The latest releases reviewed

KYLIE
X Parlophone ***

Kylie Minogue has rarely put a foot wrong in her 20-year career (well- documented personal ups and downs aside). X finds her seeking to reclaim the title of pop's queen of hearts. In addition to the sultry 2 Hearts, there are enough potential singles in The One, Heart Beat Rock and In My Arms to keep the record company happy. Otherwise, Kylie continues to plough the same dance-pop furrow that has served her so well and there is little else to get excited about. As the Aussie approaches 40, the cringe-inducing lyrics of Like a Drug and Speakerphone suggest your mates' embarrassing mum rather than the sex kitten she's supposed to be. The multitude of co-writers and producers (including Guy Chambers and the ubiquitous Calvin Harris) have combined to make Kylie's 10th album as inoffensive as she is. www.kylie.com  Brian Keane

Download tracks: 2 Hearts, In My Arms, The One

DURAN DURAN
Red Carpet Massacre Epic **

There's something a bit naff about a bunch of not-so-new romantics getting in the top r'n'b producers of the day in a desperate attempt to seem relevant to the bright young things of today. The Durannies have enlisted the help of the dream team of Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and Nate Mills to add some bling to the faded crushed velvet. The result is a strange hybrid of retro arpeggiated synth-pop and staccato r'n'b beats, 1980s meets naughties backstage at the fashion show. The lyrics, as usual, are laughable, and Simon Le Bon's voice still painfully adenoidal, but the whole thing is carried off by Duran Duran's never-fading brio.

The band who once defined the vacuous world of glamour now satirise it in songs such as the title track and Falling Down, the latter co-written with Trousersnake, about his ex-girlfriend Britney's spectacular nosedive. www.duranduran.com KEVIN COURTNEY

Download tracks: Falling Down, Nite-Runner

THE OCTOPUS PROJECT
Hello, Avalanche Peek-a-Boo ****

Putting the theremin in rock'n'roll hasn't done Texas instrumentalists The Octopus Project any harm. Live, their energetic blender approach to pop, indie and electronic sounds has always produced plenty of wows, especially when all four members, (including synth and theremin queenpin Yvonne Lambert) thrash away to their hearts' content. Hello, Avalanche, their third album, is a significant push and shove on from the buzzy contours of 2005's One Ten Hundred Thousand Million, chiefly because the band have honed their sound down to its

most compelling attractions. Their propensity for highwire leaping and jumping is still intact - turn an ear to tje potential video game soundtrack Truck - but there are also finely balanced tracks (I Saw the Bright Shinies, Snow Tip Can Mountain). Yet when euphoria beckons - as it often does - there's no holding back. www.theoctopus project.com   JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Truck, I Saw the Bright Shinies

LAST DAY
These Places Are Now Ruins n5MD ****

Last Days' 2006 debut, Sea, a lo-fi digital gem, passed under the radar for many, but this follow-up is equally worthy of attention. Producer Graham Richardson uses acoustic guitar, piano, field recordings and a variety of other instrumentation to add a warmth and depth often sorely lacking in electronica. Points Bridge, Swimming Pools at Night and Station (Part 2) are cinematic in  their scope, and there's a nod to contemporaries such as Deaf Center (Saved by a Helicopter) and Port-Royal (The Whole Town Is Against Us). The theme of the  album is thoughts and feelings, good and bad, evoked when returning home after many years, and the 13 instrumental soundscapes conjure these perfectly. An album that rewards with repeat listenings, These Places Are Now Ruins is a beautiful achievement. Highly recommended. www.myspace.com/lastdaysmyspace  BRIAN KEANE

Download Tracks: Points Bridge, Swimming Pools at Night, Two Halves of a Line

THE GOO GOO DOLLS
Greatest Hits Vol 1 Warner Bros **

With a name like Goo Goo Dolls, you'd expect this US trio to sound like a dirty ol' garage band. But though they once aspired towards the dark side of the rock'n'roll tracks, they quickly turned into respectable alt.rock icons, leaning more towards U2 than Hüsker Dü. We know them on this side for their hit ballad Iris, but they've had a string of hits in  the US, including Let Love In, Here  Is Gone, Stay With You, Feel the Silence, Better Days and Before It's Too Late. Singer John Rzeznik's early influences still manage to peep through the radio-friendly sheen - you can hear echoes of his hero, Paul Westerberg, between the lines of Slide and Broadway. The Goo Goo Dolls may have long ago betrayed the punk ethos, but at least they never sank into grunge-lite uniformity, and there's enough tunefulness here to almost, if not quite, balance out the bombast. www.googoodolls.com   KEVIN COURTNEY

Download tracks: Iris, Slide

JUNO FALLS
Weightless V2 ****

True to their new album's title, Juno Falls (aka Myles O'Reilly and sundry travelling compañeros) float free of the tethers that keep many

of their contemporaries on terra firma. Snapshots of moments in time, stories of contradictory truths (The Opposite of Truth) and lives less ordinary (The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off) are woven, layer upon layer, on a skein of deliciously dissonant strings and retiring percussion and brass. Juno Falls thrive on obtuse lyrics that suggest a perspective that's at an odd tilt with the world, one that throws up its share of inventive insights into life's finer moments while luring listeners into its fluctuating wavelength with an almost Tom Waitsean glee. Harmonically divine, Weightless is ideal immersion material for eardrums in pursuit of something more than a brief encounter. www.junofalls.net  SIOBHÁN LONG

Download tracks: Slowly Fizzy, This Song Is Your Own

THE ANTLERS
In the Attic of the Universe Fall Records ****

After more than 10,000 people downloaded Peter Silberman's album for free, the folks at the Fall label decided to take a chance on a physical release. On the second album by Silberman as The Antlers, it's the gentle melodic drags (The Universe Is Going to Catch You is like a Broken Social Scene anthem) and the lush atmospheric beauty (On the Roof) that will have you warming to the prolific 21-year-old Manhattanite's sound. Yet even more than the sonics beneath the bonnet, it's Silberman's cascading, Jeff Buckley-esque vocal tones that you will probably remember most fondly. In the Attic of the Universe is one of the very best albums to have sprung from absolutely nowhere. Between this and Silberman's free-to-download Cold War EP, we've another act to reckon with for 2008. www.antlersmusic.com   JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: On the Roof, The Universe Is Going to Catch You

VARIOUS
A Bugged Out Mix By Klaxons New State ***

Whatever about their own music (unremarkable, painful, usually atrocious), Klaxons do know their way around a reliably eclectic DJ set. Indeed, when Bugged Out asked for a mix, the nu-rave kingpins turned in two different sets. Their Bugged Out mix is a rocksteady ride through various electronic bangers, floor- fillers and boom tunes, with Justice, Luke Vibert and Pedro Campus providing the highlights. Put in the Bugged In CD, though, and prepare to applaud a band who know the right buttons to push when preparing an out-there selections. With wigged- out psych-rock from The United States of America, the arty rock manoeuvres of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti and classics from the vault from Frankie Valli, Todd Rundgren and Frankie Lymon, you'd almost be tempted to forgive Klaxons for anything. Well, bar butchering It's Not Over Yet. www.buggedout.net   JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: United States of America, The Garden of Earthly Delights; Frankie Valli, The Night