POP/ROCK

The latest releases reviewed

HUMANZI Tremors Fiction ****

Humanzi are among the first of a new breed of bands to break Ireland out of singer-songwriter inertia, and their brand of NME-friendly "21st century punk" has polarised many in their native country. Tremors is unlikely to change that. Some will despise its occasionally obvious riffs, chord sequences and the odd junior-cert lyrical hook. Others will love its cleverly sophisticated bottling of the Dublin scamps' infectious live energy, which makes the urge to crank up the volume irresistible. The seething guitars, pounding drums, and relentless, heavy bass rhythms simply demand floorboard tremors, while Shaun Mulrooney's effects-laden, panicked-manic-Dalek vocals deliver short, sharp commentaries that should decorate the schoolbags of a generation. With way more killer than filler, Tremors heralds a new era in Irish rock. Indeed, as Humanzi say, "this is the shit, so get used to it." It's been a long time coming. www.humanzi.com

Johnnie Craig

RAZORLIGHT Razorlight Mercury ***

The rise of Razorlight can probably be attributed to old-fashioned rock'n' roll values, such as borrowing heavily from the past and displaying an arrogance that's completely out of proportion to your actual talent. Both qualities are here on their second, self-titled album: Who Needs Love, Hold On I Can't Stop This Feeling and Pop Song 2006 could have been written in '76 or '86, and In the Morning writes off every other band on the airwaves with one guitar sweep. Los Angeles Waltz is the story of a brilliant band who aren't getting the worship they deserve. Now, who could that be? But for all their posturing, and Johnny Borrell's overt self-regard, insincere singing voice and often-clunky lyrics ("Now your sheets are dirty/ The streets are dirty too"), Razorlight is a lean, mean record that doesn't waste a single riff or couplet, and keeps its eye firmly on the rock'n' roll prize through 10 crowd-friendly tunes. Razorlight may be easy to hate, but they're hard to dismiss.

Kevin Courtney

PEACHES Impeach My Bush XL ***

It would seem that electronic vixen Peaches has a new wheeze: she wants to be Courtney Love. After two albums of sleazy electro filth, ex-schoolteacher Merrill Nisker brings in experienced rock heavyweights Joan Jett, Josh Homme and Hole stickswoman Samantha Maloney to put a different twist on her musical humping. While this brings a much heavier and engaging set of beats (even if there's still a huge quota of squelchy electro, thanks to Gwen Stefani aide Greg Kurstin), Peaches still has just sex on her mind. If you thought that title may have something to do with the current occupant of the White House, titles like Tent in Your Pants, Slippery Dick and Fuck of Kill tell a different tale. Like last album Fatherfucker, the script remains the same: Peaches taking on sexual politics, talking dirty and having a whale of a time. www.peachesrocks.com

Jim Carroll

THE PIPETTES We Are the Pipettes Memphis Industries ***

The Pipettes began as a spontaneous experiment: three Brighton girls in polka dot dresses doing doo-wop and '60s pop, and bringing a cheeky post-punk attitude to the retro package. Sure, it's been done before, but, as one long-gone girlie trio sang, 'tain't what you do, it's the way that you do it. And The Pipettes do what they do so well, easily fulfilling their opening theme's promise to drop you in their net. Backed by their male cohorts The Cassettes, the girls skate through the beaty, meaty pop of Pull Shapes, Dirty Mind and Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me with supreme grace and the kind of confidence that comes when you get three girls together singing about swotty boyfriends (ABC), John Travolta wannabes (It Hurts to See You Dance so Well), mercifully brief encounters (One Night Stand) and that supercool chick who was once the envy of all her classmates (Judy). The Pipettes may have tied themselves to a set formula, but they sure manage to produce some sparkling results.

Kevin Courtney

SEBADOH Ill Domino ***

Sloppy, loose as a very drunken goose and as playful as a crate of puppies, US indie rock band Sebadoh more or less wrote the blueprint for lo-fi. Only Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted could claim to carve out similar territory and influence. Having left Dinosaur Jr in a fug of bitterness, bassist Lou Barlow went on to form a band that traded on its blend of (as Barlow once said) "freedom, democracy, chaos". Such a recipe for commercial longevity could never gel, of course, but this re-issue tells an alternate-universe story where Sebadoh evolved their honest-to-goodness lo-fi punk/folk/jazz/noise hybrid into something meaningful and financially viable. The likes of Beck and Guided By Voices were definitely listening back in the early '90s; perhaps more people will with this remastered, rough little gem. wwwsebadoh.com

Tony Clayton-Lea

VARIOUS ARTISTS The Acoustic Affair Vertical Records ***

Scotland has had a decade-long passion for its "Acoustic Affair", a platform for unplugged performances by hand-picked artists from home and away. This collection both triumphs and flounders on the contents of its compilation, defined by both the strength of its best featured artists and the weaknesses of its worst. Current media darling Karine Polwart contributes one of the tastiest morsels to the feast, with her languid, unforced telling of Holy Moses. Unkle Bob invoke a suitably maudlin mood with Brighter (though comparisons with Nick Drake might be a tad over-emotional), and Karan Casey lends a particularly bare-naked reading of Bright Winter's Day, its spare arrangements offering some of the other contributors a masterclass in the art of less is more. www.acousticaffair.co.uk

Siobhán Long