Recent releases reviewed

THE STREETS
Could Well Be In Locked On/679
***

Ah, how many times have we misread the body language? Over a languid piano signature, Mike Skinner chats up a fit bird, taking her constant hair-twirling to mean "maybe". Is he in? Find out next instalment.

LEMON JELLY
Stay With You Impotent Fury/XL
**

Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen like moulding tunes around unlikely samples, such as Gallagher & Lyle's 1970s hit, I Wanna Stay With You. But when you muck with old cheese, you might end up stinking a bit yourself.

R.E.M.
 Aftermath Warner Bros
**

With a title like Aftermath, you'd expect this tune to be a dirty rocker like What's The Frequency Kenneth?, but the frequency on this breezy, mellow tune is firmly on the West Coast FM dial. Still, Lemon Jelly could sample it.

GREEN DAY
Boulevard of Broken Dreams Reprise
****

OK, it sounds like a mash-up of Writing to Reach You, How Soon Is Now and How You Remind Me, but this angsty anthem by Billie Joe and the boys is hard to resist. You've got till January 31st to learn the words so you can sing it at their Dublin gig.

JAY-Z/LINKIN PARK
Numb/EncoreWarner Bros
***

Two giants of their genre face off in a hip-hop/nu-metal slamdown, the first of MTV's Ultimate Mash-Up series. Hova kicks Chester Bennington's shorts with superior wordplay, but this is about as interesting as Alien vs Predator.

NATASHA BEDINGFIELD
Unwritten  BMG
*

Daniel's sister is finding a niche for herself - writing songs about writing. There's some guff here about life being a book and the future being a blank page, but the less written about it the better.

GERI
Ride It Innocent
***

Ms Halliwell has been off representing something-or-other, but now she's back with a rolling disco tune that Kylie might have done as a follow-up to Can't Get You Out of My Head. Ride on, girl!