Pop/Rock

The latest CD releases reviewed

AU REVOIR SIMONE
The Bird of Music Moshi Moshi ***

Armed with keyboards, synths and cooing voices, Au Revoir Simone are three girls from Brooklyn who nicked their name from Pee-wee's Big Adventure and are now intent on melting the hardest of hearts with dreamy songs. Indeed, their heat-glaze alt.pop is tailor-made for sensitive indie boys and their long-suffering girlfriends looking for something to go with their Belle & Sebastian seven-inches. You've heard all The Bird of Music has to offer many times before, but there's no harm in going around the houses again, especially when you have such delicious, mouth-watering melodies at your disposal. While their Verses of Comfort, Assurance & Salvation debut had a big Stereolab rub running through it, there's a much more melancholic streak at work here. Be it the bittersweet, slow-motion sass of The Lucky One or the wonderfully lovestruck chorus on Stars, Au Revoir Simone's music is always warm and fuzzy. www.aurevoirsimone.com  Jim Carroll

JESSE MALIN
Glitter in the Gutter One Little Indian ***

Malin may be a New Yorker, but he's a pure prairie dog at heart, and his third album finds him heading deeper into the heartland of American rock in search of Springsteen, The Replacements (via a cover of Bastards of Young), Soul Asylum and Tom Petty. Trouble is, when you channel the spirits of such icons, you also invite in a million other lesser gods, and Glitter in the Gutter has its fair share of old-hat American rock cliches. Like a true gunslinger, however, Malin comes out with both barrels blazing on Prisoners of Paradise, Black Haired Girl, Lucinda and Love Streams, making up in power and self-belief what he lacks in originality and lyrical depth. He also gathers some heavyweight guests, including Ryan Adams, Jakob Dylan and Josh Homme; but the album's biggest moment comes on Broken Radio, when The Boss himself comes crashing into the tune, leaving Malin choking in his dust. www.jessemalin.com  Kevin Courtney

FINDLEY BROWN
Separated by the Sea Peacefrog ****

From the same label that delivered José Gonzalez to your living room (courtesy of the Sony bouncing balls ad) comes another singer-songwriter of quite special talents. A Yorkshireman with a background of teenage thuggery and bare-knuckle fist fighting, Brown has clearly embraced a decidedly more serene life. In fact, judging by the style of the songs on this, his debut, 2007's next big troubadour has laid down his mitts, opened a bottle of Puilly Montrachet and chilled out while listening to the collected works of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Bert Jansch, Nick Drake and Fred Neil. The result is little short of gorgeous, a real find that merits investigating and investment. Tony Clayton-Lea

IDLEWILD
Make Another World Sequel ***

After the critical mauling and disappointing sales of Idlewild's last album, Warnings/ Promises, frontman Roddy Woomble went away, grew a beard and immersed himself in Caledonian folk. Tiring of the woolly jumpers, he's gone back to the day job, gathered the troops and attempted to record an album that speaks of the band's jagged, melodic past. At times it succeeds. The comeback single, If It Takes You Home, has punch and a punk insistence. And with Dave Eringa again producing, the record has a taut efficiency. But too much of the rest sounds as though Idlewild still, after all these years, long to be Life's Rich Pagent-era REM. Which is fine if you have the tunes, other-world style and are still plotting your own way, but not when you're on your fifth album. More idle than wild. www.idlewild.co.uk Paul McNamee

PATRICK WOLF
The Magic Position Loog **

Patrick Wolf, the London/Cork baroque raconteur, tries so hard to be different it aches. In fairness to the fey one, he's been plying his fruity trade for some years through some rather fine independently released albums. But this, his third album, and his first since signing to Universal offshoot Loog, arrives weighed down with so-called important flourishes, such as orchestras, whistles, bells and an entire housing estate's worth of kitchen sinks. More crucially, it's the first time that Wolf has sounded so unlike himself. There are distinct nods to the heavy-duty moroseness of Jarvis Cocker, as well as aural echoes of (perhaps not his fault) Rufus Wainwright, Duke Special and Divine Comedy. Wolf has ideas coming out of his system like few others; what a shame he's lathered them with too much of everything. OTT? It's becoming more and more tiresome by the day. www.patrickwolf.com  Tony Clayton-Lea

THE ATARIS
Welcome the Night Sanctuary ***

Having juddered along for a number of years without much success, this Indiana band have pimped their sound into a louder, more passionate form of emocore, jumping from Coldplay lite to Muse heavy, and channeling their obsession with such 1990s bands as Smashing Pumpkins, Feeder and Foo Fighters into such songs as Not Capable of Love, Whatever Lies Will Help You Rest and Far from the Last, Last Call. Led by singer/guitarist Kristopher Roe and guitarist John Collura, The Ataris certainly pack a punch, helped by five additional band members, and if you miss the heavy-but-melodic sounds of 1990s Britrock, you might well be impressed by Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Secret Handshakes and Connections Are More Dangerous Than Lies. Certainly, if you're fed up with an existential high-school rocker like Fall Out Boy, you'll find this a refreshing return to old-fashioned 1990s indie values. www.myspace.com/theataris  Kevin Courtney