New releases including Pop Levi and an Andy Fairweather Low best of.

MAX GREENWOOD

In the Blood

Firedog Records

****

Having played piano on tour for Nelly Furtado, Fionn Regan and recently Tom Baxter (in addition to producing for Baxter and Sam Semple), it's about time the talented Greenwood tried centre-stage. In the Bloodisn't about smoke and mirrors or reinventing the wheel; it's an organic, free-range album reared on poetry and jazz.

Driven by sincerity, Greenwood's clear voice and a big-hearted piano, the tracks range from unabashedly romantic to buoyant to melancholy and back again. Its jazz infusion adds soulful, sultry grit to introspective lyrics; think Jack Johnson sans Hawaiian sunshine. Recorded in Greenwood's home studio/garden shed, the homemade approach results in a freshly squeezed sound full of subtle immediacy. A tip from the initiated: don't miss him live.

[ www.maxgreenwood.co.ukOpens in new window ]

DEANNA ORTIZ

Download tracks: Faces in the Water, Frozen Still, Made-Up Hotel

PLASTIC HEROES

Escape the Lower End

Bongo Beat

***

Punchy pop music - the way it used to be made in the late 1970s and early 1980s - has become virtually redundant in this era of stop-start, updated post-punk-with-a-dash-of-funk thrown in. Enter London-based Plastic Heroes, who are such a throwback to the days of drainpipe jeans and skinny ties that you'll find yourself whistling The Knack's My Sharonaat the oddest moments.

And yet there is something inherently, unashamedly superb about Escape the Lower End. Melodic hooks aren't just drenched, they're submerged; guitars don't just ring, they clang; and punk/pop attitude doesn't just exude, it oozes. The album's flaws are its obvious influences, but when those influences include Bowie, Blondie, New York Dolls and Iggy Pop . . . well, perhaps it's best just to sit back and wallow.

[ www.plasticheroes.comOpens in new window ]

TONY CLAYTON-LEA

Download tracks: All These Scenes, Mary B!, Got Good Real Fast

THE DUDLEY CORPORATION

Year of the Husband

Absolutely Kosher

****

Where the hell have The Dudley Corporation been? Getting married, playing gigs and losing small fortunes, apparently. Two years in the making and another two before release, the third album from this fine Dublin three-piece has all the ingredients of their previous records: ultra-tight playing, stop-start dynamics, and a careful ear for melody. Guest appearances from Carol Keogh and Nigel Farrelly (of the recently retired Waiting Room) bring another dimension to their sound. Recorded intermittently in the US, France and Ireland, Year of the Husbandis slightly more restrained than what we're used to, but take that as a sign of their increased maturity as songwriters. One listen to The Lens Beginor Step-Outand you'll realise it's time to fall in love with The Dudleys all over again.

[ www.thedudleycorporation.comOpens in new window ]

BRIAN KEANE

Download tracks: The Lens Begin, Last Day on Earth, Aliens . . .

RATATAT

LP3

XL

****

Ratatat have always known how to set a scene. New Yorkers Mike Stroud and Evan Mast's previous two albums were full of attention-grabbing instrumentals, the pair using moody washes of distorted guitars and synths to create unique, innovative rhythms and melodies.

Here, let loose in a studio in the Catskills with a battery of weird keyboard gimzos to play with, they take the opportunity to unleash their inner Bernard Herrmanns. Creepy, ethereal synth sounds provide a springboard for Godzilla-sized riffs and technicoloured textures.

While there's no great technical mystery to how Stroud and Mast tease these soundscapes into hypnotic, progressive grooves, the emotional tremors on Mirandoand the soft-focus shimmers of Imperialsare still breathtaking to behold. What's evident throughout is that Ratatat are now making brave, bold big-sky music with a degree of sass and class few of their peers can muster.

[ www.ratatatmusic.comOpens in new window ]

JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Mirando, Shiller

BRENDAN CANNING

Something for All of Us

Arts & Crafts

****

Following on from Kevin Drew's Spirit Ifsolo run, Brendan Canning is the latest member of Toronto collective Broken Social Scene to record on his own. Just as Drew and Canning represent two sides of the BSS coin, their individual albums are also exercises in contrast.

Unlike his bandmate, Canning seems more confident and comfortable in his skin, and there's a focused buzz to Something for All of Usrather than the more haphazard and wayward style favoured by Drew. This makes for a collection of sharp, hugely enjoyable indie-pop, albeit without the grand sweeps of sound that have defined BSS's records to date. Instead, it's Canning's penchant for euphoric, emphatic melodies that pulls you in, and ensures that Hit the Walland Churches Under Stairsare ones to remember. Proof that there's more than one accomplished songwriter and performer in this camp.

[ www.myspace.com/brendancanningOpens in new window ]

JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Hit the Wall, Been At It So Long

BLACK KIDS

Partie Traumatic

Almost Gold

**

It actually takes a couple of listens to work out that there's very little to get excited about on this debut album from Florida's Black Kids. You keep going back to work out if you've missed something in these half-baked, flimsy songs that play all coy and hard to get. Surely, there can't have been all that demand coming from Planet MP3-Blog for such dull, under-nourished music? You wonder just what producer Bernard Butler was doing in the studio, as each anonymous song takes the same route as its anonymous predecessor. Whatever about The Big Hit ( I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With Youis cute), the rest of the album plods by without ever really sparkling. Pedestrian, wimpy pop that leaves you wondering what the hell all that fuss was about. Next!

[ www.myspace.com/blackkidsrockOpens in new window ]

JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: I'm Not Gonna Teach

POP LEVI

Never Never Love

Counter Records

***

On his debut, Pop Levi, aka Mozambique Courier, was knee-deep in glam rock and assorted 1970s influences. Track one on Never Never Loveis a postscript, closing the door on one decade and embracing the 1980s.

As you'd expect, there are squelchy synths and reverb-heavy vocals in spades. It's a dizzying grab-bag of styles, and Levi picks his way through African rhythms on Fire on Your Feetand MIA-inspired beats on the title track. Levi has a quirkiness all his own, and never fails to surprise - Mai's Space, a pop nursery rhyme with vocoder-tweaked vocals, is as sweet as it is catchy. If Marc Bolan was his past mentor, here you can't escape the Prince homages, particularly on Everything & Finally, but Levi is his own man, albeit an unpindownable one with chameleon tendencies. www.poplevi.com

SINÉAD GLEESON

Download Tracks: Dita Dimoné, Everything & Finally

ANDY FAIRWEATHER LOW

The Low Rider - The Very Best of Andy Fairweather Low

Proper

***

Last year, we used a fair splash of ink to carry the message that Andy Fairweather Low was back, 26 years after his last solo release. Sweet Soul Musicwas as wonderful as it was welcome, but it took a fair grasp of pop history to put the Welsh singer, guitarist and songwriter in context.

This best-of album seeks to do just that, so there is the 1960s pop of Amen Corner ( Bend Me Shape Me, If Paradise Is Half as Nice), the 1970s solo stuff, quirky and insightful ( Wide Eyed and Legless, La Booga Rooga), and then the long gap until Sweet Soul Music, during which Low made his living as a sidemen to Eric Clapton, among others.

Three songs from his latest album are included in the 14 tracks, but tunes such as Natural Sinnerrecall a distant past not altogether forgettable, while his vocal on If Paradise . . .is one of the more memorable from my youth.

[ www.andyfairweatherlow.comOpens in new window ]

JOE BREEN

Download tracks: Hymn 4 My Soul, Wide Eyed and Legless, Natural Sinner