Latest releases reviewed

MATT COSTA
Sweet Thursday
 Brushfire Records
***

OK, so he's signed to Jack Johnson's label, and he's also good buddies with the surfin' campfire dude, but don't hold that against him. This tune starts on a Beetlebum-style riff, then blows up into a cool Cal-indie rocker that the makers of The OC would die for.

KOUFAX
Isabelle
Rubyworks
****

This tri-state area band are named after some famous baseball star, and they've hit a home run with this fine, piano-led tune about a guy who encourages his girl to head for Los Angeles, but then realises what he's gonna miss.

THE IMMEDIATE
Stop and Remember
Fantastic Plastic
**

The Irish quartet take The Edge's delay-pedal guitar, crank it up to twice the speed, then kick it to death with a boot-stomping chorus. When they get some melodies together, they might even be unforgettable.

DUKE SPECIAL
Potrait
V2
***

The tuneful, vaudevillean dude from Northern Ireland paints a lovely musical tableau with this four-track EP which also features a live cover of Yeah Yeah Yeah's Maps. Is this curtains for The Divine Comedy?

PANIC! AT THE DISCO
Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off
Atlantic
***

This emo-ish lot from Las Vegas believe that if a girl was given a choice between disrobing and dissembling, she'd go for telling porkies every time. The girls will tell you otherwise, of course, but can we believe them?

THE FUTUREHEADS
Worry About It Later
679
***

Love that laissez-faire attitude. The north of England rockers show Maximo Park how to really do

FEEDER
Save Us
Echo
***

frantic rock with a Geordie accent, and make it all sound terribly terribly classy, don't you know.

FEEDER
Save Us
Echo
***

It's a welcome return for Wales's answer to Foo Fighters - we thought they'd been abducted by Goldie Lookin' Chain. This is from their fab Singles collection; if not quite Buck Rogers, it's certainly Steve Austen.