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

EMINEM

I'm Having a Relapse

Interscope

Guess who's back? Not Slim Shady, who would have made his comeback with a headlinegrabbing assault on either Sarah Palin, The Jonas Brothers or Lindsay Lohan. Instead we get Marshall, a Xanax-popping paranoid wreck who attempts something obscenely hilarious with a mannequin. Gang Starr's DJ Premier shares production duties with Dr Dre, and his understated touch is much in evidence.

AC/DC

Rock'n'Roll Train

Columbia

If ever there was an apt artist name/track title combination, then AC/DC and Rock'n'Roll Trainis surely it. The intro possibly owes a debut to the Stones' Start Me Up. That aside, Brian Johnson rasps, Angus Young duckwalks and the crowd in the video appears 100 per cent white and male. No massive surprises there.

ELLIOT MINOR

Discover (Why Love Hurts)

Warner

These classically influenced York rockers are playing Dublin's Academy on November 11th. This single (is nothing to write home about).

WALLIS BIRD

The Circle

Island

"I'm pregnant with songs" claims Wexford-raised, London-based singer songwriter Wallis Bird. She lists her influences as "Laura Viers, Laura Viers and Laura Viers." Certainly, if Viers's brand of easy listening chick-folk isn't to
your tastes, then you're unlikely to be too taken with this.

HALFSET

Desire Lines

Casino Gravity

This Dublin electro quartet have surprised a few people (this writer included) with their accomplished second album, Another Way of Being There. Desire Lines is slowburning instrumental in the vein of Mogwai or Tortoise.

GERALDINE MCQUEEN

The Winner's Song

www.itunes.com

It's hard to decide whether Peter Kay's Britain's Got the Pop Factorprogramme even qualifies as satire, given how little tweaking is required to make the reality talent contest genre appear ridiculous. Geraldine McQueen, Kay's fame-hungry Irish transsexual, will make you smile, if only because she is so utterly plausible.