EOIN BUTLER's guide to singles, downloads and free audiostreams...

Julie Feeney

Impossibly Beautiful

Mittens ****

As one of the few critics who stubbornly refused to be smitten by her debut album, I’m delighted to report that Julie Feeney’s second outing has most definitely won me over. Impossibly Beautiful is kooky and ethereal – which is easy – but also both charming and whimsical – which isn’t.

Fame

Universal **

The recent remake of Alan Parker’s classic film has been universally panned, but you’ve at least got to credit 23-year-old R’n’B vocalist Naturi Naughton for having one hell of an interesting name, right?

Ash

True Love 1980

Atomic Heart Records ***

The first offering from the Downpatrick trio’s ambitious 26-part A-Z Singles Collection is a workmanlike outing in the sort of early 1980s synth pop currently in vogue. Especially amusing, though, is the way they purport to perform the track on guitars in the video. www.ash-official.com

What About Now

19 Recordings *

Daughtry are a multimillion- selling soft-rock outfit who make even Nickelback look like the Velvet Underground. The mawkish accompanying video features random footage of Ghandi, Hurricane Katrina and the fall of the Berlin Wall, overlayed with risible slogans such as “I am the difference”, “I am the end of poverty”, and “I am the end of ignorance.” To paraphrase Wilde, one would need a heart of stone to watch and not to snigger.

Villagers

Transitional Confessional

Any Other City Records ***

He is undoubtedly one of Ireland’s most exciting emerging talents, but Conor O’Brien’s new single On a Sunlit Stage sounds a tad dreary to these ears. The B-side Transitional Confessional, however, which he wrote the morning after quitting The Immediate, is the more spirited and arresting effort. Villagers tour Ireland later this month.