Latest CD releases reviewed

DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS
Please Describe Yourself V2
***
Our flirtation with the 1980s has escalated into a steamy 8½ Weeks-style affair - it won't be long before legwarmers and Miami Vice jackets with the sleeves rolled up are de rigueur onstage. This Glasgow bunch describe themselves as fans of XTC, and there's an echo of Andy Partridge's sparkling, sardonic songwriting in Lounger, Celebrity Sanctum, Apples & Oranges and Glimpse At The Good Life. "I wish I had Paul Newman's eyes," intones singer Craig MacIntosh, but settles for the voice of Kevin Rowland. With Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley in the production booth, the ghosts of Madness and Dexy's skank wildly through Godhopping and the compulsive I Love You Cos I Have To, but though Dogs Die are no Franz Ferdinand, they're thankfully not Haircut 100 either.
www.dogsdieinhotcars.com
Kevin Courtney

PAT CLAFFERTY
A Prayer to St Jude Purdy Records
***
He's the former leader of Dublin band Mexican Pets, and the man behind the infamous Celtic Tiger Rap in the TV series Paths To Freedom. There's no rapping or hard-edged indie on Clafferty's solo album, however; instead, we get an assortment of nicely crafted, semi-acoustic tunes whose subject matter includes relationship issues, personal impressions and well-observed character studies. Clafferty announces his anti-war attitude on opening track, You Win, but the gentle trundling of Here I Come (To Save The Day), Don't Hurt Butterflies, Lucky To Know Her, Hosanna and Never Went Anywhere creates a close, intimate atmosphere without falling into preachy folksiness. Clafferty played all instruments bar drums and strings in his home studio, and his recent work in film music informs his instinctive splicing of piano and guitar. Patchy but likeable.
www.patclafferty.com
Kevin Courtney

PALE HORSE AND RIDER
Moody Pike Darla/Agenda
****
There are many Jon de Rosas. As Aarktica, the classically trained Brooklynite makes wrenching ambient rock. No less melancholy but likely to chime with a far wider audience is Pale Horse and Rider, de Rosa's sepia paean to blues and country. For his second outing under the alias, de Rosa shares vocal duties with Low collaborator Marc Gartman - together the duo spin dusky tales of urban alienation, transplanting the stark loneliness of the plains to the city. The album is awash with hushed pedal steel, creeping banjo and black swathes of acoustic guitars, yet it is de Rosa's crumpled croon that plunges deepest. Welcome to the long dark night of the dust-bowl.
www.palehorseandrider.com
Ed Power

THE HONEYMOON
Dialogue  BMG
***
England/Iceland duo Wayne Murray and Thorunn Magnusdottir might just have something here. On the first few listens, Dialogue is background monotone, but after it finally lodges in your head you notice little things such as lingering melodies, wistful lyrics and that internal emotional dynamic that made the likes of Fleetwood Mac and ABBA slightly more interesting. From opening track Passive Aggressive to the closing song Come Undone, Wayne and Thorunn briskly skip through classy pop and rock. It's all intelligent arrangements, snagging hooks and melody lines that fall on the right side of commercial. If it falters, it's only due to the occasionally generic nature of the material; by and large, though, it shimmers like a mirage.
www.thehonemoon.co.uk
Tony Clayton-Lea

LAKE TROUT
Another One Lost Palm Pictures
**
It's not quite post-rock, one hesitates to say drum 'n' bass, and only a churl might think nu-metal, but oh my, Lake Trout's splintered sound is certainly annoying. Opening track Stutter, buzzing with static, glowering breakbeats and despondent guitar chimes, packs the betrayal of a broken promise: its musical rigour slowly seeps away from all that follows. Rarely is it a good sign when the artwork bears the pall of a concept album, trying vainly to cohere tranquilised guitar figures, whiny vocals and crunching DJ Shadow-derived beats around some storyboarded guff about bereavement. Nor is it surprising to learn of the Baltimore band's music school origins - they may be boring, but at least they're a Steve Reich-Philip Glass kind of boring. Hamstrung by such self-consciousness, Lake Trout's recherché juxtapositions become immiscible, making this one very cold fish indeed.  www.laketrout.com
Peter Crawley