Latest releases reviewed.

MARC CARROLL
World on a Wire
Evangeline
****

Marc Carroll has been waiting in the wings so long now he must surely feel more like a set designer than a main act. Each album release looks set to see him perched at the top of the food chain; each album release gets people like me in a right old lather; each album release sells zip. The truth is that the guy is something of a genius; whereas before he had Big Star/Badfinger guitars swirling around collections of superlative pop/rock songs, with World On A Wire he has opted for strings of a more mellow nature and created a record of warmth, truth, beauty and something approximating a career best. If Bob Dylan raised on an aural diet of Brian Wilson rather than Woody Guthrie appeals to you, then prepare to be blown away. Is this the record to drag him out centre stage, though? Could be, should be . . . www.marccarroll.com Tony Clayton-Lea

GRUFF RHYS
Yr Atal Genhedlaeth
Placid Casual
***

The title says it all. Touching on everything from the arrested development of a generation to a dirty joke about contraception, Yr Atal Genhedleath's double - if not triple - meanings may become lost in translation. Still, although it is confined to Welsh, this clutch of loosely developed demos from the Super Furry Animal-in-Chief (recorded in just a week) also speaks a kitschy Esperanto of plastic beats and folksy melodies, throat-clearing choruses and digital fuzz. As prickly and idiosyncratic as anything from the Super Furries, country stroller Chwarea'n Troi'n Chwerw and distorted Europop anthem Rhagluniaeth Ysgafn demonstrate talent without effort. That may be enough to tide over SFA fans until the group's next release, but, without similar commitment, you may hear Gruff's ringing call for inclusivity - "Ni yw y byd, dewch bawb ynghyd" - and somehow not be moved. www.placidcasual.com Peter Crawley

ELECTRIC SIX
Señor Smoke
Rushmore Recordings
**

Like Foreigner on glue, here's Dick Valentine's wild bunch, back for another bite of the rock 'n' roll cherry, and ready to go ga ga on the radio once again. The line-up has changed, but the style remains the same: Spinal Tap's pomp-rock filtered through Scissor Sisters' camp club beats, with just a pinch of Tenacious D's obnoxo-folk. Danger! High Voltage and (Let Me Take You To A) Gay Bar, from their début album, Fire, were fine examples of receding-hair metal disco, but if you're looking for more supremely silly tunesmithery from the middle-aged party monsters, you're on shaky ground here. After you've forced a flimsy guffaw out of Rock 'n' Roll Evacuation (Disco Inferno with riffs), Bite Me, Vibrator and Boy Or Girl?, you're wondering when the punchline is gonna come. Dance-A-Thon 2005 is an aural endurance test, while Future Is The Future is a so-so Talking Heads pastiche; and there's a nagging suspicion that when they cover Queen's Radio Ga Ga, they really mean it, man. www.electricsix.com Kevin Courtney

ANI DI FRANCO
Knuckle Down
Righteous Babe Music
***

Ani's back on form and all is still far from right with the world. Ms Di Franco's prolific work-rate doesn't always serve her well; her last few albums have punched below her normal weight, but Knuckle Down describes her current form perfectly. There's always been an intimacy in the whispered confidences of Di Franco's music, shared insights that strike chords deep in the belly. She's a glorious mix of Ginsberg and Gainsbourg: raw sexuality shot through with a highly politicised sensibility. Razor-sharp observations on a lost love affair, Sunday Morning, and Parameters, a tale of urban loathing that'll strike at the solar plexus, are two tiny snapshots of an artist in her prime. Ani's edges are gloriously jagged again. www.righteousbabe.com Siobhán Long

DEATH IN VEGAS
Milk It - The Best of Death in Vegas
Concrete Records
****

The very ambiguously titled Milk It charts Death In Vegas's eclectic musical journey through three genre-defying albums (Dead Elvis, The Contino Sessions and Scorpio Rising) to the outer reaches of dance, alt.rock and electronica. Featuring well-known collaborations with such diverse artists as Iggy Pop (Aisha), Liam Gallagher (Scorpio Rising) and Dot Allison (Dirge), and remixes by Polyphonic Spree (Scorpio Rising) and Dave Clark (Rocco), the 2-CD "best of" collection celebrates Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes's mainstream success rather than their gnarlier and more angular experimental impulses. Although two remixes of Adult's Hands Around My Throat and Dot Allison's Dirge and no version of, say, Hope Sandoval's truly original 11-minute ragga-driven Help Yourself seems like over-sell, Milk It is nevertheless a fine introduction to the diversity of Death In Vegas's oeuvre. www.sonybmg.com Jocelyn Clarke

RILO KILEY
More Adventurous
Warners/Brute/Beaute Records
****

Guitar pop rarely gets better than on this third album from Los Angeles-based Rilo Kiley; effortlessly eclipsing previous albums Take-Offs And Landings and The Execution of All Things, former child actors Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennet have set about perfecting one of those records that could be pivotal in the development of male/female relationships - this is very much an "our record", and will, one can virtually guarantee, be fought over in separation/divorce cases in years to come. Treading on a thin but tensile line between pristine pop and country-tinged rock, the tunes gain extra weight via Lewis's lyrics, which are wise beyond their years but which also ring so true (check out the wow factor that is Does He Love You?) it's profoundly tragic. Pop/rock articulacy at its best. www.rilokiley.com Tony Clayton-Lea

THE KNIFE
Deep Cuts
Rabid Records
***

Remember Sparkle Motion, the cheesy disco dancing troupe in Donnie Darko? Well, here's their desolate, digitised soundtrack, too strange for Fame, too freaked-out for Flashdance, but perfectly suited to the darker side of the 1980s. The Knife are brother-sister duo Olof and Karin Dreijer; you can guess they've been listening to lots of Eurythmics, Yazoo and The Creatures, but there's also a little Throbbing Gristle seeping out of those creaky old synths and drum machines. This is their second album, and though it may not have the lush sheen of an Erasure or a Pet Shop Boys (it was recorded in Karin's basement), it does have moments of computerised pop genius, particularly in Heartbeats, Pass This On and You Take My Breath Away. Olof's synth work is admirably sparse and robotic, with a hardcore techno edge, while Karin's vocals are a beguiling blend of Björk, Kate Bush and that girl out of Baccara. Sparkly electronic pop with a jagged twist. www.theknife.net Kevin Courtney