Shuffle

EOIN BUTLER's guide to downloads, singles and free audiostreams

THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART

Heart of Your Heartbreak Play It Again Sam **

Has there ever been a weenier band than this before? Saved By the Bell's Zach Attack? The kids from School of Rock? Nope, even the Mini Pops would give these guys a pounding if they caught them behind the bike sheds! The Pains of Being Pure at Heart will be at Dublin's Button Factory on June 1st – minus their lunch money, if I have anything to do with it.

THE MINUTES

Black Keys Model Citizen Records ****

A bruising, pugilistic offering from the Irish rockers' Marcataalbum, which drops next month. The Minutes play the Leeson Lounge in Dublin tomorrow night.

FRED

If Not Now When RCM ***

After more than a decade together, the Cork five-piece still haven't quite carved out a niche for themselves. But they continue to produce excellent work. Their fourth album, Leaving My Empire, was recorded in Montreal with former Arcade Fire drummer Howard Bilerman.

THE FLAMING LIPS & NEON INDIAN

Is David Bowie Dying? Warner **

It’s available only at selected record stores in Dallas and Oklahoma City. Nonetheless, it might be worth familiarising yourself with the opening chords of this song if you plan to catch the Flaming Lips in concert anytime soon. Because if Wayne Coyne co should incorporate this shapeless, formless seven-minute wig-out into their set, it would make an excellent time to visit the bathroom, get your round in. Zzzzzz . . .

TAKE THAT

Happy Now Polydor ***

Though the lyrics seem to be mined from the depths of Robbie Williams’s own neuroses (“I get the feeling I’m being lied to/There’s a surge in my psychosis at every turn of the screw”), Gary Barlow and the Butlins do their best to keep things light. Though he must be pushing 40, Mark Owen, in particular, still looks like a child up past his bedtime.