Rock/pop

The latest releases reviewed.

DAVID GRAY Greatest Hits IHT ***

Nine years have passed since White Ladder lifted David Gray out of the doldrums and into nearly every household in Ireland. Gray has been making hay ever since, releasing two studio albums, two catch-up compilations and two live DVDs. Now, perhaps worried that the David Gray effect may finally be wearing off, he's put out a greatest hits album, which includes the recent single You're the World to Me and another new track, Destroyer. Unsurprisingly, the songs from White Ladder are the real selling point, but though subsequent albums A New Day at Midnight and Life in Slow Motion lacked that do-or-die immediacy, at least Gray kept trying to push past his folk-rock boundaries. There's much to please fans in such perennials as Babylon, Please Forgive Me, Sail Away, Be Mine and The One I Love. But there's also an unfinished feel to this selection. Gray is at his best when not playing it safe; let's hope he has some adventures left in him. KEVIN COURTNEY

Download tracks: Babylon, Sail Away, This Year's Love

ALICIA KEYS As I Am Sony/BMG ***

Alicia Keys can do no wrong. Songs in a Minor, her 2001 debut, went multiplatinum and introduced this new soul/r'n'b superstar who lives up to her billing as the "new Robert Flack". On this, her third studio album, Keys's voice has never sounded better as she wraps herself around a selection of predominantly mid-tempo songs that have her seeping emotions at every turn. The best songs here are written with her producer/mentor Kerry "Krucial" Brothers: the single No One and the powerful Go Ahead. The tracks written with ace songwriter Linda Perry - Sure Looks Good to Me and The Thing About Love - are both potential hits, even if the collaboration didn't exactly fulfil all its promise. Keys has lost none of her momentum with this release, her most full-on soul album, and the vocals are frequently astounding. www.aliciakeys.com BRIAN BOYD

Download tracks: No One, Sure Looks Good to Me

HOORAY FOR HUMANS Safekeeping Out on a Limb ***

People just didn't love these Corkmen as much when they were members of other bands, but all has changed since they came together as Hooray for Humans. The reason must be the music: sinewy indie synth-pop and taut, rough guitars that burst out of the speakers with an infectious mania. Whatever about the various sonic traces you'd discover in a forensic examination of the scene (everything from the Pixies to post- rock poke through the folds), Safekeeping has an alluring pop schtick. The wave of excitement on Pimptacious, the low-slung geeky grandeur of '06 Forever, and the polished, high-energy stomp of Signature are among the keepers here. JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Pimptacious, Signature

GORILLAZ D-Sides Virgin ***

When this cartoon super band is on form, their tunes are viral - Damon Albarn's vocal nonchalance + fuzzy dub and lazy reggae = the urge to get your funk on. This is true of most of D-Sides' second disc, containing Demon Days remixes by such folk as Hot Chip and Soul Wax. Disc one, all B sides and rarities, isn't as certain about its intentions. A handful of tracks are top-notch, including the hazy Caribbean- flavoured Bill Murray (featuring The Bees) and the ethereal Stop the Dams (think Radiohead's No Surprises). The remainder a delectable treat to dedicated Gorillaz fans, though for  those who enjoy the odd nibble there's less to sink your teeth into. www.gorillaz.com DEANNA ORTIZ

Download tracks: Stop the Dams, Bill Murray, Hong Kong

THE UNDERTONES Dig Yourself Deep Cooking Vinyl ***

This album is so short and sweet that it comes and goes like a wave of optimism; the clincher is that once it's, gone the tunes remain. So it always was with The Undertones. Revitalised for some years now, with original vocalist Feargal Sharkey's trembling tones deftly replaced by those of Paul McLoone's, this is the kind of record that gives 40-something band reformations a good name. Sure, some people who go to Undertones gigs are presumably there for nostalgic reasons, but there is undeniably a sense of something good and fresh happening with the more recent material. There's also proof positive that slim and trim punk-pop songs (the majority them written by John O'Neill and Mickey Bradley) aren't necesarily the preserve of people in their teens or 20s. www.theundertones.com TONY CLAYTON-LEA

Download tracks: Everything You Say Is Right, Precious Little Wonder, Tomorrow's Tears

HEALTH Health Lovepump United ***

Putting blood in the music is a notion that LA four-piece Health would heartily endorse. Part of a scene based around a seedy, allages live dive called The Smell, they and their peers have discovered the joys of unhinged and angular sounds. Health's debut album is a noisy bugger that is happy to crash into things over and over again while screaming just that little bit louder. But as drums thump, vocals drone and bleeps oscillate, you'll note the melodies within the menace, and it's here that things get interesting. Unreel such tracks as Glitter Pills, with its slow, murky, hypnotic drawl, and the atmospheric geometry of Lost Time, and you'll find a band keen to take their music to the furthest possible limits. Put these ideas side by side with the bad-ass turn that produced Crimewave and you've the potential for more invigorating experiments to come. www.healthmusic.com JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Crimewave, Glitter Pills

REMI NICOLE My Conscience and I Island ***

With her single, Go Mr Sunshine, this 23-year-old Londoner made a bit of a splash, and her debut album has more bounce than a roomful of spacehoppers. Nicole is not big into hip-hop or r'n'b, and she lays out her musical manifesto on the first two songs, Go With the Flow and Rock'n'Roll. A soundclash of Kate Nash, KT Tunstall and Miss Dynamite, Nicole's music straddles rock, punk, reggae and pop, but though the songs are built on fairly standard riffs, and the lyrics are often of the moon/balloon variety, they're brimming with enough youthful exuberance to infect the listener with that Friday feeling. New Old Days struts down memory lane, while Tabloid Queen berates the bimbos who follow the wrong celebrity role models. Dates from Hell hits below the belt, and there's more than one guy who'll wince at the barbed lyrics. Wrestling with your conscience has seldom sounded so much fun. www.reminicole.com KEVIN COURTNEY

Download tracks: Rock'n'Roll, Tabloid Queen, Go Mr Sunshine