The latest releases reviewed

BEACH HOUSE
Devotion Bella Union ***

Straight from the moody streets of Baltimore, Beach House make music that is as dreamy, soft-focus and ethereal as pop gets. There are two in the House (singer Victoria Legrand and multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally) and, as on their 2006 debut, Devotion is all about crafting and sculpting sumptuous, luxurious and languid tracks designed to set you adrift on memory bliss. You know from the get-go that things will get a little Mazzy Star (Gila) or Galaxie 500 (a spooked-out cover of Daniel Johnston's Some Things Last a Long Time), but Beach House turn such preconceptions on their head to keep you tuned in. For every moment when it's more pastiche than polish, there are fuzzy pop treatments and glorious, melodic arrangements to send you soaring away from it all. www.myspace.com/beachhousemusic  JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Gila, Some Things Last a Long Time

PUGWASH
Eleven Modern Antiquities 1969 ****

It would be unwise not to mention The Beatles and Oasis. It would also be remiss not to mention Beach Boys and XTC. Irish band Pugwash might not cut the most original swathe through pop music, then, but neither do they deliver anything second- rate. While it's arguable that their music crosses the boundaries from homage to pastiche, the fact remains that everything here is so incredibly good that the influences tend to blur into something familiar yet utterly distinctive. Take Me Away, the first single and first track on the album, sets the tone: an instantly hummable tune that lodges in the head and refuses to budge. Most of the songs are written solely by Thomas Walsh (with occasional assist from Neil Hannon and XTC's Andy Partridge); the overall impression is that his songwriting heroes are matched line by line, melody by melody. Heard it all before? Yes, but this really is fab. www.mayspace.com/pugwash  TONY CLAYTON-LEA

Download tracks: Take Me Away, Song for You

SUPERGRASS
Diamond Hoo Haa Parlophone ***

Longevity was never part of Britpop's DNA, and while most of Supergrass's peers have fallen by the wayside, the poshest brats on the block have carried on regardless, even if there has been little worth getting excited about since their eponymous 1999 release. Influences are still worn proudly on their sleeves, whether it's the White Stripes rip-off (woops, I mean homage), Diamond Hoo Haa Man, or the Bowie-sounding Rebel in You. As you'd expect, it's all cheeky, high-energy rock. Yet despite Gaz Coombes's claims of a "return of inspiration", the patchiness of this sixth album suggests otherwise: Ghost of a Friend is pop gold, but 345 and Whisky & Green Tea are overly ambitious misfires. Past their sell-by date? Iit's looking more and more likely. www.supergrass.com BRIAN KEANE

Download Tracks: Rebel in You, When I Needed You, Ghost of a Friend

OPERATOR PLEASE
Yes Yes Vindictive Brille ***

It's still all about teenage kicks with Operator Please. Formed to compete for a battle of the bands competition in their Melbourne school (they won and got a box of doughnuts for their troubles), Operator Please play pop with the freshness, vitality and brashness you get only from bands of a certain age. Then again, only bands of a certain age can get away with covering up the cracks in their material with such brightly coloured patches of bubblegum punk. OP have several life-affirming tunes at their disposal (only a churlish curmudgeon would frown at the shapes thrown on Just a Song About Ping Pong or Get What You Want), yet they sometimes seem too hasty with their delivery, to the detriment of their hooks and melodies. More of the striking panache shown on Leave It Alone, which swoops and sweeps with grace and gusto, and you'd really have something to yell about. www.myspace.com/operatorplease  JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Just a Song About Ping Pong, Cringe

DOES IT OFFEND YOU YEAH?
You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into EMI **

Judging a band by its name is the musical equivalent of judging a book by its cover, but that's the least of DIOYY?'s worries. The problem extends well beyond that and into these 10 chaotic tracks. This is a band whose musical electicism is their undoing, whether it's dallying with new rave or jumping on LCD Soundsystem´s dirty epic coat-tails. More of the imagination employed on Attack of the 60 Ft Lesbian Octopus and less of the regurgitated indie/electro face-offs, and maybe listeners wouldn't be so offended, yeah? It's a sorry situation when an album's highlights sound like Daft Punk cast-offs (Battle Royale and We Are Rockstars). The Robot Rockers have a lot to answer for, except that they were doing this kind of thing better, faster and stronger a decade ago. www.doesitoffendyou.com   SINÉAD GLEESON

Download Tracks: Battle Royale, Attack of the 60 Ft lesbian Octopus

VINCENT VINCENT AND THE VILLAINS
Gospel Bombs EMI ****

It's not easy being a true rock'n' roller - just think of the Brylcreem habit. VV&TV plough a lonely furrow, with only Vampire Weekend's new single for company: singing about the joys of listening to old 45s, not a CD in sight, and name-dropping Roy Orbison and The Flamingos. This is music written and played for the sheer love of it, trends be damned, with Billy Fury-style melodies and guitar riffs that tip more than a nod to Duane Eddy. The Mexican samba of Beast and the close harmony of On My Own will get many a pair of blue suede shoes back on the dancefloor, while the slow shimmy of Cinema is strangely hypnotic despite, or maybe because of, its nicotine- stained creepiness. The gorgeous minor key rock apocalyptic End of the Night takes a leaf from the Chris Isaak book of songwriting and would be the perfect soundtrack to a David Lynch bar-room scene. Let's dance, baby. www.vincentvincentandthevillains.com  CLAIRE LOOBY

Download tracks: Killing Time, Telephone, End of the Night

BE YOUR OWN PET
Get Awkward XL **

Everyone who makes music has a doppelganger, and not just because someone else has beaten you to the punch decades earlier. Nashville noisehounds Be Your Own Pet could have arisen from the amalgamated punk ashes of Bow Wow Wow and The Ramones. Much of the sharp- cornered racket they produce wasn't born in the noughties, and while The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Gossip plunder the past with aplomb, both acts manage to inject a huge chunk of their own idiosyncrasies into their songs. Not so BYOP, who stomp through 15 breathless tracks in 30 minutes, which is akin to palpitations without the heart attack. Jemina Pearl Abegg sings her lungs out over grinding pulses and guitars wielded like axes. There's an amphetamine- drenched energy to Super Soaked, but for all its white-knuckle energy, you can't shake the feeling of deja vu. www.beyourownpet.net   SINÉAD GLEESON

Download track: Super Soaked