POP/ROCK

Latest releases reviewed

MOBY Hotel Mute ****

The good news is that Moby's new album is much much better than his last (18). Hotel marks an astonishing return to form for one of pop's genuine mavericks: a million-selling iconoclastic vegan Christian environmentalist, anyone? From the feel-good guitar wash of Beautiful to the joyous hi-nrg of Very and the slinky dub of I like It (vocals by Laura Dawn) - along with brooding ambient tracks Hotel Intro, Homeward Angel and Untitled - Moby infuses his protean genre-hopping with his signature expressive passion and intensity. Merging spare electronica and driving percussion with buzz guitar and confessional lyrics, many of the songs gleefully celebrate the electro-rock of the late 1970s and early 1980s - there's even a delicate cover of New Order's Temptation. Hotel is Moby at his best: vital, serious and playful. www.moby.com

Jocelyn Clarke

SCOTT MAHER Cartoon Moon Pyramid Records ***

Maher is the former frontman with Dublin band Beach, but you probably remember him better as a member of tribute band The Classic Beatles, who have played many a launch party and even once played on a roof in Grafton Street. Given such a jangly legacy, it's not much of a surprise to find that Maher's solo work is reminiscent of Crowded House and that songs such as The Sun Came, Air, Cinema Smile and In Spite of You are packed with airy harmonies, classic-sounding hooks and smart, intuitive arrangements. Maher delivers the tunes with the quiet confidence of an experienced craftsman; he may be following an all-too-familiar template, but he's got the musical nous and lyrical grace to make each song his own. Even if he sometimes puts one foot in someone else's grave, he never misses a step. www.scottmaher.com

Kevin Courtney

THE BRAVERY The Bravery Loog ***

Another week, another hotly-tipped band who, by an odd coincidence, remind us of a non-specific period somewhere between the 1970s and the 1990s. This New York five-piece look like The Smiths crossed with A Flock of Seagulls but, happily, sound somewhat akin to The Killers at their most vibrant. When bequiffed singer Sam Endicott sings about Rolodexes over a retro synth beat and staccato punk guitars, it's hard not to smile wryly at the knowingness of it all, but it's also hard not to bounce along to Honest Mistake, Fearless, Swollen Summer and Rites of Spring. Endicott's vocals are more Julian Casablancas than Julian Cope, and there's a healthy respect for tunesmithery beneath the arch 1980s posing. Whimsical songs such as Public Service Announcement, The Ring Song and the Electric Six-ish Hot Pursuit, however, discourage complete surrender, but in hindsight that could turn out to be a good thing. www.thebravey.com

Kevin Courtney

IDLEWILD Warnings/Promises Parlophone ***

Idlewild's fourth full-length album sees the amiable Scottish band leave their origins as feedback-loving, grunge-obsessed tearaways even further behind. At its best, Warnings/Promises soars with a country-tinged sound that is heavily influenced by early REM. I Understand It, with an understated but insistent drive, could be lifted from Life's Rich Pageant with its very Stipesque "I exist without existing" refrain. But herein lies its biggest problem: Idlewild are so intent on paying tribute to others that they have nothing new of their own to say. Too Long Awake, with its choppy Sonic Youthisms and too sudden, bored ending, is just one example of a track that feels uninspired and poorly executed. Too often, Idlewild seem to be ticking boxes rather than digging deep. Though pleasantly diverting, Warnings/Promises finds the band in a holding pattern, readying for something of import the next time around. www.idlewild.co.uk

Paul McNamee

BRENDAN BENSON The Alternative to Love V2 ***

Brendan Benson's 2002 album Lapalco (his second after his 1996 debut, One Mississippi) is up there with the all-time great power pop records - lean, supreme music for the dysfunctional modern age. It's no surprise, then, to walk away from The Alternative to Love feeling a little disappointed, if not cheated. This isn't to say it's not chock full of the kind of songs that, taken out of the frame of reference, wouldn't be some of the year's best; it's just that diehard Benson fans know he's capable of capturing the essence of traditional emotional screw-ups much better than on songs such as Get It Together, The Pledge and What I'm Looking For. Musically, it's fuller and rounder than heretofore, but again more sugar and less bitter doesn't suit him. Time to fall out of love again? Go on, girl, make his heart bleed. www.brendanbenson.com

Tony Clayton-Lea

FLAMING LIPS Late Night Tales Azuli ****

Lips' completists who haven't already filled their boots with a dodgy download will rush immediately to the band's take on the White Stripes' alternative anthem Seven Nation Army for some instant gratification. Those who prefer a more leisurely listen, however, will find much to be intoxicated by as Wayne Coyne and friends replay some of the music that has been in their heads on the 20-year-plus trip, which has brought them here from Oklahoma City. While there are many pointers here to the Lips' own musical ephiphanies (you can even, for instance, draw some surprising parallels between them and the Psychedelic Furs and the Chameleons), it may be best to leave such amateur musicology to the anoraks. Instead, relish a lush Miles Davis' wig-out, spooked country-folk from Chris Bell, psychedelic grooves from the Chemical Brothers and reheated Krautrock drones from Faust. www.flaminglips.com

Jim Carroll

DERBY BROWNE Sweet Pea (No label) ***

As Dublin's cabaret scene blossoms into areas sensual, satirical and political, Derby Browne offers the most gentle of additions. Browne's background is in acting, but her interest lies less in cabaret's theatrical abandon or subversive charge as in the smooth control of dependable chansons and the lambent arrangements of a Parisian café. Her debut breezes contentedly through such jazz standards as Autumn Leaves and the bossa nova breeze of Gentle Rain, while the equipoise of Browne's voice - assured at the expense of being affecting - rarely leaves its comfort zone. This makes Jacques Brel's emotionally turbulent If You Go Away (puzzlingly performed in English) seem curiously guarded. Capped with a version of cheesy-listening favourite Can't Take My Eyes Off You, this is studiously pleasant music for people who don't like surprises. www.derbybrowne.com

Peter Crawley

THE CHRIS STAMEY EXPERIENCE A Question of Temperature Yep Roc ****

Is there a hint of Jimi Hendrix in the band's moniker? And what's this first track proper after the white noise opener, a blast of 1960s band The Yardbirds' Shapes of Things. And weirder still is the mild-mannered version of Tom Verlaine's Television classic Venus, followed by Cream's Politician. Stamey, a guitarist and producer from North Carolina (he produced the recently reviewed Tres Chicos), loves his 1960s/70s angular pop, yet it is his own songs, such as the power pop of Summer Sun, the deliciously 60s-sounding instrumental Come On, and the wry jugband instrumental Dr Strangelove's Assistant that shine here as well. Clearly a man who knows and loves his music history. www.chrisstamey.com

Joe Breen