Eoin Butler's guide to downloads, singles and free audiostreams

REPUBLIC OF LOOSE

The Man Loaded Dice **

Their last comeback single, I Like Music, was an audacious triumph. This is equally audacious but the execution lets them down in the end. Republic of Loose may have envisaged The Manas a slab of psychedelic disco in the vein of Animal Collective's My Girls. But it winds up sounding far more like Rednex's Cotton Eyed Joe. Which is unfortunate, to say the least.

JOSH GROBAN

Hidden Away Warner **

An American maestro of AOR, Josh Groban is best remembered for his version of the execrable You Raise Me Up. This is more of the same crap. Interestingly, though, this comeback, like virtually every musical comeback in the last decade and a half, is being masterminded by Rick Rubin, a man whose list of production credits (Jay-Z, Neil Diamond, Megadeath) grows more idiosyncratic by the day.

INTERPOL

Barricades Matador **

"Full speed, half blind/Full tilt, decline/We turn to times past." Fitting really, for a group who were once top of the indie tree but now sound increasingly like shadows of their former selves. Barricadesis the dregs of a hundred things Interpol has done before, served up in a shiny new glass.

SLEIGH BELLS

Infinity Guitars Mom + Pop ****

The video ends with Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller staring impassively as a bonfire of guitars is set ablaze. But you needn’t read much into that. As always with these two, the distortion pedal is down and the intensity turned up to 11.

JOE MCELDERRY

Ambitions Syco ***

Denied the Christmas No 1 spot that fans and telly executives felt was rightly his, the X Factor champ is taking no chances this time around. Ambitionswas already a hit in Norway for a local band called Donkeyboy. Now that's some pop pedigree you can take straight to the bank.