Eddi Reader: "Angels and Electricity" (Warners)
This must be one of the most suitably-titled albums of the year. Eddi Reader does sing like what we perceive to be an angel, yet rippling through her voice is an earthiness that makes it obvious her voice is plugged right into the Glasgow soil. To me, the mix is magic, one of the most lyrical creations in contemporary pop. And all those characteristics shine through here on Wings On My Heels and the clearly autobiographical Kiteflyer's Hill. Gorgeous is a word that really does apply to this music. And sensuous and soothing. Indeed, Eddi Reader has the kind of voice that if she were to read the Belfast Agreement in public few could resist its promise of peace. A lovely album.
By Joe Jackson
Garbage: "Version 2.0" (Mushroom)
Nice title, and it pretty much describes what you get with Garbage's second album - an updated version of their 1995 debut. Version 2.0 is crackling with dark electricity, and one listen will make you wonder why you ever entertained such pale imitators as Republica. Singer Shirley Manson has turned to 1960s American girl groups and British psychedelia for much of her lyrical and melodic inspiration, and songs like I Think I'm Paranoid and When I Grow up resonate with shades of modern pop history, infecting your senses with a vibrant, unshakeable virus. Butch Vig, Steve Marker and Duke Erikson have created another throbbing soundscape, and the electro-rock arrangements on Medication, Sleep Together and The Trick Is To Keep Breathing are as inventive and otherworldly as before.
By Kevin Courtney
Marcy Playground: "Marcy Playground" (Capitol)
According to John Wozniak's biog he spent much of his childhood alone, brooding in the classroom at Marcy High School, looking down at the other kids in the playground. So this is where Wozniak got the name for his band, and also where he developed his cracked world-view, as seen on songs such as The Vampires Of New York and One More Suicide. Lighter moments such as Poppies (about the discovery of heroin) and Sex And Candy (about adolescent hormones) are juxtaposed by deceptively dark songs: A Cloak Of Elvenkind and Sherry Fraser. There's a shuffling simplicity to most of the songs, Wozniac's guitar lines kicking a tin can along the street, and there are echoes of Paul Simon's Gracelands in Gone Crazy.
By Kevin Courtney
