Latest releases reviewed
LaLa Geffen
She's Jessica's rockier li'l sister, peddling girlie sexual fantasies like a teen Courtney Love high on Dr Pepper. Apparently, lala is a euphemism for dressing like a kinky French maid and making like an alley cat in heat. Miaow!
Time Is My Everything Fiction/Polydor
From his album, Solarized, here's Browner's own Hispanic shuffle, complete with Latin horns and acid-flamenco flavaz. It's the perfect anthem for going baggy in Barcelona, although King Monkey's voice now sounds like it's coming out of a paella rice sack.
Wires Parlophone
Ah, nobody can do the big Britpop ballad better than, er, the Brits. This is off the athletic ones' second album, Tourist, the follow-up to the Mercury Music Prize-nominated debut, Vehicles & Animals. Ok, Bics out for the lads.
Girl's Best Friend V2
The kick-ass Kiwis have lost it lately, and this tune illustrates why. Sure, there are hints of Harmonic Generator genius here and there, but this sounds like it should be in a musical called The Rocky Spinal Horror Tap.
Speedball Olivoil Records
Saucy Monky are two very lucky guys who get to share the stage with total babes Cynthia Catania and Annmarie Cullen. Last year they covered The Divinyls' I Touch Myself; here they're doing a sexy cocktail of natural stimulants, laced with late 1980s American rock moves. At last, we've found the new Heart.