ROCK/POP

Seven new releases of varying quality

ROLLERS/SPARKERS Hames Lazybird***

Rollers/Sparkers dwell in an interesting creative space. Their previous releases ( Geography for the Leaving, an EP, and the album Second Level Crossing) showed the Dublin group happy to push and pull at sound foundations until they found a new base for their wares. Here, on an album of improvised sessions later edited and enhanced, Rollers/Sparkers have a similar game plan, and their collective attention goes a-wandering a little in pursuit of new highs. Some of this approach works: there are strong hints of a fondness for Animal Collective's out-there angling in the way Glass Biscuitstips over into a twittering meltdown, while the micro-classical strums and things on the jaunty CIE Action Figuresare pitched just right. Against that, there's a sense of distracted dislocation throughout Hamesthat isn't as alluring. Next time around, such experiments and flights of fancy would probably benefit from a bit of mapping. www.rollerssparkers.com JIM CARROLL Download track: CIE Action Figures

DAVE CONWAY Highs and Hellos One Way Recordings**

The debut solo album from ex-Trip Hazard front man Dave Conway is the cathartic journal of a man coming to terms with himself. The problem with works peppered with personal revelations is that they can be a bit inaccessible. But Conway's themes are, if not universal, at least common, reflected in such song titles as Honest with Ourselves, Doing My Bestand Change of Scene. Producer Andrew Bass has allowed a definite David Bowie influence here and there, while a couple of tracks have 1980s soft-rock vibes including extended guitar solos. The strongest melody overall is in Deceived by Ecstasy, a slightly dreamy, slightly edgy ballad, the paradox giving an idea of the contradictions found throughout the album. Overall, this is the work of a man finding his feet, perhaps personally as well as musically, an aim that can't be faulted. www.myspace.com/daveconwaysolo  CLAIRE LOOBY Download tracks: Helpless, Change of Scene, Moving On

ONEIDA Preteen Weaponry Jajaguwar**

Preteen Weaponryis the ninth album of free-wheeling grooves from Oneida, a Brooklyn act who specialise in out-there sounds that usually come with the "prog" label attached. The album is the first part of a trilogy called Thank Your Parents- trilogies and concepts being another indication of Oneida's fondness for a bit of prog. The album consists of a 39-minute track divided into three parts, so getting daytime radio play is not a pressing concern for this lot. If you stick with it, you'll find that Oneida pile away like there's no tomorrow, wigging out with nods and winks to their Krautrock, new-wave and acid-rock forefathers. However, there's little here that you haven't experienced or encountered before. And, while there's nothing wrong with revisiting sounds and scenes, Onedia's inability to contribute anything new or original lets them down and makes Preteen Weaponrya bit of a trial. www.myspace.com/oneidarocks JIM CARROLL

RANDY NEWMAN Harps and Angels Nonesuch****

If you know not of this grey-haired genius of American popular song, then his new album, Newman's first studio outing in nine years, may not be the place to start. Then again, any man with the inside dope on the afterlife, who understands the true historical perspective of the US empire, the winning role of Korean parents, and is not averse to letting his heart bleed in public, sounds like someone we badly need. And Newman is funny, too. And sarcastic. And savage. And he remains one of the true originals. These 10 songs don't break any new ground, dressed as they are in their theatrical piano-based finery and melodic majesty, but they reflect his beady-eyed view of a world - specifically the US - gone bad. Enjoy the laughs as his corrosive scepticism seeps in and rejoice in his closing ode to love, the achingly vulnerable Feels Like Home. www.randynewman.com JOE BREEN Download tracks: A Few Words in Defence of Our Country, Harps and Angels, Feels Like Home

THE DANDY WARHOLS ...Earth to The Dandy Warhols... Beat the World**

When a band splits from a major label after a messy break-up, they often take it as an opportunity to have a long, hard look at themselves, reignite their relationship with what made them tick in the first place, and return with all guns blazing. Not so with the Dandies. Now independent, their steady descent into the rubbish bin continues with this sixth album. It's not all bad: And Then I Dreamt of Yes, The World Come Onand Wasp in the Lotuscatch that slick psychedelic vibe that is the Dandies' forte. The fact is that in the 1990s they were often interesting and occasionally funny, but the joke has worn thin. With Courtney Taylor-Taylor, now 41, still rambling on like some stoned teenage slacker this is, for the most part, vacuous and instantly forgettable. www.dandywarhols.com  BRIAN KEANE Download tracks: Wasp in the Lotus, Talk Radio

INDIAN JEWELRY Free Gold Now We Are Free***

In their own heads, Houston fourpiece Indian Jewelry are a pop band; but they could only pass for such in a surreal world where drone rock tops the charts. There's not a sniff of saccharine cliches or radio-friendly commercialism, but much to admire about their charcoal shoegaze. Breeze blocks of guitar are regularly dropped on the listener, only to be finished off with a feedback kick in the head. Nods to the past go as far back as the original drone stomping ground of the 1970s ( Pompeii), and the industrial noise of 1990s Ministry spin-offs Lead Into Gold ( Temporary Famine Ships). Contorted walls of sound pay off in spite of their chaotic structure, but sometimes Indian Jewelry deafen and defeat the listener. Mostly though, these experimental noise arcs drill a little hole in your heart and stay there. www.nowwearefree.com SINÉAD GLEESON Download tracks: Pompeii, Hello Africa

NOAH & THE WHALE Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down Vertigo***

Call it pop-folk (polk?) or folk-pop (fop?): a new breed of English artists are digging for their roots and coming up with catchy chart fodder. The hit single 5 Years Timeyou already know - it's the one that promises fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun. Other singalongs on this fragrant debut, such as Shape of My Heart, Joscastaand 2 Atoms in a Moleculeconjure up visions of past polk heroes as The Bluebells, Woodentops and Kirsty MacColl. Noah is one Charlie Fink, a 21-year- old Londoner who shares a similar polk vision with Johnny Flynn. If Chris Martin decided to take up Morris dancing, he might sound a bit like this. With simply strummed acoustic guitar, fiddles, marchingb and drums and Mardi Gras middleeights, Fink and his cohorts whip up a happy summer sound that leavens the whimsy with such rain-flecked slow songs as Do What I Doand Hold My Hand as I'm Lowered. www.noahandthewhale.com KEVIN COURTNEY Download tracks: Shape of My Heart, 5 Years Time, Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down