POP/ROCK

Latest releases reviewed

BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB Howl Echo  ****

Smart guys - for a band that was once drenched in speedy rock/pop feedback, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club clearly realised that only so much can be achieved by being a cut-price cross between The Jesus and Mary Chain, Spiritualized and Oasis. Which is probably why they've ditched the turmoil and embraced a softer but no less compelling musical stance. The real surprise here, however, is that the band have looked towards rootsy Americana for their new direction; truth is, it suits them very well, and much as this critic loved the sustained sonic-fuzz superiority of their first two records, this - reflective and brooding, as grounded in Dylanesque imagery as in The Band's bucolic rhythms - is so much better. The surprise record of the year? Quite possibly.

Tony Clayton-Lea

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS  Love Kraft  SonyBMG  ***

To record their sixth album (their sixth in English, anyway), the Furries decamped to Rio, and seem to have soaked up some of those Brazilian Tropicalia vibes. Love Kraft is a sexy, rootsy collection of psychedelic tunes that on first encounter seem like the sonic equivalent of a bunch of hippies squatting on your front lawn, but on closer inspection turn out to be rather smart aliens come to blow your little mind. It starts inauspiciously with the laid-back Zoom!, and there are a couple of stoner country tunes (The Horn and Back on a Roll) that really shouldn't be encouraged, and one rather silly instrumental wig-out (Oi Frango); but Atomic Lust tickles the aural erogenous zones, Lazer Beam is a fine pop anthem for would-be space cadets, and Psyclone!, Frequency and Ohio Heat are clever, catchy and, of course, completely bonkers. www.superfurry.com

Kevin Courtney

JULIET Random Order Virgin America ***

Juliet Richardson has form, but unfortunately it's chiefly been as a catwalk model up to now. Models turning to pop is usually bad news, as anyone who encountered Naomi Campbell's unlamented Babywoman album will tell you. Luckily, then, Richardson has enlisted the help of leading electro-pop sausage-makers Jacques Lu Cont and Irish lad Jacknife Lee for her debut solo album, having split from bubblegum pop band 1 Plus 1. The result is a bespoke sequence of razor-sharp, pouty and occasionally belting pop stompers that bop and bounce with hypnotic friskiness. The subject matter is a little darker than you'll normally find in electro-pop land, dealing with the Philadelphia singer's strict religious upbringing. Throughout, her rebel yell, with its tones here and there of Kim Wilde and Pink, makes fine work of tunes such as Ride the Pain and the Garbage-when-they-were-good purr of Nu Taboo. www.julietsounds.com

Jim Carroll

THE WIRE DAISIES  Just Another Day ID Records  ***

When opener Make Everything Change wandered on to my stereo, I gulped, bracing myself for the Dido tailspin. Worse, this sounded like the kind of female-led rock that we hoped had died with big-haired US rock siblings Heart. By Everyman and through to single Truth That Hurts, Cornwall's Wire Daisies settle down to what they do best: indie-folk poetry to rival The Sundays. It's a bucolic, slightly Irish sound that brings to mind the much missed Would-Be's, but with more innocence and less humour. Unhappily, there's a tendency to resurrect the earlier rock sound, forcefully injecting the odd indulgent sub-Clapton guitar solo. Despite, the heart-on-sleeve commercial sound, it doesn't undermine imaginative arrangements that compliment Treana Morris's silvery vocals. On Clearly Now her double-tracked harmonies soar, and bring the curtain down on a fine debut. www.wiredaisies.com

Sinéad Gleeson

ESPERS  Espers  Wichita/V2  **

The streets of Philadelphia are not where you'd usually expect to find winsome, acid-folk types wandering around. And the home of Philly soul is not where you'd expect to uncover albums by The Incredible String Band, Pentangle, or Fairport Convention. But Greg Weeks, Meg Baird and Brooke Sietinsons have somehow discovered a hidden garden of English pastoral delights, where acoustic guitars, autoharps, flutes and fiddles dance merrily alongside gently rolling chord progressions and lazily drifting melodies. The loudest thing here is the swish of fingers on frets as the trio pick a tree-lined path through such songs as Flowery Noontide, Meadow, Riding, and Hearts and Daggers. It's not all a stoned folk picnic, though: Byss and Abyss peers into the dark side of the pasture, and Travel Mountains ends with an eerie, discordant coda. www.espers.org

Kevin Courtney

SYD MATTERS Someday We Will Foresee Obstacles  Third Side Records/V2 ****

Paris-based Syd Matters released his debut album A Whisper and a Sigh two years ago, and neither a whisper nor a sigh has been heard of him since - clearly he's not one for traipsing around the globe (or visiting Ireland) shamelessly, gratuitously promoting his wares. Which is a real shame, as his new album, although stylistically at a sharp tangent to his debut, is just as good. Whereas the debut traded in psychedelic-toned, Leonard Cohen-esque charm, this is altogether more downbeat. Some people call this kind of thing folktronica, but in reality it's just very quiet, quality pop music that in Syd's case just happens to be imbued with supple, quite gorgeous swathes of melody. www.sydmatters.com

Tony Clayton-Lea