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CDs of the week

Girls Aloud: Smarter than they look and act

Tom Brosseau: Subtle arrangements

Gwilym Simcock: Tipped for stardom

Zap Mama: Predominantly English songs

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Girls Aloud release another slap of feisty handbag pop and Tom Brousseau touches upon the idiosyncracies of love in this week's albums.

POP
Girls Aloud
Tangled Up (Fascination)
***
After three albums and a greatest hits, Girls Aloud could have been forgiven for drifting into unsatisfying solo careers and presenting programmes for minor satellite television channels. Instead they've stayed aboard the mothership, wisely kept faith with producers and writers Xenomania and bashed out another slap of hugely likeable, feisty handbag pop.

There's no new direction here (no one wants a new direction from Girls Aloud) but there is a sense of crafts being honed: the vocal interplay on Sexy! No No No ... is mesmerising, while the turbo-charged Fling bubbles and burbles with sexually assertive girl power. The mid-paced but still perky Crocodile Tears reminds us that the slower a song is, the less assured Girls Aloud are, so they avoid ballads entirely. They're smarter than they look and act. JOHN AIZLEWOOD

Tom Brosseau
Cavalier (Fat Cat)
****
There are times when the world is too much with us, and the only respite is to be found in the company of a man with an acoustic guitar and a light, clear voice. Such a performer is Tom Brosseau - born in North Dakota, settled in LA, Tom came all the way to Bristol to record Cavalier with PJ Harvey associate John Parish. The result is an album of 10 songs clocking in at 40 minutes, just like they made them in the old days. The lyrics are quirky and articulate and while the idiosyncracies of love are touched upon, these are by no means Tom's exclusive concern. Arrangements are simple yet subtle, and the vocals are often double-tracked to notable effect. This is bluesy, folky and not remotely hoky. PETE CLARK

Gorillaz
D-Sides (EMI)
****
This double CD selection of offcuts from Damon Albarn's Gorillaz project is predictably eclectic and typically bonkers. The highlight for fans will be the hitherto hard-to-source War Child contribution, Hong Kong, which is a meandering seven minutes of arrant nonsense that somehow works. Elsewhere Rockit is reminiscent of Ian Dury rather than Herbie Hancock and We Are Happy Landfill is a ludicrous fight-off between Dusty Springfield and Anthrax that helps to underline just how dull and earnest Albarn's other non-Blur project, The Good, The Bad And The Queen, is. It's not all great - a few of the demos are barely there - but the remix CD offers up some oddball reworkings of overly familiar tunes such as Kids With Guns. LUKE AVON

JAZZ
Gwilym Simcock
Perception (Basho)
***
Rarely was any British pianist tipped for stardom more confidently than Gwilym Simcock, who now counts Chick Corea and Lee Konitz among his international fans. His early promise seems more handsomely fulfilled with each album. This latest one, produced by Jason Yarde, has Corea-like moments of Latinesque keyboard wizardry from the pianist but also highly original and unashamedly semi-classical English ensemble writing for a sextet featuring the versatile John Parricelli on guitar and the lyrical Stan Sulzmann on tenor and soprano saxes. This group appears opposite US bassist Charlie Haden's Quartet West at Queen Elizabeth Hall this evening, the opening night of the 10-day London Jazz Festival. JACK MASSARIK

WORLD
Zap Mama
Supermoon (Concord Records)
**
In 1991, Congolese-born singer Marie Daulne and four other female vocalists based in Belgium released their astonishing Zap Mama album. Sung entirely a capella, it was an orchestra of grunts, breaths, velvety melodies and irrepressible energy. Now Zap Mama has dwindled to just Marie Daulne with a huge cast of guest musicians, which might appeal to the soul and R&B market. It's great to claim drummer Tony Allen on 1,000 Ways, on which there are Zap Mama-style vocalisations, or Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmore on Toma Taboo, but neither has a chance to make an impact. In these predominantly English songs, little of the Zap Mama originality remains, but it's surely neo-colonial to suggest Daulne shouldn't chase the Alicia Keys audience. SIMON BROUGHTON

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