Latest releases reviewed
RORY GALLAGHER Big Guns - The Very Best of Rory Gallagher Capo ***
At his peak in the mid-1970s, Rory Gallagher was routinely listed among the world's greatest guitarists, but in terms of record sales he never gave Clapton any sleepless nights. To mark the 10th anniversary of his untimely death, this two-CD collection attempts to pull together every side of Rory's blues muse, from the straight-ahead boogie of Bullfrog Blues and Messin' with the Kid to the rootsy acoustic twang of Out on the Western Plain and Goin' to My Hometown to the reflective guitar rock of A Million Miles Away and Daughter of the Everglades. The picture we get is of a prodigiously talented guitar player whose resolutely workmanlike approach kept him from hitting the rock 'n' roll heights. Tracks from his self-titled debut, Deuce, Blueprint, Tattoo, Against the Grain, Calling Card and Top Priority are here, including a few nuggets from his early blues trio, Taste. It's a patchy enough collection, but Gallagher's guitar brilliance shines through even the most ordinary tunes - and, on Shadow Play, you can hear where a certain M Knopfler of Muswell Hill might have got the idea for Sultans of Swing. www.rorygallagher.com
Kevin Courtney
RILO KILEY Take Offs and Landings Barsuk Records ****
They're certainly this year's favourite US pop band, but it's for all the right reasons. We've already heard Rilo Kiley's breakthrough album, the excellent More Adventurous (heading in the right direction for inclusion in the Top 10 Records of 2005), but this one is their debut, originally released four years ago before anyone was remotely interested. Plotting the course from then to now, it's obvious that RK have ingested some kind of creative compass that always points to a magical place. Singer Jenny Lewis, meanwhile, consolidates her status as Queen of the Golden Larynx via a series of exemplary quirky vocal performances across a range of songs that effortlessly straddle the pop/folk/indie divide. Utterly butterly and totally dreamy. www.rilokiley.com
Tony Clayton-Lea
CANE 141 Moon Pool Exceptional ****
It's four years since the release of the last Cane 141 album (Garden Tiger Moth), and Moon Pool is already many light years beyond it and everything else in the Cane wardrobe. In the intervening period, the occasionally interesting indie-schmindie baby steps that the Galway-based act were then taking have become giant leaps towards a grander, more elaborate and fascinating design. One of the few Irish bands of their generation with the know-how and chops to successfully blend electronics and guitars, Cane 141's greatest strength is an ability to marry their newly found European electronica leanings with a sometimes cute but always alluring pop sensibility. It ensures that there are many standout moments here, from the choppy, brooding disco kiss of The Hot Is Too Hot to the glorious, technicoloured shimmies and shakes of 33:45 and 1-10 and Back Again. An album for their peers to cut, paste and copy. www.cane141.com
Jim Carroll
BRAKES Give Blood Rough Trade **
The only thing more suspicious than an indie music side project is indie music's sense of humour. Take this knock-about quartet assembled from idle members of British Sea Power, Electric Soft Parade and The Tenderfoot. Each group was eccentric enough to begin with, but together they form a gratingly self-satisfied, "we're mad, us" mix of punk brevity, lackadaisical country and industry gags. The album is marked chiefly by ridiculously short songs - the mouth-foaming Pick Up the Phone spans just 28 seconds, the politically inert Cheney barely eight. It would be easy to dismiss this as a meaningless exercise were it not that talent glimmers through the murk. Ring a Ding Ding, I Can't Stand to Stand Beside You and Jackson (a Johnny Cash cover) rise above pastiche, and hint at better things to come if the Brakes ever apply themselves. www.brakesbrakesbrakes.com
Peter Crawley
DIEFENBACH Set & Drift Wall of Sound ****
Widely praised for their (minimal) vocal harmonies on last year's largely instrumental debut Run Trip Fall, Diefenbach's Allan Mattsson and Kenneth Sarup realised they'd possibly missed a trick. Therefore, while retaining much of its predecessor's edgy atmosphere and syncretic quality, the Danish five-piece have changed tack to produce an album of invigorating and breezy pop songs. Sounding like Beta Band's electronic guide to classic pop music, Set & Drift effortlessly embraces everything from Tamla Motown, through Aha and Tears for Fears, to even Coldplay's rare lighter moments. Joyful songs (such as the single Favourite Friend and the glorious Glorious) are designed to stay in your head and heart forever, while even the odd downbeat track (The Right One) show that the dark can be light enough. The rise of Scandinavian music continues; this is a swoonsome pop gem. www.diefenbach.dk
Johnnie Craig
LARRY BEAU Peepshow Stars LB ***
Like all vaudevillians, plain ol' Declan Burke obviously knew that he'd need a far glitzier nom-de-plume for his brand of underworld cabaret. Enter Larry Beau, a hybrid of lounge singer and balladeer. Dealing in charcoal tales of love, euthanasia, and prostitutes, these are folk stories about the murkier aspects of life. A spooky vein runs through the album, evidenced by the Hammer Horror whistles of Addicted to You and Suicide Fable. The music itself is wonderfully layered, unlike some of the overkill harmonies where Beau's occasionally weak vocals can sound like a gothic Daniel O'Donnell. Mostly it's a kooky slice of reinvention, and there are lighter moments, such as the jaunty cut of Oh Sam. If Kate Bush and John Lennon had a child, Larry Beau would be their shy, black-clad teenager. www.larrybeau.com
Sinéad Gleeson
3 DOORS DOWN Seventeen Days Island/Republic/Universal *
This bog-standard Mississippi band attained a measure of notoriety when they publicly supported Bush's invasion of Iraq, playing concerts for the troops a la Bob Hope, and seeing their song, When I'm Gone, become an anthem for American soldiers. Their latest album showcases the nondescript, non-specific and completely non-interesting post-grunge style which has helped them shift 12 million records to date. Songs such as Right Where I Belong, It's Not Me, The Real Life, Behind Those Eyes and Never Will I Break seem to glide by as smoothly as a Tiger Woods golf swing before completely disappearing into a stylistic sandtrap. Even worse are the lyrics, the kind of nebulous, navel-gazing twaddle that can only be written by white American frat boys with absolutely nada to say. "One more kiss could be the best thing/One more lie could be the worst" is one of the better couplets. Shockin' awful. www.3doorsdown.com
Kevin Courtney
