Rock/Pop

The latest CD releases reviewed

BUZZCOCKS
30 Cooking Vinyl ***

We loved Buzzcocks and the way they shamelessly fused snotty punk and glam-pop to create such shiny hits as Everybody's Happy Nowadays, You Say You Don't Love Me and Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've). They remain one of Manchester's most influential outfits, and they've even been immortalised in the title of a well-known TV pop quiz show. Frontman Pete Shelley and guitarist Steve Diggle reunited a few years ago and found a whole new audience among Arctic Monkeys fans; this 28-track live album was recorded at the Forum in London during the band's 30th anniversary tour, and features such classics as What Do I Get?, Promises, Why She's a Girl from the Chainstore and Orgasm Addict, played with all the quickfire energy of men half the pair's age. Really, though, you'd be better off picking up their greatest hits package, Singles Going Steady, and getting straight on down to the band's next gig. www.buzzcocks.com  KEVIN COURTNEY

Download Tracks: You Say You Don't Love Me, What Do I Get?, Orgasm Addict

LEO ABRAHAMS
The Unrest Cure Canderblinks/Mercury ***

When Leo Abrahams started to put together The Unrest Cure, he put the word out to friends that he needed a dig-out. Brian Eno, KT Tunstall, Ed Harcourt, Merz and others answered his call to help finish the album. The reason behind the A-listers' enthusiasm can be put down to Abrahams's day job as a session musician, working with everyone from Roxy Music to David Holmes. (This album began when Abrahams was working with some of Holmes's backroom team.) The Unrest Cure has a slew of atmospheric sounds, cinematic moods and robust songs, a mix that proves a touch clinical at times, as if the tracks had spent too long in the studio blender. No Frames, Abrahamson's collaboration with Eno, is smart and would have fitted onto Eno's Another Day on Earth album. Team-up with Tunstall (City Machine) and Ed Harcourt (Devil's Mouth) are tougher and grittier. www.leoabrahams.com  JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: City Machine, No Frames

JOE JACKSON
Rain Rykodisc ***

Something of a musical magpie, Joe Jackson - former pianist in a Portsmouth strip joint - continues to defy tradition as much as he continues to fling well-chosen epithets in the face of critics. The gangly former new waver has burned a hole through genres: literate punk rock, snazzy swing, neo-classical and impressive movie soundtracks have all been part and parcel of Jackson's output over the past 30 years. Rain carries on the deft eclecticism with a sequence of songs that sound curiously familiar yet undoubtedly Jacksonesque.

The concerns are mature, and will therefore hardly appeal to die-hard 50 Cent fans, but if you have a hankering (as most of us do, surely) for considered musings on love, misery, doubt, sex, death and the paucity of intelligence in the modern world, then JJ is the man. www.joejackson.com   TONY CLAYTON-LEA

Download tracks: Citizen Sane, King Pleasure Time, Too Tough

SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE
Sea from Shore Memphis Industries ****

Last year's decision by the highly regarded Field Music to take a break came as a surprise to many, but David Brewis has been quick to take advantage of his free time. Sea from Shore is awash with clever pop ideas, colourful melodic notions and a charming sense of adventure. These recordings were done on Brewis's laptop, the musician cutting, pasting, assembling and finetuning sounds until there was a shape and a structure he was happy with. There are four tracks titled Rockist, each one as fluent and exciting as the other, but Rockist Pt 1 is the real keeper as Brewis hones a melody from emphatic and repetitive pronunciation. Elsewhere, Disappointment '99 (with David Craig of Futurehead on vocals) and Poor Boy are sturdy, stately and adventurous tracks. With School of Language, Brewis has embarked on a triumphant solo run. www.my space.com   JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Rockist Pt 1, Poor Boy

SONS & DAUGHTERS
This Gift Domino ****

Two girls and two guys make up this Glaswegian indie quartet, but don't expect much in the way of My Bloody Valentine-style shoegazing. The band have grown from a slightly retro indie outfit to an accomplished, slightly retro pop- rock combo, and their second full- length album is all whoops and hollers, wicked guitar lines and wanton vocals, fastened to tunes that stick in your head and rattle around like a rather large loose screw. Singer Adele Bethel has blossomed into a formidable frontwoman who effortlessly distils the Scots spirits of Shirley Manson, Claire Grogan and Lulu. Guitarist Scott Paterson's guitar lines hit like well-aimed javelins, although his vocal sparring sometimes verges on the Einar Orn. But set against the spit and sparkle of Gilt Complex, The Nest, Rebel with the Ghost, Flags and Iodine, these are minor gripes. www.sonsanddaughtersloveyou.com KEVIN COURTNEY

Download tracks: Gilt Complex, The Nest, Iodine

ONE NIGHT ONLY
Started a Fire Vertigo **

According to the website of these much-hyped fluorescent adolescents from Helmsley, their first incarnation was as "a not- entirely-hopeful Beatles covers act". Alas, the first pages in their own songbook display a worrying Ringo tendency. BBC Radio 1 fave You and Me isn't a patch on the old kids' TV tune of the same name, while the current single, Just for Tonight, is a catchy-but-inane Franzkeanestein anthem. (That said, it does come with a well meant "Free Eyeliner" offer.) Only Hide, the album's snarling closer, suggests a real fire in the belly, as the band momentarily forget that they have a target demographic. Otherwise, not even the sure

touch of U2 stalwart Steve Lillywhite can make ONO's originals sound halfway original. Were they signed too young? www.onenightonlyonline.com  DARAGH Ó DÚBHÁIN

Download tracks: Hide, It's Alright

THAO WITH THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN
We Brave Bee Stings and All Kill Rock Stars **** 

If 2008 is shaping up to be a year when female solo acts dominate the game (and it certainly looks that way, even at this early stage), let's hope Virginian Thao Nguyen gets her share of the plaudits. When

you strip her songs right back to their roots, they're tinged with bluegrass and folkie components, yet Nguyen doesn't allow these strong, traditional sounds to dictate the direction she takes her music. Instead, as The Get Down Stay Down band play the melodies and sound as if they're having a whale of a time, Nguyen steers these songs, some a little bit country, others a little bit Americana, into interesting waters. The result is an album of assured and freewheeling campfire pop, all sassy hooks and daydreaming charm. www.myspacecom/thaomusic   JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Geography, Beat