This week's Rock and Pop CDs reviewed

IAIN ARCHER

To the Pine Roots Black Records ***

Bangor's Iain Archer is an undiscovered gem, even after serving time in an early incarnation of Snow Patrol and receiving an Ivor Novello Songwriting Award. He's bided his time by releasing solo albums of great distinction ( Flood the Tanks, Magnetic North) and by engaging in socially worthy songwriting seminars. Archer's low profile looks set to continue with this exquisitely low-key album. The overall tone is so quiet that you almost feel embarrassed to make a noise, but quiet doesn't necessarily mean lack of intensity. Archer channels reveries and memories of location (South Belfast in Black Mountain Quarry), family (his father in Streamer on a Kite) and sense of place (Frieberg in Frozen Lake) in a way that connects with Nick Drake's beautiful sadness. A lovely record, a minor commercial success, a really good songwriter. www.iainarcher. co.uk TONY CLAYTON-LEA

Download tracks: The Acrobat, Black Mountain Quarry, To Mend and Move Along

PETER DOHERTY
Grace/Wastelands EMI **

He may have formalised his name for his debut solo outing, but the Babyshambles frontman, drug- addled tabloid villain to some, poet and genius to others, hasn't really altered his music-making methods. The Albion-eulogising singer collaborates with Graham Coxon, Dot Allison and old foil Carl Barat on Grace/Wastelands, but many of these solemn, guitar-based tracks lack direction and the lyrical insights that Doherty is capable of. There are several attempts at string-based pop balladry as well, but Doherty's sloppy drawl sits uneasily atop the orchestration. Only the tumbler-slamming bar jaunt Sweet By and Byreally hits the spot. Doherty has revealed himself as an intelligent and sensitive being in past interviews, but there's nothing here to convince his detractors. www.myspace.com/ gracewaste lands LAUREN MURPHY

Download tracks: I Am the Rain, Sweet By and By

TERRY LYNN
Kingstonlogic 2.0 Phree ***

Terry Lynn sounds like someone you wouldn't mess with. The Jamaican singer's debut album is a fierce affair from start to finish, an album determined to knock down every stylistic door in the building. The blistering, belligerent, take- no-prisoners title track sees Lynn nailing her manifesto to the sound system and setting the pace for an album which is far more than just the sound of the latterday Kingston underground. In fact, Lynn's determination to bring grime, ghettotech and other shades of basement boogie to her local dancehall is most commendable. This hatching and matching doesn't always go according to plan, but Lynn's wild, wide-eyed soundclash (not to mention her tough-headed lyrical guile) is big enough and bold enough to compensate for such occasional glitches. www.myspace.com/terrylynnkingstonlogic JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Kingstonlogic, Kingston Rockers

PAUL TIERNAN
Earthquakes Start with Little Cracks Right Stuff Records ***

Is it a sign of the times when Irish singer-songwriters up sticks and relocate to Europe? Cork native Paul Tiernan did just that, emigrating to France after enjoying minor success as a jobbing guitarist and member of little-known band Interference. His third solo album displays a musician rich in experience, proficient in songwriting but lacking any real originality. Finger-plucked acoustic numbers are the order of the day, occasionally enhanced by lap-steel guitar, strings, saxophone and mellow female backing vocals. Tiernan's voice is a lovely semi- rasp, but rarely lifts itself above the treetops. A current of soul ( Skinny, Panic Blues) intermittently runs thriough the dominant folk flavour but, overall, this is an album that'll warm your toes rather than knock your socks off. www.paultiernan.com

Download tracks:Cracks in the Pavement, Skinny

BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY
Beware Domino ****

Will Oldham has steadily carved a niche for himself - that of a folk-country outsider, seemingly moving slowly towards Johnny Cash territory. The gloomy starkness of some of his work has yielded magnificently sombre moments from this maverick talent. Beware is Oldham's seventh outing under the Bonnie "Prince" Billy moniker and, while it is hardly a joyous, uplifting album, it gets a fair bit of the way there. Much of this has to do with the backing: there are mariachi brass, female vocalists and even some line-dancing flourishes. On You Can't Hurt Me Nowand You Don't Love Me, Oldham sounds in relatively chipper form, and his voice sounds more comfortable as it winds itself around these hopeful words. At times the denseness of the backings jars with the intent of the song, but that's a minor complaint about another interesting moment in Oldham's career. BRIAN BOYD

Download tracks: I Am Goodbye, You Don't Love Me

MT ST HELEN'S VIETNAM BAND
Mt St Helen's Vietmnam Band Dead Oceans ***

From Seattle, with a long name and a 13-year-old drummer, Mt St Helen's Vietnam Band are a curious blend of current runnings and classic tricks. Produced by Animal Collective and Arcade Fire accomplice Scott Colburn, MSHVB's debut album exhibits some obvious traces of each group, yet never quite goes the whole hog in following either direction to its obvious conclusion. Instead, there's a likable and often audacious sense of a band finding their feet by skipping merrily through indie-rock's undergrowth. There are nods at Wolf Parade's scruffy constructions ( Who's Asking, Cheer for Fate), but the album really comes alive when the band follow their own lead and work up a fine head of steam, as on Anchors Dropped. More of this the next time around and they're elected. www. myspace.com/mtsthelensvietnam band

Download tracks:Anchors Dropped, Who's Asking

CAPTAIN WILBERFORCE
Everyone Loves a Villian Blue Tuxedo **

Leeds man Simon Bristoll's second album is beautifully recorded, impeccably produced and spirit- crushingly dull. With a voice that recalls Squeeze's Glenn Tilbrook, Bristoll pays soft-centred homage to the glories of melodic British pop (from The Fabs and The Kinks through to ELO and on to Blur) without once considering that imitation might not be the same thing as emulation. On the lyrical front, these songs cast a cod- sardonic eye on romance ( No Strings or Ties), modern life ( Twilight Kids) and other thematic staples. In truth, they all leave just one image in the mind's eye: the middle of a road. A 37-minute triumph of craft over art and graft over heart, Everyone Loves a Villaininduced in this reviewer an almost physical need for an antidote. For me, a blast of Blur's Song 2did the trick. www.captainwilberforce.com