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The latest CD releases reviewed

FIELDS
Everything Last Winter Atlantic **** 

If Fields reach a wider audience - and, on the strength of this debut, they deserve to - then Warwickshire man Nick Peill will join a respectable pantheon of schoolteachers- turned-pop icons. Having jacked in the primary-school job, Peill gathered a staff of like-minded musicians and crafted a west coast-flavoured record that drums up the spirits of My Bloody Valentine and Smashing Pumpkins, with a liberal dash of vintage English folk rock. Icelandic singer/ keyboardist Thorunn Antonia backs up Peill's vocals with crisp, clear harmonies, while Jamie Putnam's Zep-like riffs regularly pounce out of nowhere and rip things to shreds. As with Guillemots, Fields evoke a time and place in rock's rich tapestry without getting stuck in a retro fugue. Song for the Fields, Feathers, The Death and You Don't Need This Song (To Fix Your Broken Heart) should provide a satisfying folk/pop/hard rock fix. www.fieldsband.com

ANDREW BIRD
Armchair Apocrypha Fargo ****

Illinois musician Andrew Bird has achieved excellence as an arranger, lyricist and technician. It's taken him a while to get here, after years of conservatory study in the Suzuki method, examinations of gypsy music, swing and jazz, and experiments with full band line-ups. The Mysterious Productions of Eggs, his 2005 breakthrough, charmed us with its whistled melodies and looping needlepoint violin, but these familiar amulets are less pronounced on Armchair Apocrypha. Bird's ability to dip and soar at just the right moment is key to his song-writing prowess. Anticon artist Martin Dosh provides the drums and percussion, and his own contribution, Simple X, could be a funky Kid A outtake. Haley Bonar adds a haunting voice on Bird on Spare Oh, before a chirping chorus and blissful treated violin bring this beauty to an end. www.andrewbird.net  Leagues O'Toole

Download tracks: Imitosis, Heretics

KELLY JONES
Only the Names Have Been Changed V2 ***

This solo collection from the sometimes humourless Stereophonics frontman began life as a few tracks that didn't fit onto his band's last record. It has grown into a concept album with all 10 tracks named after a different woman, each telling the bleak tale of their (fictional) lives. Recorded in a matter of hours, Only the Names is bare and minimal - just a voice and an acoustic guitar, with pedal steel and gossamer strings gliding in and out. Jones said he wanted to capture the feeling of Nick Cave's Murder Ballads and Johnny Cash here. His ambition out-stretches his abilities, but this collection does remind us that Jones has a rare talent for cinematic, if sparse, storytelling. When he brings it all together - as on Jayne, with its dark hints of murder and feelings of guilt - you begin to forgive at least two Stereophonics albums. But not all of them. www.myspace.com/onlythenameshavebeenchanged

Download tracks: Suzy, Jayne

ENTER SHIKARI
Take to the Skies Ambush Reality **

St Albans's band Enter Shikari are being heralded as the forerunners of trance-metal, or whatever it is they're calling it this week. Essentially, they're taking the basic principles of hardcore dirges and fusing them with the euphoria of rave music. It sounds good and dirty in theory, but listening to the band's debut album you'd be hard-pressed to determine what happened in the blending process. Like, where are the tunes? Imagine Slipknot doing the hokey-cokey with The Prodigy and you'll have some notion of what it all sounds like, but beyond this basic element there lies a deeper problem: Enter Shikari come across as overly generic and shockingly out-of-date. Interestingly, they started off several years ago as an Oasis covers band. It seems old habits die hard.

Download track: Sorry You're Not a Winner

THE BEES
Octopus EMI ***

At a time when most bands are branded as post-something, The Bees revel in their unclassifiable- ness. Their musical waters are muddied by the sheer range of hat-tips, stretching as far and wide as 1960s pop, early 1970s reggae and experimental jazz. Heck, opener Who Knows What the Question Is? could have been gatecrashed by Bob Dylan doing Chas 'n' Dave music hall karaoke. Love in the Harbour would pass for a Byrds B-side, and the single Left Foot Stepdown is a drum-heavy reggae epic. The Isle of Wight six-piece are both infectious and infuriating. This goofy multigenre tinkering has been done before (see Bentley Rhythm Ace) and, like most albums so heavily drenched in its influences, it too often tends towards the derivative. But for the first half, The Bees' stinging summer tunes float like a rather funky butterfly. www.thebees.info

Download tracks: Left Foot Stepdown, Who Knows What the Question Is?

UNITE TRIBE
Enlokari Rastafenian Records ***

From north Co Dublin, the seven- strong Unite Tribe (nee The Rastafenians) have spent the past two years on a heavyweight run of shows up and down the country. Along the way they've honed an extremely effective new-wave reggae style, and what's obvious from their debut album is how the band's abilities as songwriters and performers have grown and matured. I'm Just Waiting, for instance, may pivot on a relatively simple groove, but this confident little groove slowly turns into a glorious clatter of sound, complete with a lovely interplay between vocalists Brian Kelly and Ciara Bradshaw. But this isn't the extent of Unite Tribe's sonic smacks: the robust Head Police and the restrained, righteous anger of Medgar Evers Blues (named for the US civil rights agitator assassinated in 1963) show they can also pack a punch on a lyrical level as well. A fine start. www.unitetribe.com

Download track: I'm Just Waiting

THE BIRD & THE BEE
The Bird & The Bee Blue Note ***

Well-connected Los Angeles duo Inara George (daughter of Little Feat's Lowell George) and Greg Kurstin are The Bird & The Bee, a pair intent on showing that Blue Note's dalliance with pop doesn't begin or even end with Norah Jones. While vocalist George received much praise for her All Rise set from last year, this often delightful rub of breezy electronica, sleek cocktail pop and shady bossa-nova deserves similar attention. What's perhaps most intriguing is how the pair marry a fondness for modern exotica's wash of ambient sounds (think Air's Moon Safari for their La La La) with a wider range of songs. Be it George's scorn for her Fucking Boyfriend or the coy innocence of Again and Again, it's to the Bird and the Bee's credit that they find scenic routes every time. www.thebirdandthebee.com

Download tracks: Again and Again, Fucking Boyfriend