POP
7 WORLDS COLLIDE
The Sun Came Out (Sony)
****
While Crowded House were effectively Neil Finn's project, once he actually went solo in 1996 the songwriting muse seemed to desert him, even when he became Crowded House again more recently, in 2007.

The beguiling The Sun Came Out eases the pressure. The first 7 Worlds Collide album was a 2001 concert but this 24-song, two-CD affair was recorded over three weeks at Finn's New Zealand studio last Christmas. Like its predecessor, it features Finn (pictured above) as ringmaster rather than chief singer or songwriter. It's part family album and so four Finns guest: Sharon, Neil's wife of 27 years, sons Elroy and Liam, and Neil's brother, Tim.

Neil Finn's sole solo showcase, All Comedians Suffer, is his best effort in years but Sharon, a chandelier shop owner by day, steals the album when she duets with Neil on a lively co-write, Little By Little. Elroy's wry The Cobbler suggests their youngest is the shape of Finns to come.

Radiohead drummer Phil Selway turns out to be a surprisingly adept singer-songwriter on The Witching Hour (although Thom Yorke's sleep patterns will remain undisturbed) while his bandmate Ed O'Brien does a sterling turn on Bodhisattva Blues. KT Tunstall is strangely seductive on the howling Hazel Black and Run in the Dust shows ex-Smith and current Crib Johnny Marr's vocals are ripening impressively with age.

There's nothing here to eclipse vintage Crowded House and sometimes things sound a tad rushed — but for the most part this is a relaxed delight. And all profits go to Oxfam.
JOHN AIZLEWOOD

BRENDAN BENSON
My Old, Familiar Friend
(Echo/Co-operative)
****
In successful supergroup The Raconteurs, although it was obviously Jack White providing the raw guitar power, his Detroit pal Brendan Benson must have been in charge of the tunes. Benson's fourth solo album displays his ear for a melody to full effect — it's catchier than a baseball mitt.
He's best on the straight-up power pop of Poised and Ready and A Whole Lot Better, which feature racing guitars and the singer's high voice straining to keep up. The diversions mostly work, such as the strings and soul of Garbage Day and pulsing synthpop of Feel Like Taking You Home. As in his other band, he seems destined for ever to be overlooked — but it's not for a lack of great songs.
DAVID SMYTH

NOAH AND THE WHALE
The First Days of Spring
(Young and Lost Club)
****
Once upon a time, Noah and the Whale were a twee little outfit, notable for the merrily ubiquitous hit 5 Years. Then singer Laura Marling left — both the group and her boyfriend Charlie Fink, the band's main man. The result is this record, the undeniably powerful sound of a heart breaking and trying to reorganise its shattered pieces.
This is nevertheless an uplifting record, with Fink's understated voice illustrating his woes in unselfconscious confessional, while the musical backdrop moves towards powerful crescendos of massed voices and strings, bearing the damaged heart aloft. Try the title track, My Broken Heart, Love of an Orchestra and My Door Is Always Open for deep-vein catharsis.
PETE CLARK

JUST JACK
All Night Cinema
(Mercury)
**
Just Jack is a most unlikely pop star: a part-singing, part-rapping everyman, who writes songs about birds, brawling and urban boredom in the style of a family-friendly Mike Skinner.
His third effort, All Night Cinema, should carry a PG rating for certain moments of mild swearing but there's really very little to get worked up about here. The paranoid dance-pop of Doctor Doctor is as gritty as things get, although it's unlikely to bring Eminem out in cold sweats. Elsewhere, the fluttering flutes and acoustic guitar of The Day I Died provide an elegiac highpoint. There are few others. Far from a blockbuster hit, All Night Cinema could be Jack's closing credits.
RICK PEARSON

JAZZ
MONTY ALEXANDER
The Songs of Nat King Cole
(Chesky)
****
No overdubs, no multi-tracking, no large mixing consoles and no compressors in the signal path, whatever they may be. Chesky Records believe in giving it to you straight, and that's all Monty Alexander needs. Crisply accompanied by bassist Lorin Cohen and drummer George Fludas, this mature piano master imaginatively reworks the hits of the great singer-pianist Nat King Cole.
Never Let Me Go is a great ballad, Send for Me works as a boogie blues, and Ramblin' Rose features that artful thing he does, taking a handsome phrase down in semitones to the next significant chord. Calypso Blues even offers a melodica bonus.
The trio play Ronnie Scott's tonight and tomorrow.
JACK MASSARIK

WORLD
SHANTEL
Planet Paprika
(Crammed Discs)
***
Shantel, formerly a DJ but now a bandleader, has been one of those responsible for popularising Balkan gypsy music on the European club scene. He certainly deserves credit for giving this marginalised music a higher profile and making it appealing and fun. But on this album the balance shifts from homage to pastiche. The title track, Planet Paprika, is a bland Balkan singalong rap with tongue-in-cheek lyrics — “you don't need a visa ... boogie caravan, boogie caravanserai” — and schoolboy sexual innuendo — “let me show you my paprika”. It's not all bad as there are some great tracks here with vocalist Brenna MacCrimmon and clarinettist Filip Simeonov — but they're undersold by the cheap paprika jokes and formulaic dance beats.
SIMON BROUGHTON