Radar Bros: The Singing Hatchet (Chemikal Underground)
Sharing the same airspace as Sparklehorse, Palace and Smog, The Radar Bros. revolve around the song-writing of Jim Putnam, which shuffles down the usual backroads of Americana but still manages to beat a twisted path of its own. On the cover, Putnam looks like a country cousin of Ross from Friends, but songs such as Tar The Roofs, Shovelling Sons and All The Ghosts avoid the usual cosy cliches while still managing to stay warm and weirdly comforting. Putnam's rich, down-home voice and loose piano lines envelope you in the languid arrangements of Find The Hour, You're On An Island and The Pilgrim, while the stumbling drums, scratchy guitars and slithery synths pull everything along at a measured, thoughtful pace.
- Kevin Courtney
The Charlatans: Us And Us Only (Universal)
Ten years after their debut, Some Friendly, The Charlatans are still Manchester's most united gang, surviving the death of keyboard player Rob Collins, outliving The Stone Roses, and avoiding the mass defections which have recently plagued Oasis. The Charlie boys have stuck together through thick and thin, and the title of the new album captures the "us and them" attitude which has kept them floating while their more arrogant contemporaries have sunk beneath their own hype. The downside of The Charlatans' stony-faced longevity is that their music tends to sound a bit predictable: you just know that it's gonna swagger between Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main St, taking the odd psychedelic side-road along the way. However, if you let yourself fall under the home-grown spell of Forever, A House Is Not A Home and My Beautiful Friend, you might be surprised to find your soul getting rocked.
- Kevin Courtney