London,

CDs of the week

Craig David: Any more of the first half of his album and he'll be dropped

Alicia Keys: Classy

Duran Duran: Unlikely lads still going strong

Jay-Z: American Gangster relies too much on funk

Guy Barker: Consistently impressive, occasionally brilliant

Dhafer Youssef & Wolfgang Muthspiel: They have a way of making every note count

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• Wonderful confusion and tender despair

Craig David shows signs of interest again with a new album, while Duran Duran continue to churn out their funky brand of dance pop.

POP
Craig David
Trust Me (Warner Bros)
***
The two mediocre albums that followed his peerless debut, Born To Do It, combined to derail Craig David's career. Trust Me is too divergent to resurrect him but he's getting interesting again. It's an album of two halves: the first, as encapsulated by the heavy-handed sampling of David Bowie's Let's Dance on the lukewarm Hot Stuff, is bog standard, anodyne cod-soul. Just when you're on the verge of giving up, the finger-clicking Officially Yours heralds a superior second half. David bursts with genuine emotion (Kinda Girl For Me), incorporates Latin rhythms (Don't Play With Our Love) and even sounds credible alongside Kano on their hit, This is the Girl. More of this and he'll be fine; more of the first half and he'll be dropped. JOHN AIZLEWOOD

Alicia Keys
As I Am (Sony BMG)
****
The fact that Alicia Keys has filled her third album with the classy sound that made her a star - rather than hedging her bets with trendy hip hop and electro remixes - is evidence of her justified confidence in her musical powers. With its simple melodic structure, new single No One shouldn't be quite as pleasing as it is but the heartfelt lyrics and soaring chorus offer the perfect environment for Keys's passionate vocals to shine. With the album's lyrical content focusing on various aspects of love, rather than sex, the breathless Teenage Love Affair is as close as we get to anything raunchy, but Keys's traditional approach shouldn't be confused with blandness. As I Am is good enough not to need gimmicks. CHRIS ELWELL-SUTTON

Duran Duran
Red Carpet Massacre (Epic)
***
Who would have thought this bunch of flibbertigibbets would have lasted for nearly 30 years? In the Eighties, they seemed to inhabit a world composed entirely of girls and yachts and self-conscious swagger. Somehow, Duran Duran have hung in there, paddling happily in the shallow end of life, being, as Simon LeBon says, all about "sex, seduction and glamour". This selection of dance pop is enlivened by some funky help from Justin Timberlake and Timbaland but it still strives for the epic chorus and often threatens to break into heavy metal. Falling Down - co-written by Timberlake - and Box Full O'Honey are decent tunes, while the title track shows these unlikely lads still know what's what on the A-list. PETE CLARK

HIP-HOP
Jay Z
American Gangster (Roc-A-Fella)
***
So much for Jay-Z's retirement. Although given the poor sales of his comeback album, Kingdom Come, perhaps the erstwhile Shawn Carter wishes he had stayed in the boardroom rather than ventured back into the studio. However, inspired by an early screening of movie American Gangster, rap's President Carter rushed back into the studio to record this soundtrack album. Perhaps understandably, given the film's Seventies milieu, American Gangster relies too heavily on funk from that decade as a backdrop for Jay-Z's characteristically ferocious raps, but there are signs of a creative renaissance, especially on the remarkably caustic Ignorant and the mellifluous American Dreamin', which is built on a Marvin Gaye sample. PAUL CONNOLLY

ROCK
The Killers
Sawdust (Vertigo)
****
Steady at the back now - this isn't an album of new material but a collection of B-sides and unreleased tracks.

This usually suggests an exercise in money-grubbing barrel-scraping but Sawdust somehow manages to transcend this notion. Tranquilize, the song with Lou Reed, stays just the right side of hysteria and even, after a few listens, reveals itself to have a fairly porky tune, while their cover of Dire Straits' one good song, Romeo And Juliet, is rendered in a surprisingly straight and affecting fashion.

More pleasing still is that they don't bestow the same kind of reverence on their take on Joy Division's Shadowplay, which is re-imagined as sparse electrodisco and emerges sounding rather fetching. PAUL CONNOLLY

DUBSTEP
Burial
Untrue (Hyperdub)
****
This, Burial's second album, is a step on from the dark, melancholic beauty of his dubstep debut.

Here he uses the fidgety drum kick of two-step garage much more regularly and there are sweet vocal samples layered over the top.

But Untrue still bears Burial's trademark, the richly atmospheric crackles, footsteps and other found sound that is like nothing we have heard from anyone else, but is faintly reminiscent of Martin Hannett's work with Joy Division. There's humour, too - the gorgeous In McDonald's could not be more inappropriately titled.

If his debut was the sound of wandering around London on foot at night, Untrue is the same journey undertaken in a car, with rain spattering on the windscreen. PAUL CONNOLLY

JAZZ
Guy Barker
The Amadeus Project (Global Mix)
****
Trumpeter Guy Barker is a film-noir fan who devours pulp fiction and likes taking musical risks. Here's his score for a story by novelist Robert Ryan, based loosely on the plot of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. The all-star jazz orchestra is largely British but features Italian altoist Rosario Giuliani, Australian reedman Graeme Blevins, Swedish tenorist Per "Texas" Johansson and an American narrator, Michael Brandon. The results are consistently impressive and occasionally brilliant. Anyone familiar with the elegant sketches Barker writes to bring on the winners of the annual BBC Jazz Awards will know how talented his orchestrations are. Here's conclusive proof. JACK MASSARIK

WORLD
Dhafer Youssef & Wolfgang Muthspiel
Glow (Material Records)
***
Over a delicate lattice of plucked guitar, Tunisian singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef sings an opening incantation that slowly draws you deeper into his musical world. Youssef first collaborated with Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel on his first album, Electric Sufi, in 2002 and they have a way of making every note count. The texture is spare but the music is often ecstatic as Youssef ascends to high pitches that cut like a beam of sunlight through incense smoke. Trumpet and percussion add instrumental colour. There are moments where inspiration gives way to meandering, but it remains a remarkable achievement. The duo play LSO St Luke's on Saturday. SIMON BROUGHTON

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

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