The latest releases reviewed
ASLAN For Some Strange Reason EMI ***
Refusing to give up the ghost in the face of Irish print media indifference, Dublin northsiders Aslan continue to plug away. If truth be told - and if smug and snide comments as well as overfamiliarity with the band were put to one side - Aslan are a damn good rock band. They may be of the meat'n'three veg variety, but on the strength of this, their first studio album in six years, they still have a knack for knocking out radio- friendly rock songs like few of their contemporaries. Another truth: because Aslan are workhorses of a certain age (they've been together, on and off, for more than 25 years of incredible lows and illegal highs), they're viewed as over-the-hill underdogs. A name change is out of the question, of course, so the historical associations and the yoke of familiarity will always be there. What a shame it is, though, that such things get in the way of a decent band writing rock-solid material. TONY CLAYTON-LEA
Download tracks: Here Comes the Sun, Jealous Little Thing
ROBERT WYATT Comicopera Domino ****
It's cheering to see that the millions accrued by Domino from flogging Arctic Monkeys to the kids have helped fund a new album from Robert Wyatt. The former Soft Machine singer's 12th solo album follows, as ever, a different path from that taken by his peers. Divided into three acts, Comicopera could well be seen as a round-up of Wyatt's solo travels to date. There's a place for slightly absurdist pop (the spoken word opening to A Beautiful Peace), out-there chaotic flights of fancy (a cover of Anja Garbarek's Stay Tuned), fantastic songs (Just As You Are is a standout) and further experimentation (the Lorca songs and poems in the Away with the Fairies segment). Throughout, Wyatt and his cast of helpers (including Brian Eno, Paul Weller and Phil Manzanera) always strive for the most distant horizons, never afraid to go a little bit further if it means the chance of another experimental high. www.dominorecordco.com
JIM CARROLL
Download tracks: Just As You Are, A Beautiful Peace
STARS In Our Bedroom After the War Arts & Crafts *
There's no doubt Arts & Crafts benefits from the current spate of Canadian Six-Degrees-of-Kevin- Bacon: X is in Broken Social Scene with Y, who's also a solo artist, so everyone gets dragged into the cumulative back-slapping. While it's hard to fault Lesley Feist or Broken Social Scene, listening to IOBATW, it's a mystery why Stars are as feted as they are. Things start promisingly with a skewed electronic track before The Night Starts Here sets the tone for the rest of the album. With its repetitive up-for-it chorus, it wouldn't be out of place on a Bacardi Breezer ad. Worse is the degree (and variety) of mimicry going on at the expense of originality. Here's a whiff of New Order, there's a smidge of an under-performing Prefab Sprout. Twee keyboards are no substitute for real strings, just as this MOR blandfest is no substitute for its far better labelmates. www.arts-crafts.ca/stars
SINÉAD GLEESON
Download Track: The Beginning After the End
SCOTT WALKER Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball? 4AD ****
Walker's new instrumental album is the maverick singer-songwriter's most curious project yet. While his score to Leon Carax's film Pola X incorporated elements from his 1998 album, Tilt, Walker's choreographic score breaks entirely new ground with its spare and dynamic symphony of cut-up orchestral music, distorted electronica and fractured beats. Walker's signature expressionist approach pulses and gleams in each of its four movements, from the solemn drone of Part One and the thudding percussion of Part Two to the brooding cello and angular noize of Part Three and the roiling bass, the shrieking horns and staccato strings of Part Four. Severe and serious, Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball? is Walker at his most original. www.4ad.com JOCELYN CLARKE
Download tracks: Part One, Part Four
JOHN HEGARTY Guiding Light Sonic Revelator ****
John Hegarty's 2000 debut album, Twilight, garned rave notices and gained him a slot on the TV series Other Voices: Songs from a Room. His second offering sees the baby- faced multi-instrumentalist mature into a pop force to be reckoned with, as he displays his songwriting skills and his way with a Wurlitzer. Hegarty mines from the motherlode of Bacharach, Big Star and The Beatles, channelling them into such bright, upbeat songs as Such a Thrill, The Sound and Let Love In, and only occasionally letting the influences hang out for all to see. Before evokes Paul McCartney in his best lovelorn mode, while Break the Spell conjures up the magic realism of Rufus Wainwright. Hegarty's closest musical compatriot is Pugwash aka Thomas Walsh. He doesn't quite have Walsh's vocal depth, but he shares a devotion to classic pop and similar uncanny way with a tune. www.myspace. com/johnhegarty KEVIN COURTNEY
Download tracks: Such a Thrill, Guiding Light, Break the Spell
