A review of this week's latest rock and pop releases

PAUL WELLER Paul Weller at the BBC Island

****As the Modfather hits the half-century, it seems his currency is going up instead of down. What better time to gather together his BBC sessions from 1990 onwards,tossing in a few of his finest past performances at Phoenix Festival, Finsbury Park and the Royal Albert Hall? For non-disciples, this four-CD set featuring 74 tracks and a 64-page booklet of sleeve notes,new interviews and rare pics might seem a box set too far, but fans will slaver at the chance to hear Weller evolve through sessions recorded for Johnnie Walker, Mark Goodier, Simon Mayo, Stuart Maconie and Mark Lamarr. You'll find different takes on original tracks, along with covers of such classics as Rose Royce's Wishing on a Starand Dr John's I Walk on Gilded Splinters.Is it possible to OD on the Modfather? Sure, but this is worth dabbling in.
www.paulweller.com
KEVIN COURTNEY
Download tracks: Wild Wood, I Walk on Gilded Splinters, That's Entertainment

DIRTY EPICS

Straight in No Kissing Scar Records

***
If you like determined, uncomplicated punk, then try Wicklow natives Dirty Epics on for size. Having garnered rave live reviews (a reputation that saw a Dublin Crawdaddy gig sell out),their much-awaited debut does exactly what it says on the tin. Frontwoman extraordinaire SJ Wai Flynn's cutting vocals storm the battlements Karen O style, while aggressive guitar fuzz plays cavalry as big drums surge from behind. Tracks here cover lust, love and the grit in between - The Cure purrs "It takes a lot to get me hot/most guys don't have what you've got" - and there's nary a tender moment on the aptly titled title track. Think The Subways partying with The Kills - raunchy rebellion guaranteed to end in errant hook-ups and questionable bruising.
www.dirtyepics.com
DEANNA ORTIZ
Download Tracks: Way Too Pretty, The Cure, Pony

BRIAN CANAVAN

You're an Electron I'm an Electron Skyla Records

He's a debutant bursting with enthusiasm and an overwhelming need for crushing honesty. Dubliner Brian Canavan traces just the faintest route to Morrissey-land in his vocals, particularly when he explodes great lungfuls of maudlin loneliness all over Anthony. Lyrically, he's got some intermittently engaging ideas (including a bedsit-like meditation on the endless things that he's good at, from his special pasta dish to his double-jointedness), and even his lovesick ode, ( Carol Vorderman) Counting Me Down,has a certain refreshing nonchalance about it. In between snatches of inventive trumpet and Spanish guitar, though, there lurk too many predictable guitar riffs and one-note ideas crying out for company. At times, there are echoes of The Frank And Walterscirca 1992: refreshing then, a tad jaded now. www.briancanavan.com
SIOBHÁN LONG
Download tracks: Nightclubbin', Four Foolscap Pages

KATIE KIM

Twelve Granny It's OK

Formerly a member of Waterford act Dae Kim, Katie Sullivan blinks into the solo limelight with an album of subtle, slow-burning magic. There are plenty of precedents for what Sullivan and her talented players are creating here (few involved will deny that traces of PJ Harvey, Juana Molina and Grizzly Bear are to be found in the album's DNA), but she has the nous to know when to depart from these orbits and take some chances with her own imagination. Such an approach works wonders on Something Growing, where a snaking groove creates a sense of menace for Sullivan's voice to track all the way to the end. Elsewhere, When I Die and especially Radio, where Sullivan's vocals for once are right bang in the middle of the mix, are further signs that she won't limit herself to just a couple of narrow frames. A hugely promising start. www.myspace.com/dancekatekimdance

JIM CARROLL
Download tracks: Radio, Something Growing

DEPARTMENT OF EAGLES

In Ear Park 4AD

Prepare to be dazzled by what Daniel Rossen (from Grizzly Bear) and Fred Nicolaus have produced for their second outing as Department of Eagles. While 2003's The Cold Nose set out its patch with inch-perfect samples, In Ear Park is a far more symphonic, rounded and emotive affair, with samples downplayed to embellish rather than emphasise what they're doing. Everywhere you look, there's another sumptuous track bursting at the seams with expansive, brilliantly nuanced pop fervour. By turns melancholic (the album is partly a tribute to Rossen's recently deceased father) and uplifting, there's much to swoon about as tracks swell with chamber-pop abandon. You'll find yourself coming back to No One Does It to wrap yourselves in its fuzzy layers or working out how the relatively sly Classical Records works its magic with such unerring accuracy.
www.departmentofeagles.com
JIM CARROLL
Download tracks: Classical Records, No One Does It

RAZORLIGHT

Slipway Fires Vertigo

Razorlight are one of those bands you want to strangle with their own guitar leads while humming one of their songs. It's easy to hate these four chancers from London and Sweden trying to set themselves up as a classic rock band in the line of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Queen and U2. It's even easier to hate their songs, which clumsily plunder pop's treasure chest and wrap them around inane lyrics. And it's really, really easy to hate their arrogant frontman Johnny Borrell, who comes across as a rock'n'roll snake-oil salesman with more self-regard than talent. There's more of the same pop pretension on their third album, but this time Razorlight carry it off with supreme confidence, and though such tunes as Wire to Wire, Hostage of Love, Tabloid Lover and North London Trashare as brazenly cliched as ever, you might find the hatred being tempered by a grudging respect. www.razorlight.co.uk
KEVIN COURTNEY
Download tracks: Wire to Wire, North London Trash, The House

JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON

Fordlândia 4AD

Considering that Jóhann Jóhannsson's fifth album is part of a trilogy influenced by technology and iconic American brands, are we to assume that Fordlândia is a mythical place populated solely by Mondeo and Focus owners? Perhaps that's a tad too literal, yet at times the Icelandic composer's latest work could easily form the soundtrack for one of those big-budget TV car ads. Ideally, attempts at making classical music more accessible shouldn't come at the cost of substance. Melodia, for instance, expands on the ideas from four earlier movements but amounts to little more than an exercise in clever phrasing. Keeping electronic intervention to a minimum and making the most of a 60-piece orchestra, the real moments of glacial beauty and emotional depth occur when simple ideas are slowly brought to a stately conclusion ( Fordlândiaand How We Left Fordlândia).
www.johannjohannsson.com
BRIAN KEANE
Download tracks: Fordlândia, The Great God Pan Is Dead