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VARIOUS Bossa 'n' Stones Dro Atlantic ****

Through the years, many have ripped through the Jagger & Richards songbook for sport, yet few have produced anything quite as downright strange as this. The project came about when Argentinian label Music Brokers invited various musicians, vocalists and producers to come together to create a modern electro-bossa tribute to the Rolling Stones. While some of the versions are reminiscent in a way of the Nouvelle Vague album from a while ago (all the vocalists are female, for a start, and there's a suitably kitsch feel to the cover art), there's a sultry swagger to enough of the tracks to prove that a good tune is a good tune no matter what you do with it. Not that there will be many complaints about how Scubba and Moana recast Fool to Cry, the languid beauty of Urban Love and Astrud C's Out of Time, or the soulful, slow-motion drag of Angie from Sao Vicente and Uschi. www.droatlantic.com

Jim Carroll