On the record: Jack's back!

What's hot and what's not in this week's new releases.

By Andy Welch

Daniel Merriweather was first heard on Mark Ronson's Stop Me single, more than two years ago, and has been threatening a solo career ever since. His debut is here, at last, but can he live up to the hype?

Elsewhere, there are great debuts from The Panics, Broken Records and Sad Day For Puppets.

Daniel Merriweather - Love & War

For this debut long-player, Daniel Merriweather wisely enlisted the production skills of his mentor Mark Ronson, having first come to prominence as a guest on his solo albums two years ago. Love & War arrives, therefore, laden with Ronson's trademark brass flourishes, but happily does not lose the soulful impact of Merriweather's impeccable voice as a result. Echoes of Terence Trent D'Arby abound in the unashamedly retro vibes which permeate this collection. Previous perky hit Change helps to generate some momentum early on, but perhaps the best example of Merriweather's undoubted talent lies in the new single Red, an epic tear-jerker with summer smash already written all over it.

Rating: 8/10

(Review by Patrick Gates)

Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up

Such is the failure of Paolo Nutini's attempt to stamp his identity on the masses that it came as something of a surprise to find chart-bothering single Broken Strings had not made his latest album. Further research revealed the logic behind that decision lay in the fact that it was a James Morrison song. It is a touch lazy to lump Nutini in with the Morrisons and Blunts of this world, but in days gone by it has also been inevitable. On his second album, he tries to break free of such comparisons by introducing ungainly slabs of reggae, ragtime and ska, each one with varying degrees of disaster. When he sticks to heartfelt folk, Nutini is an engaging performer but his cod-West Indian accent is a grave error.

Rating: 4/10

(Review by Rory Dollard)

One eskimO - All Balloons

Free from the shackles of his former pop self, Kristian Leontiou has teamed up with some like-minded chums to create an album more "ambient, magical and beautiful" than anything he banged out circa 2004. Certainly, All Balloons is packed with lush, textured sounds, but delivered at a tempo which does more to relax than stir the emotions. Leontiou's voice comes across like James Blunt's, only cooler, and with a range far wider than the Back To Bedlam star. Standout tracks have to be Kandi, with its hip Candi Staton sample, and Simpleday, which would calm even the angriest of listeners. All Balloons continues in that same chilled-out, if unremarkable, vein from beginning to end.

Rating: 7/10

(Review by Nick Howes)

Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor

Despite being regarding as something of a newcomer, this is actually the fourth album from 25-year-old avant garde singer-songwriter Patrick Wolf. Featuring collaborations from folk royalty Eliza Carthy and British actress Tilda Swinton among others, The Bachelor was originally meant to be released as a double album with another collection of songs, The Conqueror. Fearing it would overload listeners, the latter will now follow later this year, although both records will finally come together as one, titled Battle, in 2010. It was a wise choice to separate them, however. There's a lot to take in here, from the art-pop stylings of Hard Times and abrupt beats of Counts Of Casualty, to the torch song of Who Will? and the punkish Battle. Not an easy listen, but a rewarding one.

Rating: 7/10

(Review by Andy Welch)

The Panics - Cruel Guard

Panics frontman Joe Laffer's husky, weary delivery is instantly reminiscent of Luna's Dean Wareham or Calexico's Joey Burns, and the band's atmospheric mid-paced rock also bears comparison to those bands. Calexico in particular seem to be a strong influence here, with the Western Australian outback substituted for the Arizona desert. But The Panics are much more radio (and television soundtrack) friendly than Luna or Calexico, occasionally to their detriment as they approach - but thankfully steer clear of - sensitive acoustic adult contemporary territory. Nevertheless, this is a great set of songs, very well produced, adding to the rich heritage of Australian rock music.

Rating: 7/10

(Review by Steve Kerr)

Broken Records - Until The Earth Begins To Part

Already tipped for big things - "A good outside bet to win the Mercury Prize," cried the News Of The World earlier this year - the debut from Scottish seven-piece Broken Records comes with no small amount of expectation. Fusing their own folksy charm with the energy and schizophrenic sounds of Arcade Fire and the dense, layered tones of Spritualized, there's plenty here to absorb, notably If The News Makes You Sad, Don't Watch It, Thoughts On A Picture and the tender string-laden Ghosts. Singer Jamie Sutherland's voice, all Scottish rolled vowels and gutsy charm, is reminiscent of The Levellers's Mark Chadwick and even an early-U2 Bono in places. That Mercury Prize tip doesn't seem such an outrageous call after all.

Rating: 8/10

(Review by Andy Welch)

The Ghost Of A Thousand - New Hopes, New Demonstrations

The year is 2002, the band are Slipknot spin-off Murderdolls, who have just released an apocalyptically poor debut album, and the conclusion is an easy one: juvenile, shouty 'metal' has finally reached its lowest ebb. No longer would growling into a microphone and cranking up the distortion be good enough to attract a record deal. Or so we thought. Now, the year is 2009, the band are The Ghost Of A Thousand and the genre is still lurching from all-time nadir to all-time nadir. Here there is comfortably more creativity in the titles (Canyons Of Static, Good Old-Fashioned Loss) than in any of the songs themselves.

Rating: 1/10

(Review by Rory Dollard)

Pretenders - Break Up The Concrete/Best Of

With its manic rockabilly stomp, lead single and album opener Boots of Chinese Plastic announces loud and clear that at the tender age of 57, Chrissie Hynde shows no sign of letting up. The gaps between albums might grow longer (seven years since the last), but take that as a commitment to quality rather than any lack of energy. While Don't Cut Your Hair and the Bo Diddley-shuffling title track betray the band's edgy New Wave roots, most of the album is given over to sultry blues-country, with Hynde sounding for all the world like Lucinda Williams. It comes packaged with a recession-busting Best Of compilation too.

Rating: 8/10

(Review by Steve Kerr)

Sad Day For Puppets - Unknown Colours

Sad Day For Puppets are an indie-pop quintet from Sweden. Unlike many Scandinavian bands who specialise in indie-pop of the twee, Belle And Sebastian variety, SDFP plough a more shoegaze-infested furrow - no surprise given they come from the wonderful, noise-pop-obsessed Sonic Cathedral stable. Unknown Colours is relentlessly upbeat, kicking off with Little Light, but it's Marble Gods that impresses the most; a shameless nod to fuzzy early-90s indie. The 13 tracks here whizz by in under 50 minutes, but that still might be too much for some. For everyone else, it's a total treat.

Rating: 8/10

(Review by Andy Welch)

Sing It Loud - Come Around

The American pop-rock scene is bursting to breaking-point right now with identikit sweep-haired pretty-boys singing about lost love and heartache. Sing It Loud certainly fall into that bracket and don't bring anything new to the party other than some lacklustre synths lacing their weak, watered-down sound. On Come Around the influence of bands like Taking Back Sunday, The Academy Is and Cute Is What We Aim For is plain to see (and hear), but it fails to hold a candle to anything their emo forebears have produced thus far. Not even guest appearances from Motion City Soundtrack singer Justin Pierre (on We're Not Afraid) and All Time Low's Alex Gaskarth (No One Can Touch This) can save this mediocre and instantly-forgettable release.

Rating: 4/10

(Review by Nick Howes)

Singles by Andy Welch

:: Kasabian - Fire

It eases you in, this new single from Kasabian, then slaps you around the head with big beats and an even more sizeable one-line chorus. The new album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, is being touted as the band's best. On this evidence, that might be true.

:: Enter Shikari - Juggernauts

St Albans post-hardcorers Enter Shikari are back with a new single, the first from forthcoming second album Common Dreads. On the surface, there's nothing new here: crunching guitars, shouty vocals, and then BAM - a stinking, Mike Skinner-esque spoken-word section. Deary me.

:: TI - Whatever You Like

Ice, that's rap-speak for diamonds, tequila, cold hard cash and champagne are all mentioned within the first 10 seconds of this banal, sluggish R'n'B ditty, conforming to every stereotype in the book. If TI wasn't so po-faced, you'd swear he was being ironic.

On the road

Upcoming tours

:: With a new album out soon, Placebo have announced a tour for December. The evergreen band begin in Birmingham's LG Arena on December 8, moving on to London, Bridlington, Manchester, Glasgow and finally Dublin on December 15. For more information, go to www.gigsandtours.com

:: Fresh from supporting Girls Aloud on their UK tour, Anglo-Norwegian five-piece Absent Elk are heading out on their own. They begin at Oxford's Academy 2 on June 15, and end up at London's Islington Academy on July 2. For more information, go to www.ticketweb.co.uk