Rock/pop

The latest releases reviewed.

THE HAPPY MONDAYS Uncle Dysfunktional Sequel **

Fifteen years ago, high on such hits as Step On, Kinky Afro and Loose Fit, Shaun Ryder and his Mancunian muckers decamped to the Bahamas to record their fourth album, Yes, Please! The tales of crack-snorting and other antics in the sun are now legend, but when the album itself came out, the public said no thanks. The Mondays reformed in 1999 to play the indie-rave nostalgia circuit, but Ryder and Gaz Whelan have only now come up with new material. And with Bez doing his Bez thing, the stripped-down trio are hoping for a baggy resurrection. Sadly, the new Mondays are lacking the funked-up looseness of yesteryear, and the sound is reduced to a collection of dirty beats over which Ryder raps the grubby tales of Jellybean, Angels and Whores, Deviant and Cuntry Disco. None of the numbers much resembles a song, just a series of loping rhythms linked by free- association wordsmithery. It's fine if you like that sort of thing, but I'll pass. www.happymondaysonline.com KEVIN COURTNEY

Download track: Jellybean

SINEAD O'CONNOR Theology Rubyworks ****

Sinead O'Connor's preternatural ability to court headlines has frequently obscured her incredible voice. Since Mandika launched her 20 years ago, the voice has been an instrument capable of raising hair even shorter than her own. O'Connor now follows her 2005 adventures in reggae with a double collection. The interesting half, recorded in Dublin, is acoustic, the other, with a band working through mostly the same tracks, was compiled in London. It's a wonderfully flighty, bizarre album. I'm still not sure if God or Jah or Curtis Mayfield is great. Or maybe Curtis is God. Sinead loves them all and takes things seriously, which only adds to the fierce charm (though including a version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's I Don't Know How to Love Him will take some explaining). Ultimately? O'Connor has lead us on an odd, head-scratching dance once again. And who, really, could refuse to follow that voice? www.sineadoconnor.com PAUL MCNAMEE

Download tracks: We People Who Are Darker Than Blue (Dublin disc)

KATE WALSH Tim's House Mercury ***

Don't mistake this guitar-strumming Brighton belle for Kate Nash - the 24-year-old's folksy sound is closer to Norah Jones than Lily Allen. That hasn't stopped labels from buzzing round her like bees around honey. Walsh may not have the streetwise, sassy attitude of yer mini-Lilys, or the rock'n'roll veneer of yer KT Tunstalls, but she does have a seductive reserve that draws you into the warmth of her world, and a bunch of songs that, if not catchy pop hits, are compelling. Your Song, Talk of the Town and Don't Break My Heart tackle the tiny cracks in relationships, while French Song and Fireworks bring a bit of sparkle to the melancholia. Though she works in a genre that's close to easy listening, the classically trained Walsh keeps a strong empathy with her listener and avoids songs about pets and fluffy bunnies. Her music has been used on a spin-off of Gray's Anatomy. www.katewalsh.co.uk

KEVIN COURTNEY

Download tunes: Talk of the Town, Don't Break My Heart

GRANT MCLENNAN & ROBERT FORSTER Intermission Beggars Banquet ****

For many people who grew up listening to smart rock/pop music in the 1980s, the songwriting partnership of Australians McLennan and Forster was akin to that generation's Lennon/ McCartney. In The Go-Betweens - a remarkable 1980s rock act who never enjoyed the commercial success they deserved - typical McLennan/Forster material crossed the divide between the acceptable smirk of morose indie and the altogether more stringent need to put a happy face on seriously adult concerns. This compilation (a retrospective culled from both songwriters' solo albums) adds a rather more salutary footnote, albeit one that fans knew only too well: seperately, McLennan and Forster ranged from sublime to (very occasionally) average; together they were virtually unbeatable. Nonetheless, a fine overview of the work of vastly underrated songwriters. TONY CLAYTON-LEA

Download tracks: Malibu 69, Baby Stones

MUMBLIN' DEAF RO The Herring and the Brine Villain Records ****

Four years ago, Rónán Hession created a rare thing: a genuine cult classic. In an ideal world, Senor, My Friend . . . would have made a star out of Mumblin Deaf Ro, a musician who could never write songs about an ideal world. Hession's voice still needs an explanation: slightly muffled and endearingly brittle, it delivers endlessly inventive lyrics over warm, scratchy guitar folk and winningly unembellished pop tunes. His new album is, again, a witty and affecting collection of short stories, hacking unlikely trails from a drowning man to a failed Latin American dictator to lingering images of a community shattered by murder. No idiosyncrasy comes without a melodic hook, though; every quirk finds its chorus. It's just the way he tells 'em. www.myspace.com/ mumblindeafro PETER CRAWLEY

Download tracks: Trouble Under a Murder Moon, Restring the Bow

CARMEL MCCREAGH Nice Girl All Time Records ****

Long in gestation, Carmel McCreagh's knowing debut is a canny collection of languid scene- stealers that ably showcase her chameleon vocals. Coming on like Ava Gardner on Loving You, McCreagh slithers to just the right side of femme fatale, her relaxed phrasing suggesting a classic come hither that would have withered Dietrich in her prime. Produced and arranged by Fiachra Trench, Nice Girl is the musical equivalent of a post-coital cigarette to Norah Jones's squeaky clean pre-clench warm ups. Joe Csibi's hairline bass and Keith Donald's soprano sax steer the entire collection into that twilight zone where greys outperform the dogmatism of black and white every time. Unhurried and relaxed enough to slip a McCreagh/Trench original (It's Over) without breaking the mood or, indeed, a sweat, this is music for grown-ups. www.carmelmccreagh. com SIOBHÁN LONG

Download tracks: Loving You, It's Over