.soulwax.com  - Jim Carroll

THE MALADIES
A Whole Bunch of Rivers
White Heat
***

Independent in mind, spirit and label, The Maladies feel free to pursue any musical stream on their slow-burning second album. And pursue them they do. Folk, country, a pinch of punk, an awkward run-in with jazz-rock - the combination may not always be pretty, but what it lacks in conviction it makes up for in adventure. Named for a Tom Waits song, the Dublin five-piece aren't quite the prickly misanthropists they'd like to be, giving the game away with uncommonly polite arrangements (no mean feat when you're dealing with obstreperous banjos or trumpets). Ill-at-ease within Gogol Bordello-style punk cabaret (Burmese Cinema Ramp, Left Alone), they excel on heartrending epic Learning to Let Go, a deftly plotted break-up song, swelling and surging over a distant war beat. Not quite a wild bunch, then, but certain rivers have a beautiful flow. www.themaladies.net -Peter Crawley

HIM
Dark Light
Sire Records
**

Beloved by mini goths and skateboarding teenagers, up until now Finland's HIM haven't managed to bridge the gap between ambition and success. With this new album, their first for Warners imprint Sire and, therefore, their first decent stab at the US market, you can sense it won't be too long before success outstrips ambition. It's still metal-lite, and it still contains the plush, mauve velvet trappings of an overly dramatic scenario that theoretically features the Vampire Lestat reading Wuthering Heights by the light of a silvery moon. But there's nonetheless a definite sense of change and optimism in the damp air. Real metal fans, of course, rightly dismiss HIM as lightweights, but tell that to the kids who worship at the altar of HIM's heartagram (the band's logo) and they'll tear your traitorous eyes out. You just can't talk to them these days, can you? www.heartagram.com - Tony Clayton-Lea

THE BETA BAND
Music - The Best of The Beta Band
Regal
****

Around the time Britpop was disappearing up its own nostril, four Scottish oddballs offered a gentler, more leftfield alternative. Sadly, despite even the efforts of John Cusack in High Fidelity, few people took them up on their offer, and the Beta Band dissolved after three superb EPs, three patchy albums and dozens of why-aren't-they-huge features in the music press. This collection captures the Betas at their wilfully oblique best; Dry the Rain, Inner Meet Me, Squares, Human Being, Assessment and Troubles are hypnotic, disjointed slices of pastoral, psychedelic prog; it's a pity space travel hasn't taken off yet, because I'd like to visit the planet where these tunes are classic hits. CD-2 catches the band live at the Shepherd's Bush Empire last November, and shows the magic was there right to the end. - Kevin Courtney