Rock and Pop reviews

JASON LYTLE

Yours Truly, the Commuter Anti Records ***

Three years after a semi- acrimonious split, Grandaddy's daddy relocated to secluded Montana mountains to record his debut solo album. Yours Truly'sconcept is the commute between an artist's creative interior and reality – serious post- Grandaddy therapy, then. Lyrics are full of "moving on" imagery and the bittersweet optimism of an end turned beginning. A comrade to Sophtware Slumpin intent, Yours Truly'sindie roots hide a shoegaze heart enamoured with dreamy harmony and Montana panorama via Grandaddy's lazy Californian haze. It sometimes lacks dynamism, and Brand New Sun's rhyming scheme is suspect (bad/had/sad/hand – oh dear) but there's an endearing break-up wistfulness aplenty.

Bon Iver went to the forest to heal after Emma. Lytle went to the mountains to dream after Grandaddy. www.jasonlytle.com DEANNA ORTIZ

Download Tracks: Yours Truly, the Commuter, The Ghost of My Old Dog, Here for Good

JOHN SPILLANE

The Best of John Spillane: So Far So Good, Like EMI***

Accent and geography are both defining points in John Spillane's seventh collection. From the opening chords of the newly minted Passage Westto The Dunnes Stores Girl, Spillane's Cork roots seep from every syllable with an intense pride in his home place. He has contributed a raft of songs to the contemporary canon, from the Christy Moore-covered Johnny Don't Go to Ballincolligto the magically childlike Dance of the Cherry Trees. This collection features two new songs, and a new arrangement of Cherry Trees, with some fine guitar and cello contributions from Donogh Hennessy and Kevin Murphy. Spillane's occasionally over-earnest delivery can grate with repeated listening, but for diehard fans, this collection pulls a drawstring around a formidable songbook. www.johnspillane.com

SIOBHÁN LONG

Download tracks: Lovers Leap, The Wounded Hero

IN CASE OF FIRE

Align the Planets Search and Destroy***

These three Portadown lads have been lighting quite a fire of late, what with undercard slots to the likes of Queens of the Stone Age and a coveted place on this year's K! Tour. Marrying Foo Fighters aggression with Muse cerebration, they boast in Steven Robinson a charismatic young frontman whose voice assaults the middle of the treble clef with such aplomb that James Dean Bradfield could soon be on the phone looking for tips. While no debut album boasting tracks as potent as The Cleansingor Enemiescould be described as anything other than hugely impressive, a few too many choruses on Align the Planetsdo slip into Kerrang-by- numbers territory. When you're as talented as this, why let energy substitute for variety? Still, pish posh – this is still a tantalising debut from a band genetically coded for big things. www.incaseof fire.co.uk DARRAGH DOWNES

Download tracks: The Cleansing, Plan A

MIKA MIKO

We Be Xuxa Post Present Medium ***

Mika Miko served their creative apprenticeship in The Smell, an all-ages venue in downtown Los Angeles where No Age, Health, Abe Vigoda and others also got their start. That setting and those peers inevitably informed the band's earlier releases and live shows, which were all about blowing off steam in the loudest, giddiest and goofiest way possible. We Be Xuxa, though, catches the band beginning to bolt in a different direction. While the rambunctiousness of their live show is still to the fore, producer Mike McHugh has got the band to pay a little more attention to the groove and put some shape on their playing. The result is still slightly sloppy around the edges, but there's nothing wrong with that. Music by kids getting blasted in the sun for kids who want to get blasted in the sun. www.myspace.com/mikamiko JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Turkey Sandwich, I Got a Lot

DANIEL MERRIWEATHER

Love & War Sony ***

Production by Mark Ronson? Check. The backing of soul connoisseurs The Dap-Kings? Check. It would be all too easy to lumber Daniel Merriweather with the tag of the "Male Amy Winehouse", especially considering the Camden Caner has temporarily vacated the nu-soul niche. It would also be easy to dismiss him on the basis of his Ronson-aided hit (some would say massacre) of The Smiths' Stop Me, but the Aussie singer's second album is actually a thoroughly enjoyable clutch of catchy retro- soul numbers. Merriweather's textured, flexible voice commands the finger-clicking Could Youand the swinging, brass-embellished Getting Outskilfully, while fellow husky-voiced chanteuse Adele enhances the melancholic swell of ballad Water and a Flame. It's not particularly original, and is a tad trite in places, too, but an entertaining debut overall. www.danielmerri weather.com LAUREN MURPHY

Download tracks: Getting Out, Could You

VALERIE FRANCIS

Slow DynamoVF Records ****

Valerie Francis is one of several female songwriters (see also Miriam Ingram) who have remained trapped under the floorboards while the careers of their inferior contemporaries flourish, so her debut album has been a long time coming. You can tell that the Dubliner spent time on these songs. The aptly named Slow Dynamois a steady stream of lush, wistful tranquility, but it's her marvellous backing musicians – as well as the subtle production of Jimmy Eadie (Si Schroeder, Jape) – that transforms a good album into a great one. The sumptuous jazz-pop of Punchesand the measured, airy composure of Cannonballare especially distinctive, while the soft double bass chug of Stonesand How'sglitchy rat-tat-tat beat are similarly evocative. Slow Dynamo'sminimalist tone won't be for everyone, but it's short enough (33 minutes) to keep patient listeners riveted. www.myspace.com/ valeriefrancis LAUREN MURPHY

Download tracks: Punches, How

MY LATEST NOVEL

Death and EntrancesBella Union ****

From Greenock, near Glasgow, My Latest Novel take note of how literature can inform rock music. Through the influences of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (the album title is taken from a Thomas poem of the same name) and Scottish writer Alasdair Gray (several of the songs are inspired by his book, Lanark), My Latest Novel have fashioned a record that, in lesser hands, would crumble from pretension and overworthiness. Death and Entrances, however, wears its influences lightly, and sometimes with a typical Glaswegian shrug. Written within a two-year period in a former pub in the band's hometown, the album might be occasionally indebted to the ghosts that drag their shadows along Sauchiehall Street (namely, Arab Strap), but there is more than enough individuality and idiosyncrasy here to mark MLN down as harbingers of a new and lovely kind of folk/pop melancholy. www.mylatestnovel.com TONY CLAYTON-LEA
Download tracks: The Greatest Shakedown, I Declare a Ceasefire