Cerys Matthews - Cockahoop

Never did like Catatonia, felt they lacked passion and they were simply a by-the-numbers band.

Cerys Matthews (pictured left) made me think of the character Arabella Weir plays in The Fast Show, the one who becomes a 'lickle, vulnerable girl' when men come into the room.

Ms Matthews has now felt it necessary to record "music in its purest form", what she says is the "most honest record I could make". If you know what that actually means, you are very sad indeed.

You cannot fault the music, which is very country. It certainly has an earthy feel, but we are still stuck with that voice.

It feels as though the record company have made the decisions and this is an attempt to 'launch' Matthews on an adult market.

Beware the contractual obligations of a third-rate Britpop laddette.

Antony Silson

The Dandy Warhols - Welcome To The Monkey House

With Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes in the producer's chair, it comes as little surprise to hear Zia McCabe's keyboards featuring prominently on the Dandy's fourth album.

Courtney Taylor adopts a high-pitch vocal on current single We Used To Be Friends, Plan A and The Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone, which I am completely sold on.

Insincere Because I wouldn't sound out of place on The Beatles' classic Revolver, and Hit Rock Bottom sounds like T Rex.

There are a handful of songs that are strong enough to be singles - I Am Over It, You Were The Last High and Heavenly are all stand-out tracks in a wealth of great tunes.

This is the Dandy Warhols' best album to date.

Graham Scaife

Junior Senior - D D Don't Stop The Beat

Are Junior Senior a product of shrewd marketing designed to infiltrate the cheesy club scene while appealing to the gay market?

Or are they innovative dance merchants using pop irony to take over the charts from the safety of NME cool?

Who frankly cares? All you need to know is Junior Senior rock, from 70s disco to Surf City B52s insanity.

There's also a very strong 60s beat influence that gives you a Who groove to a Club Tropicana melody.

The fact Junior Senior transcend musical styles with such fluency makes them so lovable: you can be dancing to The Jackson 5 one minute before being plunged into the hypnotic psychadelia of Primal Scream.

James Heward

Cinerama - John Peel Sessions: Season 2

Eighteen years have passed since David Gedge recorded his first John Peel session with The Wedding Present.

This 12 track CD compiles more recent Peel sessions by his band Cinerama.

Careless, Health And Efficiency and Quick, Before It Melts have a keyboard that sounds very much like The Cure circa 1986.

A French vocal on Lollobrigida and a German backing vocal on Sly Curl, a cover of The Carpenters' Yesterday Once More, and you have the ingredients for one mighty fine album.

David Gedge has consistently produced music of the highest quality and although we are unlikely to see Cinerama troubling the upper reaches of the charts they deserve a much wider audience.

If you bought 'George Best' all those years ago you could do a lot worse than seek out this album.

Graham Scaife

The White Stripes - Elephant

I have dismissed this New York Kewell's Mississippi blues influenced experimental rock for a good two years now.

It wasn't until I saw them on Top Of The Pops last year that I finally got it. Their raw energy, the ingenious riffs exploding from just one guitar to create a wall of breathtaking sound.

Elephant is definitely their defining moment: crashing rock that pulls out all the stops, reminiscent of The John Spencer Blues Explosion but a little less theatrical, more Led Zeppelin than Elvis despite a strong Memphis influence.

If you look at every classic rock album over the last 30 years, The White Stripes have snatched a little from each. Plagiarists or geniuses? They're both of course.

James Heward