SINGLES

Latest releases reviewed

Latest releases reviewed

ASHLEE SIMPSON

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!

IAN BROWN

Time Is My Everything Fiction/Polydor

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***

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.

ATHLETE

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.

THE DATSUNS

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.

SAUCY MONKY

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.