Eleanor McEvoy: (Columbia)

There's More To This Woman, declares the opening track, and throughout her third album, Eleanor McEvoy sets out to prove there's more to this woman's heart than meets the ear. With the help of producer Rupert Hine, McEvoy has crafted a silky, laid-back album of sensual pop songs which move to a measured trip-hop beat and a mild electro undercurrent. Breathy, mid-tempo tunes such as All I Have, Now You Tell Me and Wrapping Me Up In Luxury (Until The Morning Comes) slide tentatively into Texas territory, while songs like Sophie and She Had It All step lightly into other women's souls. Shake off the smooth, perfumed production, however, and Snapshots seems like just another album of sepia-toned schmaltz.

By Kevin Courtney

The Good Old Days (Kooky Records)

Kooky is Corkman Tony O'Sullivan, who once fronted a band called Soon. Now he's pursuing his own vaudevillian vision, using his plummy, music-hall voice to relate cabaret tales of life by his own lovely Lee. Imagine a hybrid of Morrissey and Neil Hannon backed by an amalgam of The Pogues and Herb Alpert, and you get just a small flavour of Kooky's quirky style. The opening track, The Good Old Days, features the voice of the late Leonard Sachs, who presented the TV show of the same name, and the album is filled with vignettes from another era and images of innocence lost among the antiques and old playbills. There's a nice balance between the whimsical (Tony's Cocktail Bar) and the wistful (Angelina), but sometimes O'Sullivan piles on the Edwardian affectations with just a little too much pomp and ceremony.

By Kevin Courtney