The latest CD releases reviewed

SIA
Some People Have Real Problems Monkey Puzzle ***

By rights, Sia Furler should be huge - as in Dido huge or Feist huge. Instead, the Australian, probably best known for her work with Zero 7, has reached album No 4 without a gong, gold disc or global hit to her name. As Some People Have Real Problems again shows, Furler certainly has the ability when it comes to singing and writing to warrant all of the above and more besides. The problem could be the lack of a unique selling point, as her tasteful and subtle rub of jazzy soul and trippy pop will sound all too familiar to your ears, especially given the rash of other lasses in circulation with similar designs for pop life. Furler has a fondness for slow-burning, smouldering ballads with sharp, spirited lyrics, yet she's still not quite able to glue a track such as Little Black Sandals or Electric Bird to your brain. www.siamusic.net   JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Little Black Sandals, Electric Bird

RO TIERNEY
Tics and Politics True Music ***

There's nothing more Indie than abandoning a band and major- label prospects for a one-way ticket to sunny climes with only a guitar and journal for company. Throw in the birth of his record label (True Music) and a successful New Zealand-Australian tour, and the result is Dubliner Ro Tierney living his dream. Tics and Politics, mixed by veteran Bruce Miller (Dave Matthews, Miles Davis), feeds on Australasian warmth: it's Jack Johnson's sun-soaked acoustics and Fionn Regan with sunburn. Although Tierney embraces dreamy idealism to the point where it occasionally tips some tracks into corny territory, even the odd sprinkling of maize can't hide the potential in Tics' highlights. And something tells me there are more where they came from. www.myspace.com/rotierney   DEANNA ORTIZ

Download tracks: Sticks and Stones, Sunrise, Tumbleweed

MARIA DOYLE KENNEDY
Skull Cover Mermaid Records ****

If the result of road weariness is a thing of beauty such as Skullcover, then maybe we should all hit the road. Maria Doyle Kennedy's creative energies have delivered a trio of outstanding albums, and with each release her distinctive voice has evolved further into its own delicious space. This covers CD, recorded in 2004 for a limited edition website release, justly makes its debut on the back of her 2007 collection, Mütter. Swinging from a gorgeously creaky version of The Buggles' Video Killed the Radio Star to a truly apocalyptic take on Red Sails in the Sunset and a beautifully pastoral Death of Queen Jane (borrowed from The Bothy Band), Doyle Kennedy reinvents each and every song with an enviably jaded brio. Meteor awards may come and go, but MDK is still one hell of a musical force to be reckoned with. www.maria doylekennedy.com SIOBHÁN LONG

Download tracks: Still in Love With You, SOS

MORRISSEY
Greatest Hits Polydor/Decca ***

The Smiths lasted six years and Morrissey's solo career is now in its 20th year, so now's as good a time as any for a compilation of the curmudgeonly crooner's finest musical rants. Moz has more singles than will fit on one CD, so this collection sticks to songs that made the Top 20. Missed are such classics as November Spawned a Monster, Ouija Board, Ouija Board and the mighty You're the One for Me, Fatty, but it does have Suedehead, Every Day Is Like Sunday, The Last of the Famous International Playboys and The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get. The bulk is made up from his resurgent last two albums, which between them spawned eight Top 20 hits, including Irish Blood, English Heart, I Have Forgiven Jesus, and First of the Gang to Die. Moz has grown from Pinteresque misanthrope to Shakespearean tragicomic figure, and this compilation covers some of the master miserablist's grandest gestures. www.morrisseymusic.com  KEVIN COURTNEY

Download Tracks: Every Day Is Like Sunday, Irish Blood, English Heart

BOB MOULD
District Line Beggars Banquet ***

Never one to rely on his Hüsker Dü and Sugar legacy, Bob Mould can seemingly turn his hand to anything, from running a monthly club night in Washington to a stint scriptwriting for the professional wrestling company WCW (the poor man's WWE). This seventh solo effort finds Mould trying to combine the many facets of his musical history, with varying degrees of success. His foray into dance music is represented on the out-of-place Shelter Me, while the acoustic number Again and Again exposes his occasional lyrical heavy- handedness. However, when the guitars are plugged in and Fugazi's Brendan Canty stars beating on the drums, the melodic, minor chord, radio-friendly rock of Stupid Now, Who Needs to Dream? and Very Temporary show us what he's best at. Ultimately? A diverting, if unessential, addition to the Mould canon. www.bobmould.com   BRIAN KEANE

Download tracks: Stupid Now, Who Needs to Dream? Old Highs, New Lows

LOS CAMPESINOS!
Hold On Now, Youngster . . . Wichita Recordings ***

Take a young seven-piece, Cardiff-based indie pop band, lock them in a studio with a variety of instruments including violins, a glockenspiel and a cowbell, and tell them to go crazy. What you will end up with is the debut album from Los Campesinos! From the get-go, there's a tweeness and manic affability about the sound, and an unstoppable energy that will elicit comparisons with The Go! Team and Arcade Fire. It's not music best listened to sitting down, and you've got to love such song titles as You! Me! Dancing! and Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks. You won't be humming the tunes after a first listen, but you'll certainly want to re-live the experience. "I treasure with fondness the day before I met you!" Just imagine 20,000 people screaming that in the middle of a muddy field. www.loscampesinos. com CLAIRE LOOBY

Download tracks: You! Me! Dancing!, This Is How You Spell "HaHa Ha, We Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics"

FAREWELL
Isn't This Supposed to Be Fun!? Epitaph Europe **

Just in case you're missing Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco and the Blink 182 offshoots Angels and Airwaves and +44, Farewell are here to plug the gaps. There's a lot to like about this North Carolina six-piece if you're the undemanding type: strands of pop/punk are woven into melodies that owe as much to the Beach Boys as to Stiff Little Fingers. What's missing is the sense of a band discovering these elements for the first time; in other words, despite the power-pop trimmings (Start it Up, Darling Darlene), the Green Day affectations (Anchors Away, September Brought the Fall) and the Sum 41 sniggers, there's a strong feeling that Farewell are simply going through the motions. After the first few gigs, where's the fun in that? TONY CLAYTON-LEA

Download track: Darling Darlene

BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY
Ask Forgiveness Domino ***

It really is the season for cover version albums, with Will Oldham joining Cat Power and Shelby Lynne in singing the songs of others. Oldham is no stranger to the well-executed cover version (his take on Thunder Road is peerless) and the Ask Forgiveness mini- album, where he's assisted by Meg Baird,

Greg Weeks from Espers and cellist Maggie Wienk, sees him exploring the songbooks of R Kelly, Danzig, Björk and Phil Ochs. Oldham's success with covers comes from the emphasis he finds in the lyrics and how he accentuates these strengths. On I've Seen It All, for example, he downplays the overwrought drama of Björk and Thom Yorke's original

in favour of a slow waltz around the song's sentiments. Others might plump for a trip to novelty island when covering Danzig (Am I Demon) or R Kelly (The World's Greatest), but Oldham's preference for a different and less apparent route always pays dividends. www.bonnieprincebilly.com  JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: I've Seen It All, The World's Greatest

RIVERS CUOMO
Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo Geffen **

Uh-oh, work-in-progress alert. Cuomo, the nerdy songwriting genius of US powerpop band Weezer, has gathered a collection of demos he recorded in his bedroom over the years, and, judging from the rows of cassette tapes on the back cover, he's got a big back catalogue to choose from. Cuomo has been making

home demos since 1992, many of which evolved into some of Weezer's best-known hits. When Weezer broke big, Cuomo was still in college, and many of these clunky recordings display the endearing naivete of a strat-wielding frat-boy. There are covers of songs by writers as diverse as Gregg Alexander, Dion and Ice Cube, and original tracks that, had Weezer recorded them, might have put some spark into the band's recent, rather dull geek-grunge-by- numbers efforts. As they stand here, though, such songs as Longtime Sunshine, Chess, Lover in the Snow and This Is the Way are tantalising glimpses of what Weezer might have become. KEVIN COURTNEY

Download tracks: Longtime Sunshine, This Is the Way