The 4 Of Us used to be in two minds about whether they wanted to be teeny heart-throbs or adult-oriented rockers; lately, however, it seems that indecision has given way to introspection, as Brendan Murphy tackles the thirty-something conundrum and searches for a respectable level of maturity and restraint. Classified Personal is a largely acoustic album, and it follows a fallow period for the Newry band, during which they released the dancey, disco-centric Someone's Got To Lose, and scrapped an entire album project ("It sounded like an inferior band trying to sound like The 4 Of Us," quoth one insider).
The first sign that The 4 Of Us's fortunes were turning came with the single, Maybe It's You - a seductive ode to seedy personal ads which went straight up on to the Irish Top 20 notice-board.
Other notable tracks on this album include Volatile and Long Before I Make That Call, both of which showcase the band's knack for knocking out a simple, poignant pop tune a la Mary, armed with just an acoustic guitar and a seed of an idea. The 4 Of Us have always been saddled with a boy-band's name, but if they can take the tender tunes on this album and combine them with the harder, dance edge they displayed on Someone's Got To Lose, then they will truly have grown up.
Kevin Courtney
The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin (Warner Bros)
Right from the first wobbly string break on Race For The Prize, you realise you're listening to something very special indeed, and by the time you reach the psychedelic earwig-out that is Buggin', you just know that you've found the perfect soundtrack for the final summer of the millennium. The Flaming Lips have always threatened to erupt into greatness, particularly on 1995's Clouds Taste Metallic, but The Soft Bulletin is an extraordinary alterno-rock epic, set out like a film score, arranged like an extended classical piece, and spiked with hallucinatory images and weird, hypnotic musical detours. Comparisons with Mercury Rev are inevitable - after all, the Rev's Jonathan Donahue used to be a Flaming Lip - but Head Lip, Wayne Coyne's vision comes down from the Catskills and settles in some strange Bermuda Triangle between Broadway, Hollywood and Haight-Ashbury. Songs such as The Spark That Bled, What Is The Light, Waitin' For A Superman and Gash are so startlingly good they'll leave your senses reeling with pleasure.
Kevin Courtney.
The Pretenders: Viva El Amor! (WEA)
First Debbie Harry makes a comeback to the pop charts, and now Chrissie Hynde is standing stage centre once more after five years in the rock 'n' roll holding pen. Why she waited so long to warble her way back into our hearts is a mystery, but it's good to hear one of pop music's finest female voices in full flight once again. The Pretenders may be old 1980s relics, but they're as well-preserved as old leather, and songs such as Nails In The Road, Dragway 42 and One More Time are straightforward, hip-shooting rock tunes from the Hynde house of riffs. Popstar opens the album on a petulant note, Hynde haranguing an old lover with lines like "Your baby wants to be a pop star/ Probably just to spite me", but Human quickly diminishes any suspicion that Hynde has lost her touch. That alluring vocal vibrato is present and correct on slower songs such as From The Heart Down and Samurai, while Legalise Me proves that the old girl is still a rock 'n' roll rebel at heart.
Kevin Courtney