Various: Next Friday Soundtrack (Priority)
With the Friday movie acquiring a cult status in the US, a follow-up from Ice Cube to his tale of two stoners in the 'hood is not exactly the biggest surprise of all time. The soundtrack, too, should pull in the bucks, with Cube as producer choosing a fine array of boom tunes to go with the pictures. Cube as artist also makes a few appearances, most notably alongside Dr Dre and the other NWA survivors for Chin Check, the West Coast pioneers' first new track in 10 years. The rest of the tracks are a mixture of matured gangsta swaggering, new superstar names (Wyclef Jean and Eminem) and even a collective appearance - of sorts - from the WuTang Clan.
- Jim Carroll
Day One: Ordinary Man (Melankolic)
The debut album by this Bristol duo blends dole-queue drama, coffee-shop conversation, and bedroom farce into an understated collection of vignettes, with scenes shot in bus shelters, house parties and rain-soaked streets. Vocalist Phelim Byrne muses gruffly on everyday life, love and relationships while multi-instrumentalist Donnie Hardwidge lays down languid, triphop beats, angular acoustic guitar passages and the odd tidal swirl of strings. With each song telling a story, much depends on Byrne's narrative skills; Bedroom Dancing, Autumn Rain and Truly Madly Deeply evoke a reflective atmosphere, while Trying Too Hard and Love On The Dole are tales with a twist, but without much else to endear; the single, In Your Life, sticks out like a sore indie thumb among the beats.
- Kevin Courtney
Embrace: Drawn From Memory (Hut)
Coming out around the same time as Oasis's Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, the second album by the brothers McNamara offers some solace for the Britpop kids who will feel betrayed by the Gallaghers' latest abdication of responsibility. Drawn From Memory finds Embrace gingerly taking up the sputtering torch of UK rock, and with The Manics fumbling around in search of their lost slogans, Suede searching for more words to rhyme with "gasoline", and Blur finding other things to occupy them, it may be a good time for Embrace to stick their heads above the parapet and go for broke. There are enough good songs here to keep them buoyant, including You're Not Alone, Hooligan and I Wouldn't Wanna Happen To You, but they're not home and dry yet.
- Kevin Courtney