Refreshing rythmic blues, Armenian-inspired supercharged rock, 'intellignet' rap, burnt-out young'uns, and the brilliance that is The Living End.
> Omar Kent Dykes & Jimmie Vaughan. On The Jimmy Reed Highway. Ruf Records.
3 stars (out of 5)
Fans of driving rhythmic blues will find much to like in this spirited tribute to one of the genre's lesser giants.
Dykes and Vaughan (and friends) deliver a refreshingly unrefined set, hitting a groove early and sticking with it almost all the way, the former's growl setting the mood over the latter's unhurried guitar.
From the rollicking Baby, What's Wrong? to the restrained Caress Me Baby, they take the shifts in tempo in their stride and always give the music room to breathe.
Single download: Baby, What's Wrong?
For those who like: Jimmy Reed, road trips.
- Paul Mooney
4 stars (out of 5)
Together with System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Daron Malakian lets loose on this, his first solo outing.
Complete with remnants of the same crazy Armenian-inspired supercharged rock that made System of a Down huge, Scars on Broadway is pitched somewhere between The Mars Volta and Queens of The Stone Age, and is surprisingly accessible.
In a playlist of loud, soft, loud, it is the quieter tunes that pack the biggest punch. It has all the ingredients to scale the same insane heights as SOAD.
Single download: Insane
For those who like: Faith No More, Queens of the Stone Age and Rush.
- Mark Orton
3 stars (out of 5)
In 1994 he saved hip-hop; 13 years later, he declared it dead.
Now, Nas returns with Untitled, an album which casts him as an intelligent rhymer who doesn't rely on silly skits or slow-motion videos filmed in dimly-lit clubs for his appeal.
His ninth long-player sees him declaiming righteously over minimalist beats, and taking aim at the state of American race relations.
Yet while the likes of Sly Fox and America resemble the ramblings of a paranoid conspiracy theorist, there's enough of his trademark lyrical dexterity to detract from such heavy-handedness.
Single Download: Fried Chicken
For those who like: the fact that hip-hop isn't dead
- John Hayden
2 stars (out of 5)
When you surf a wave of hype, don't be surprised if you get beached. Melodia is as fervent as the band's previous releases, but the same strengths and weaknesses continue to plague them.
Lead singer/songwriter Craig Nicholls swerves from full-throated rockers to narcoleptic drones, but there's little to make them stick.
Despite the record's brevity, songs like Get Out (a pedestrian shout-along) or the flaying Scream trundle on a solitary uninteresting idea for too long.
The Vines are no longer brash young vagrants. For a band who once sang Get Free, they sound more trapped than ever.
- Matthew Littlewood
3 stars (out of 5)
The Living End are an enigma. Brilliant live, their brand of psycho-rockabilly energy has never been fully captured in the studio, and so it is with White Noise. But, it's not half bad, either.
In an album that owes more to the brothers Young than Eddie Cochrane, and with the focus on guitar slinger Chris Cheney, The Living End cranks through 11 mighty slabs of hard-rocking brilliance, only to ditch the tension with paint-by-numbers choruses.
Including an excellent bonus DVD, and produced by the legendary Brendon O'Brien, White Noise still contains enough raw rock fury to bury most modern pretenders.
Single Download: Raise the Alarm.
For those who like: The Living End.
- Mark Orton
