Belle & Sebastian: Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant (Jeepster)

My mum used to say that to me all the time, but I never listened. However, I'll happily listen to the earthy, gossamer tones of this fourth album by the fey Scottish popsters. B&S have been one of the great British underground groups, but a wider audience awaits this heavenly indie collective. The B&S songwriting pool is getting deeper and more mature by the minute; songs such as I Fought In A War, Beyond The Sunrise and The Wrong Girl are just too good to leave buried in cult limbo. The current single, Legal Man (not included on the album), has hit the UK Top 20, and the band will be performing it on Top Of The Pops tonight. If it converts just one Westlife fan, that'll be a start.

Kevin Courtney

Pearl Jam: Binaural (Epic)

Incredible - a Pearl Jam album I can almost stand to be in the same room with. Since Eddie Vedder and his grunge-bunnies hit the big time with 10 almost a decade ago, Pearl Jam have descended into ludicrous self-parody, but they hold on to a hard corps of fans who have stuck by them through such rubbish records as Vs., Vitalogy and No Code. The band have finally found some ideas, and though they still don't seem quite sure what to do with them, they manage to bluster their way through in a pompous, prog-rock fashion. God's Dice and Nothing As It Seems are almost listenable, and Eddie Vedder's aimless, stream-oflobotomy lyrics often come close to actually making sense. Hang on to your goatees - these dinosaurs aren't quite extinct yet.

Kevin Courtney