Genesis: "Calling All Stations" (Virgin)

The Genesis brand name is not one to throw away lightly, so remaining members Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks decided to look for a replacement for their cheeky chappie singer Phil Collins, and they've found him in the most unlikely of places - an old Levi's ad.

Ray Wilson, former singer with one-hit wonders Stiltskin, has the unenviable task of filling Collins's plimsolls, and though he's a competent, rough-edged vocalist, he sounds just like any other faceless AOR shouter. Tony Banks's keyboards have gotten even more bland and noodly, keeping the sound firmly stuck in the mid-1980s, and even Mike Rutherford's musical mechanics can't get this creaky old clunker up to speed.

Kevin Courtney

Morrissey: "Suedehead - The Best Of Morrissey" (EMI)

Hot on the heels of his new Maladjusted album, The Moz reminds us that there was indeed life after The Smiths, and that it was sometimes very good indeed. Taken together, Morrissey's singles over the past 10 years show an artist in full, fanciful flight, moving from the ridiculous (You're The One For Me, Fatty) to the sublime (Every Day Is Like Sunday), from weedy music hall (Piccadilly Palare) to powerful pop (November Spawned A Monster).

Morrissey has become a bit irrelevant of late, but this collection is a firm reminder of when he meant everything to a whole generation of alienated teens. Some of these, however, won't have grown up, and this album may rekindle an unhealthy worship of the bequiffed one.

Kevin Courtney

Chumbawamba: "Tubthumper" (EMI)

"He drinks a whiskey drink, he drinks a vodka drink, he drinks a lager drink, he drinks a cider drink. . ." This year's unlikely lad anthem comes from way out in leftfield, courtesy of anarcho-punkdance collective Chumbawamba.

After more than 10 years of lobbing stones at the government's glasshouse, the 1980s agit-poppers have finally broken through the commercial barrier with the Tubthumping single, a stomping swipe at the pissed-up generation, which went into the charts at Number 2. Now that they can finally afford to buy their own squat, Chumbawamba might be in danger of losing their subversive edge, but musically at least, they're still sounding sharp, if a little crusty. In their eagerness to attack society's sacred cows, the band sometimes get a bit too pedantic, and the music often veers between Jesus Jones, Republica and The Human League, but for the most part, their running pop commentary is bang on target.

Kevin Courtney