The latest releases reviewed.

SASO The Middle Ages Melted Snow ***

Calling your label Melted Snow is a big hint as to Saso's sound and influences. The Irish duo are often compared to Sigur Rós, thanks to glacial harmonies (False Alarm) the broody electronics of Blood Is Thin and, well, all round chilly vistas courtesy of Ben Rawlins. The vocals are left up to Jim Lawler, who switches between melancholic whispers and eerie shrieks. There's a democracy to the way they do things, uniting on simple arrangements of guitar, piano and laptop beats, but there's much more going on: take the metronomic beat of Bone, contrasting with Bryan O'Connell's textured drumming on Snowstorm or the vibraphone of Chasing Monsters and harpsichord on Chloroform (watch out for the hidden second half). Perhaps these songs suffer from a little too much overlap, but there are enough unexpected splashes on this atmospheric offering. www.saso.co.uk Sinéad Gleeson

PATRICK FREYNE AND HIS BAD INTENTIONS Nobody Ever Dies Catchy Go Go Records ***

A stalwart on Ireland's wired-up and weirded-out roots/ rock scene (with bands such as NPB and El Diablo, both now sadly defunct), Patrick Freyne clearly chooses to walk in the ditch and not the middle of the road. His debut album comes loaded with the experience of the outsider, the kind that values intimacy over insincerity and likes to spice (and spike) melodies up with shards of pointedly placed dissonance. The reference points are several but special and include the likes of Lee Hazlewood, Vashti Bunyan, Townes Van Zandt and Sufjan Stevens. It all amounts to nothing short of a roughly hewn gem, a record of small but crucial pleasures - adrift in the stew of surrounding commercial dross but so comfortable within its own skin that it's positively life affirming. www.patrickfreyneandhisbadintentions.com  Tony Clayton-Lea

PAUL WELLER Hit Parade Universal ****

Talk about the three stages of Elvis. In The Jam, Weller was the snarling spokesman for intelligent punks who didn't toe the "no future" line; when those punks morphed into yuppies, The Style Council's cafe jazz pop was there to soundtrack their fondue parties. And when they became dadrockers and began dressing like their kids, Weller the retro solo artist was there to steer them through their mid-life crises. Unlike Elvis, however, Weller remains lean and hungry and refuses to give in to bloated self-parody, even if self-parody has sometimes overtaken him. This compilation is a reminder that the Modfather could spit out nuggets when the mood took him. A Town Called Malice, Going Underground, Eton Rifles and Down in the Tube Station at Midnight are towering new wave classics; Long Hot Summer, on the other hand, is firmly embedded in the 1980s. Weller's solo career, now well into its second decade, is not adequately represented here, but Sunflower, Wild Wood, Peacock Suit and The Changingman still wear it well. Kevin Courtney

BARENAKED LADIES Barenaked Ladies Are Me Nettwerk **

With Canada currently spawning such cool bands as Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene, it's easy to forget that the country is also home to such terminally unhip acts as Barenaked Ladies. When Hootie & the Blowfish reigned supreme they opened the floodgates for plodding pop-rockers everywhere, and this Toronto band benefited to the chirpy tune of 14 million album sales. They've been quiet these past few years, but good things never last, so here's a brand new bunch of nice-guy songs that your local boyscout leader will be learning to sing for the next campfire picnic. Sound of Your Voice, Home and current single Easy are as inoffensive and tasteful as they come. Even when they're trying to inject some irreverent humour into the proceedings, as in Bank Job and Bull in a China Shop, Barenaked Ladies are still miles from any kind of edge. www.bnlmusic.com Kevin Courtney

SUSAN BLUECHILD Non Stop to Venus Naughty Recordings *

Creativity is such an aspirational thing that you can only admire someone who has pursued it as doggedly as Susan Bluechild. Years of graft helped develop her robust vocals, but you wonder how a decade in music has failed to yield one original idea. As sure as verse follows chorus, every chart-friendly pop/ rock ditty (Rock Star) is swiftly countered by a saccharine slow number (Sunrise, a late-era Debbie Harry effort). Although Non Stop to Venus reeks of big-haired power ballads, it's hard to fathom (in contemporary terms anyway) the target audience: T'Pau fans? People who liked Heart in the '80s? The diaspora of Corrs fans? Even the vocals, one of the album's occasional positives, have been shaved of all character thanks to a bout of over-zealous reverb. Sometimes bad can be good, but not when it's this bland. www.susanbluechild.com Sinéad Gleeson

NICKY WIRE I Killed the Zeitgeist Red Ink **

Wire is the second member of Manic Street Preachers to release a solo album in the space of two months. Poor man, he really should have waited longer to put this out, as I Killed the Zeitgeist pales in comparison with friend and colleague James Dean Bradfield's The Great Western. This record has neither the tunes, the vision nor the scope. What it does have is a scuzzy, gritty charm, several spoken word intros that encapsulate Wire's chosen worldviews, and a few decent songs. We're left, then, with the feeling that his noodlings are just that: scratchy, idle thoughts without much ambition behind them. He'd be advised not to give up the day job just yet. Tony Clayton-Lea