Eoin Butler's guide to singles, downloads and free audiostreams

THE MIGHTY STEF Death Threats EP The Firstborn Is Dead Recordings ****

"I'm not afraid" growls Dubliner Stefan Murphy on the title track's brilliant video. "I'm not afraid of death." And with that haircut, frankly, who would be? www.youtube.com

STEPHEN MALKMUS Gardenia label?? ****

At this stage, Stephen Malkmus's solo career is beginning to resemble Morrissey's in the 1990s - disciples of the former Pavement frontman can tune out for an entire album or two and still return to find their hero pretty much exactly where they left him. That said, his latest, Real Emotional Trash, has garnered some of the best reviews of his career.

IRON & WINELov esong of the Buzzard  Sub Pop ****
One of the standout tracks from last year's acclaimed The Shepherd's Dog album.

ALICIA KEYS Teenage Love Affair J ***

A lovestruck Alicia Keys goes all the way to third base on this soppy ballad from her As I Am album. Now if only I could figure out what that actually means . . .

FRED Skyscrapers RCM Music ***"You've got your lightbulbs and I've got time" yelps singer Joseph O'Leary rather cryptically on this, the lead single from the Cork popsters' Go God Go album.

ALANIS MORISSETTE Underneath Maverick *

Powerful, evocative, moving - with a strum of her guitar, the years fall away and the mega- selling Canadian effortlessly transports this writer back to the very moment he first began to hate her bloody awful music.

DUFFY Warwick Avenue A&M ****

It seems highly unlikely that ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler would have steered Duffy in such a shamelessly retro direction had it not been for the prior success of the similarly 1960s-influenced Amy Winehouse. But on this track at least - a sultry, string-laden breakup ballad - the formula works a treat.