Kylie Minogue returns with her usual quality pop, Wyclef Jean continues to flourish and leading saxophonist Tineke Postma all feature in this week's top CDs.

POP
Kylie Minogue
X (Parlaphone)
***
If this had been anyone else's first album since beating cancer, you'd expect tearful soul-searching or "I'm alive!" joyfulness. But this is Kylie, who in 20 years of pop stardom is yet to give anything away about her private life. There's No More Rain, a pretty tune that employs a predictable metaphor to touch on her experiences, but otherwise X is packed with the usual depthless love songs. Though she fails in her attempt to ape Gwen Stefani's edgy synthpop on Nu-di-ty, In My Arms is great modern disco and the gorgeous twinkling of The One provides the soul that's lacking elsewhere. Usual quality pop from Kylie is certainly better than nothing at all. DAVID SMYTH

Shayne Ward
Breathless (Syco)
**
Having won one of the reality TV shows, Shayne Ward managed one huge single (That's My Goal) and, before you could say "Gareth Gates", promptly disappeared. This second album is an attempt to pick up the pieces of a career which already seems on its uppers. Predictably, Ward is a bit-part player on his own album, contributing only anaemic vocals to a collection of reasonably competent songs. U Got Me So rattles along merrily in a karaoke Justin Timberlake kind of way, and a cover The SOS Band's Just Be Good To Me is passable. But nothing can quite assuage the notion that, for Shayne Ward, the game is up. JOHN AIZLEWOOD

Wyclef Jean
Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant (Sony BMG)
****
It's 15 years since Wyclef Jean and the Fugees shook up the New York rap scene and earned them worldwide stardom. While the intervening years have seen patchy output from bandmates Lauryn Hill and Pras, Wyclef has flourished. His latest star-studded collection sees him returning to one of his favourite themes: immigration and identity. New single Sweetest Girl has "hit" written all over it, a reggae-tinged track with a vocal contribution from Akon that fits in perfectly with Wyclef 's sound. Paul Simon provides a classic chorus on Fast Car, a folky warning against youthful foolishness. CHRIS ELWELL-SUTTON

The Brunettes
Structure & Cosmetics (Sup Pop)
****
They must put something in the sunshine down under. Kiwi and Aussie alt-pop bands like Architecture In Helsinki, Operator Please and this superlative Auckland sometime-duo (pals on peculiar instruments often feature) sound like they have heaps more fun than we do. Heather Mansfield and Jonathan Bree emerge from the if-it-ain't-baroque-it-doesn't-really-rock school with a sound like two friendly Martians embracing twee, white picket fence culture and humanoid lexicon. Random spurts of words like "scrunchie" and "sssnap dragon" plunge the depths of lyrical purity. Drowsy harmonies loll through Stereo (Mono Mono) before an intergalactic conversation (If You Were Alien). Soporific wondrousness. MARTHA DE LACEY

DANCE
Marbert Rocel
Speed Emotions (Compost)
***
"Well, that's just trendy bar music, isn't it?" shrugged a colleague as I played her the debut record from German duo Marcel Aue and Robert Krause (Marbert Rocel? Geddit? Good). And she's right. However, very little "trendy bar music" could get away with pummelling the sweat-sticky walls of Shoreditch's T Bar just as it could woo a jazzophile crowd at one of Ronnie Scott's funkier affairs. Morcheeba/Veba-inspired vocalist Antje Seifarth coats the pair's ambient, easygoing techno (shall we call it chillechno? Nope, thought not) with a voice so oozing in sultriness it could turn on a beanbag. There's a smattering of Kruder & Dorfmeister, Buddah Bar, Rae & Christian, Nightmares On Wax and all the big dulcet electronica names - and how can that ever be a bad thing? M DE L

JAZZ
Tineke Postma
A Journey That Matters (Foreign Media Jazz)
****
Tineke Postma, from Amsterdam, is one of the world's leading female saxophonists and this, her third album, is her best yet. Playing alto and soprano saxes (plus tenor on one track), her lines are hip and agile, yet distinctly feminine in their grace and sensitivity. US drum superstar Terri Lyne Carrington sparks a Dutch group featuring the excellent pianist Rob Van Bavel and guest guitarist Edoardo Righini. A woodwind quartet adds colour to the ballads, which include an artful update of Prelude to a Kiss. Nine tuneful, well-crafted originals complete a production of unusual depth and taste. JACK MASSARIK

WORLD
Compay Segundo
Cien Aņos (Rhino)
****
The veteran singer Compay Segundo, who enjoyed late-flowering celebrity thanks to the Buena Vista Social Club, would have been 100 this week. He died only four years ago and was performing to the end. Like many great Cuban musicians he grew up in Santiago de Cuba, a heartland of son - his speciality. Even if you don't know his name, you're sure to know Chan Chan, Buena Vista's signature song. This is a three-CD-and-DVD celebration of Compay's life drawn from the recordings he made after signing a contract with Warners in 1994 aged 88. It's sunny music with a touch of grit, and features fine duets with Khaled and Silvio Rodriguez. SIMON BROUGHTON