Joan Of Arse: Lost At Sea (Scientific Laboratories)

With a moniker like that, and the languid, lo-fi songs on this debut album, this Dublin duo probably won't convert any Corrs fans. Joan Of Arse are guitarist/vocalist J.G. Gollier and drummer Jeanne D'Arse (not their real names, one suspects), and Lost At Sea floats along on clattery percussion, wobbly guitars and shaky vocals, eschewing most of the trappings of technology but retaining a refreshing honesty as it sniffs the smelly armpit of modern lowlife. "We'll be gee-eyed by the end of the night," warns Gollier on the mandolin-spiked You'll Always Find Me In The Toilet At Parties, and after listening to the rough'n'ready inventiveness of Let Your Eyes Adjust To The Dark, When Caesar Fell and The Fusing Of The Continental Plates, you'll feel like you've drunk some cheap but nicely intoxicating plonk. Bottoms up!

Kevin Courtney

Aztec Camera: The Best Of Aztec Camera (Warner Music)

If you're digging for some near-perfect pop gems from the 1980s, then Aztec Camera's back catalogue will provide archaeological proof that the decade was not all New Romantic dross and synthesised pap. Roddy Frame had an ear for impeccably catchy indie-pop, and songs such as Oblivious, Somewhere In My Heart and Deep & Wide & Tall have sound-tracked many a yuppie summer of love. One listen to the shimmering, snappily-produced songs on this album should bring you back to the era of pixie boots, big hair and flowing shirt-sleeves, but try and forget the fashions and feel the smooth surfaces of Pillar To Post, Walk Out To Winter and We Could Send Letters.

Kevin Courtney

Amanda Marshall: Tuesday's Child (Epic)

A strange mix. Canadian rocker follows her 1996 debut album by getting Don Was to produce, hauling in Joan Osbourne's cohort Eric Brazilian, and even co-writing one song with Carole King. Ladies and gentlemen: Amanda Marshall. But does it work? Largely. Best of all, breaking away from a pattern that too often dominates albums by female singer-songwriters these days, the album kicks off in a non-vengeful mode with I Believe In You. In Love Lifts Me she even laughs. Though the angst does surface in Why Don't You Love Me? which, in ways, sounds like angst-by-numbers. The lead guitar line, too, sounds like it strayed off a Def Leppard album - where it should have stayed. Good album, but not great.

Joe Jackson