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CDs of the week
25.03.08
In full light: William Rees of Mystery Jets
Not so super: Diamond Hoo Ha
Long ride: Ego Trippin'
Look here too
Indie five-piece Mystery Jets have found their sound with their second album but Supergrass and Guillemots seem to have lost direction.
INDIE
MYSTERY JETS
Twenty One (Sixsevenine)
*****
Mystery Jets have moved on so quickly and so completely following 2006's scrappy, annoying Making Dens that with the fantastic Twenty One they have established themselves as one of the UK's most important rock bands. Twenty One is stuffed with soaring, funny, magical guitar pop. Young Love, which kicks off with a bassline pilfered from Echo And The Bunnymen's Over The Wall, mutates into a gorgeous, sinuous examination of a one night stand, with a delicate cameo from Laura Marling. Hand Me Down works similar wonders with a skinny take on The White Stripes fat rock. The Jets may have lost their fiftysomething totem, Henrym, but they've found their own sound. And what a great sound it is. PAUL CONNOLLY
Guillemots
Red (Polydor)
***
Guillemots' first album, Through The Windowpane, was a lush, slightly pretentious set of songs that hinted at the huge ambitions of singer Fyfe Dangerfield's band of brainboxes. It may have been a touch light on memorable tunes but it was very promising. So, to say that their second release, Red, is a little bewildering is an understatement. Guillemots have discovered the Eighties — and how. No dinosaur from that decade is considered too outrageous. Over the course of opening track Kriss Kross alone, there's a big dollop of a-ha, as well as hefty helpings of ABC and, less commendably, Johnny Hates Jazz. As a sop to the Nineties, there's even some Manic Street Preachers in there. It gets odder. Big Dog has sniffed a bit of Justin Timberlake but not quite enough to avoid sounding like a track from George Michael's 1987 album Faith. Guillemots are still promising but they need their own identity, and fast. PAUL CONNOLLY
SUPERGRASS
Diamond Hoo Ha(Parlophone)
**
This is where the Britpop trio try to revive their diminishing fortunes by becoming The White Stripes without the cute drummer and titanic tunes. That may be a little unfair — Diamond Hoo Ha is at least an improvement on 2005's anaemic Road To Rouen. But it's still worryingly light on the melody and hook front. First track Diamond Hoo Ha Man has plenty of muscular riffage but the tune is teeny-tiny, while Rebel In You barely exists and Whiskey And Green Tea stumbles into Darkness territory. Supergrass now rarely play their biggest hit, Alright, live as they think it's cheesy but how they could do with some of that song's melodic nous here. PAUL CONNOLLY
FOALS
Antidotes(Transgressive)
***
Here's proof of the baleful influence of Radiohead circa OK Computer. Foals, their much-tipped Oxford compatriots, clearly look at this phase of Radiohead's career with envy as their first album is drier than toast. Surprisingly, however, this dustiness doesn't parch Antidotes, mainly because Foals are unable to go for long without throwing out a hook or a mini-melody. Red Sock Pugie even injects their jittery, rhythm-riddled itch-pop with a little emotion as singer Yannis Philippakis sings of hearts swelling. Still, if it wasn't for Foals' way with a tune and the little flourishes of this year's must-have guitar sound — African highlife — this wouldn't amount to much. Promising, but nothing more. PAUL CONNOLLY
HIP HOP
SNOOP DOGG
Ego Trippin'(Polydor)
***
Younger readers may be surprised to learn that Snoop Dogg was once a real player on the rap scene. Indeed his debut, 1993's Doggystyle, is regarded by many as one of the great hip hop albums. That will not be the fate of Ego Trippin', unfortunately. The problem with Snoop's ridiculously long 80-minute, 21-track ninth album is that the tone varies wildly. The first four tracks are a return to the gangsta days, but by the time you reach his fab and funky cover of The Time's Cool and the countryesque My Medicine you'll be wondering if you dreamt the opening. There's a lot to enjoy here but also far too much that just doesn't make sense. PAUL CONNOLLY
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