Latest CD releases reviewed.

GREEN DAY
American Idiot    Warners
****

So much has US punk/pop stultified in the past five years, it seemed unlikely the frat-boy likes of Green Day would amount to anything beyond a few fond memories. Yet, with American Idiot, the band that once espoused trouser-dropping and sexual shenanigens to the pulse of Stiff Little Fingers and The Clash have grown up. The musical template remains the same (catchy punk/pop, the kind of tunes that come effortlessly to mind when repressed adolescent thoughts stray to the high school campus, Lindsey Lohan and the way she might look at you and Tony Hawk whizzing by on a skateboard), but the lyrical content hijacks all. A highly charged concept album, no less, is what's on offer here: home thoughts from abroad about post-9/11, the indecency of Bush's America and other political issues receive an airing. Excellent tunes and substantial songs form the basis of a new blueprint for American punk/pop. From Green Day? Frankly, it's the biggest surprise of the year so far.

Tony Clayton-Lea

RADIO 4
Stealing of a Nation     City Slang
***

Either Radio 4 are with the terrorists or, more likely, they hate freedom. One thing's for sure though, the rabble-rousers of Brooklyn's dancefloors have resuscitated the politics of Gang of Four and The Clash (together with much of their sound) and set a punk-funk target on Bush's United States. The song titles - Party Crashers, State of Alert, No Reaction, Coming Up Empty - may suggest the soundtrack to a Michael Moore flick, but Radio 4's polemic is smothered in grooves. And here's the real clash. Singer Anthony Roman may sneer at the injustice of it all, but the springy bass-thumps, the buzzing, jaunty guitar lines, the bongos and pummelling synths couldn't be more content. Too often both the message and music are garbled, so not even their best attempts will shake the system. Your rump, however, is another matter.

[ www.r4ny.comOpens in new window ]

Peter Crawley

THE FRAMES
Burn The Maps     Plateau
*

The most trying band in Irish rock, The Frames swing from sweetly sublime to unpalatably precious, usually in the space of one song. They have it in them to be tuneful and tightly-coiled - viz Fake - but leader Glen Hansard tends to favour turgid self-indulgence. On Dream Awake, Trying and Ship Caught in the Bay, he seems to be going for a folksy reading of Kid A, borrowing that album's experimental-existential stance, but the effect is uncomfortably like Cat Stevens fronting Radiohead. On out-and-out rock songs such as Finally and Underglass, everything bar the quality control button is turned up to eleven. Sometimes a gorgeous musical fragment or the hint of a great song sneaks in, but it's quickly elbowed out by a droning vocal or a flurry of unfocused rage. Suddenly the Damien Rice album seems very alluring.

Kevin Courtney

JAPE
The Monkeys In The Zoo Have More Fun Than Me     Trust Me I'm A Thief Records
****

The cover of Jape's second album shows Richard Egan surrounded by lemurs; the back cover shows the primates romping over the tracklisting. Few albums could live up to the charms of a simian-centric cover like that, but luckily The Monkeys In The Zoo Have More Fun Than Me has charm in abundance - although it's a bit less lively than the monkeys. Egan's songs are subdued and sweetly melodic, with hints of Yo La Tengo at their most dreamy (The Hardest Thing to Do) and even English '70s folk (To The Sea). The album's highlight is the hypnotic single Floating, which despite starting off sounding a little like Cornershop circa 1997 quickly develops its own squelchy, spacey sound. Let's hope the monkeys like it.

Anna Carey

THE MUSIC
Welcome To The North   Virgin
**

Welcome back to the 24-hour non-stop baggy rock party. If you danced yourself silly to the Leeds combo's debut album, then prepare to pogo even higher, because Welcome To The North hits the ground grooving and (Cessation and Open Your Mind apart) doesn't let up until singer Rob Harvey has completely run out of throat lozenges. You know the drill by now: the guitars lay down an insistent riff, the rhythm section picks it up and runs amok, while Harvey screams his head off like a banshee at a beach rave. To their credit, The Music try to broaden their palette and expand their lyrical horizons, but Into The Night sounds uncomfortably like an '80s power-ballad, Bleed From Within boasts U2-lite lyrics and the title track echoes Led Zeppelin's worst prog-rock excesses. Still, if it gets a few old hippies off their butts and onto the dancefloor then it can't be a bad thing.

[ www.themusic.co.ukOpens in new window ]

Kevin Courtney

k.d. lang
Hymns of the 49th Parallel    Nonesuch
***

k.d. lang is blessed with one of the finest voices of her generation, a cool, languid, unruffled sound which she can twist into convincing angst or intense reflection at the drop of a stetson. This Canadian first came to notice fronting a pastiche country band, but that quickly gave way to classic torch. Since then she has dabbled in different styles, as if not quite sure in which genre she was most at home. All of which brings us to this elegant collection of standards by fellow Canadians - Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn, Joni Mitchell, Jane Siberry, Ron Sexsmith and Neil Young among them. Her readings are invariably reflective, with strings and Teddy Borowiecki's piano defining the sound. Some tracks are better than others, notably Siberry's The Valley, Mitchell's Case of You and Cockburn's country gospel, One Day I Walk. But paradoxically, while this is a showcase of singing, too often her voice sounds detached and unengaged.

[ www.kdlang.comOpens in new window ]

Joe Breen