Six new albums including Bloc Party and a The Clash live at Shea Stadium.
VARIOUS
Hollywood, Mon Amour: 80's Movie Songs Reinvented
PIAS
Nouvelle Vague - remember them? They made the songs of Depeche Mode, Joy Division and Visage (among others) sound as though they were forged in a haze of French cigarette smoke instead of the greasy streets of Essex and Manchester.
Marc Collin, the guy behind the lounge act, is at it again, except this time the results are rather good and very different. Taking well-known songs from 1980s movies - and using a genuinely interesting if limited number of female singers - Collin utterly transforms jock-schlock such as A View to a Kill, Eye of the Tiger, Flashdance, Footlooseand Don't You (Forget About Me)into seductive, whiskey-imbued, chin-stroking material.
Even the good originals ( Call Me, When Doves Cry, Forbidden Colours) are strengthened by inventive, intuitive rearranging. Vocalists include Skye, Yael Naim, Dea Li, Juliette Lewis and Leelou.
TONY CLAYTON-LEA
Download tracks: A View to a Kill, When Doves Cry, Forbidden Colours
BLOC PARTY
Intimacy
Wichita
Bloc Party's brave new world? It's just like their old world only bigger, better, bolder and brasher. Bloc Party are one of the more intriguing of the new indie intake, and their every step seems designed to take them farther away from the clamour that greeted Silent Alarm(2005).
Yet the hordes have followed and, as the discordance and experimentation increase, probably grown in number, too. The group's fascination with electronic pulses and paces, which began with last year's Mercurytrack, has continued through to Intimacy. Ares, a tune that has Setting Sunfrom the Chemical Brothers somewhere in its genes, opens the album on a menacing, crunchy and incendiary note.
But Intimacyisn't all flushes of beeps and bleeps: Bikoand Zephyrushave skittish, biting and often murky angles, continuing the group's homage to Public Image Limited.
Even better is Ion Square, a lovelorn and warm second act to I Still Rememberfrom the last album.
www.blocparty.com
JIM CARROLL
Download tracks: Ares, Ion Square
THE CLASH
Live at Shea Stadium
Sony BMG
There's a live version here of Train in Vain, the hidden track from London Calling, that Mick Jones tears into beautifully. It's probably worth the price of admission alone, but there's plenty more here to admire.
This was recorded in 1982, when the band were supporting The Who on a US Tour. The Clash were at the peak of their musical powers, and it was just before it all went wrong for them.
Drummer Topper Headon is missing due to drug difficulties, but they got in their original drummer, Terry Chimes, to fill his space and he holds his own admirably.
The characteristic Clash live passion is much in evidence here, with all their finest moments bashed out with no little skill and determination. A great purchase - this should have been released years ago.
BRIAN BOYD
Download Tracks: Train In Vain, Police on my Back, London Calling
HOUSE OF COSY CUSHIONS
Animal Deams
SeaDog
Dublin-based House of Cosy Cushions may call themselves a band, but the reality is that their debut album showcases a solo artist blessed with enough determination to pursue his own singular vision - and enough wisdom not to try to do everything himself.
The artist in question is Dutchman Richard Bolhuis, his vision a dark and often frank eroticism ("she's not your witch/she's a masturbator/her fingers move like a spider/wow"), and his secret weapon a cadre of gifted musicians and vocalists, three permanent and nine guesting.
Bolhuis' box of tricks as a songwriter isn't huge, so it is the guests who makes all the difference. The bold interventions from the likes of Eimear O'Grady on cello and Stephen "Snake" Kiernan on drums upgrade many a Bolhuis song from fair to pretty damn good.
www.houseofcosycushions.com
DARAGH DOWNES
Download tracks: Naked as Pain, She Dances
CARMEL CONWAY
This Beautiful Day
RMG
If lush arrangements and endless lyrical platitudes are the stuff of commercial success, then Carmel Conway's debut may be destined for mass consumption. But when tales of relationship implosions rest on maudlin reminiscences about "your beautiful face" and tales of adolescent visionaries are embedded in romantic string arrangements ( Song of Bernadette), the listener's patience is tested beyond reasonable endurance.
Conway's voice is undoubtedly a fine instrument, but with her weak phrasing and ineffably bland choice of material, she floats aimlessly in that prozac-riddled ether where easy listening artists retire, rather than striking out on her own path with intent.
Even her cover of Declan O'Rourke's sublime Gallileois grindingly insipid. The biggest puzzler is the presence of seasoned producer Fiachra Trench at the helm: is dreary somnolence the new black these days?
www.carmelconway.com
SIOBHÁN LONG
Download track: Le Cose Che Sei Per Me
MARIANNE DISSARD
L'Entreduex
Regular Beat Recordings
Co-written and birthed by the capable hands of Calexico's Joey Burns, Dissard's debut album has been a twinkle in her eye ever since her heartless temptress murdered Burns's forlorn cowboy in Ballad of Cable Hogue. Entirely in French with lyrics translated in the album sleeve, L'Entredeux( Between Two) explores the space between lovers, friends and language.
The album is saturated with seductive sound, marrying the expressive numbness of Nico, The Velvet Underground and Serge Gainsbourg's ultra-lusty Je T'Aime. L'Entredeuxis a heady romance purring with retro Gallic sound, though Dissard's Arizona home adds some desert space.
It's an affair so full of passion that you'd have to be made of stone to be unmoved.
www.mariannedissard.com
DEANNA ORTIZ
Download tracks: Cayenne, Sans-Facon, Merci de Rien du Tout
