Brian McFadden
The Irish Connection
Island Records
Brian McFadden gives up his hopes of being a pop star for this album is clearly targeted at the Mother’s Day market. Taking on the teritory formally held by Val Doonican, McFadden performs ten mainly modern Irish tunes. These are middle of the road takes on The Cranberries ‘Dreams’ to Van Morrison’s ‘Moondance’ and through to Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares to You’. McFadden gives nothing new to these tunes and just when you think it couldn’t get any worse he teams up with Ronan Keating to masacre a U2 classic. Bonus points though for being the first person in history to cover Enya. – Graeme Watson
Futurism
Various Artists
MOS
Ministry of Sounds ‘Futurism’ takes you on a tour of Australia’s latest festival season, adding an electronic remix to artists that have won over our hearts in the last year. Jumping from the electro soul of Flume and Rudimental to Frank Ocean and Grimes, the album offers the most current world class tunes that are circulating at the moment. Although offering massive diversity the album offers that consistent upbeat sound that can be played in the club or at a gathering on a Sunday afternoon. Ministry of Sound has successfully delivered in offering a snapshot of impeccable global sounds. – Nadine Walker
Change the Beat – Celluloid Records 1979 – 1987
Various Artists
Strut
Celluloid Records was based in NYC and began releasing no wave and punk records in the late ‘70s before branching out into early hip hop and imported French indie tunes. Featuring some of the early production work of Bill Laswell, this stellar collection contains punk sounds, world music, reggae, blues and disco. Stand out artists include Ginger Baker, The Last Poets, Manu Dibango and Modern Guy. There’s also a few great extended versions included which allows some of the tracks to be heard in their full glory. This is an intriguingly interesting compilation. – Graeme Watson
Exile
Hurts
Sony
The British electo duo returns with their second album of pop music. Do they deliberatley try to look like the Pet Shop Boys? Evoking the sounds of early 80’s electronic musicians this band certainly owes a debt to Tennant and Lowe, Ultravox, Tears for Fears and all the rest. From the athemic ‘Miracle’ to the moody ‘Somebody to Die For’ – the quality of this offering is good – but it all sounds a bit the same. Probably best not to listen to it all in one sitting, unless of course you’re really depressed. If you’re really depressed though – why not just thrown on The Smiths instead. – Graeme Watson
Northern Borders
Bonobo
Ninja Tunes
When Bonobo first appeared they struggled to stand out form the crowded field of trip hop artists of the late ‘90s but while others have come and gone, Simon Green (the wizard behind the curtain) has steadily kept on putting out quality albums. Here on his fifth offering things are beautifully murky and surprisingly upbeat. Soul queen Eryka Badu contributes vocals to ‘Heavan For The Sinner’ and Green continues to find interesting new vocalists in Cornelia and Szjerdene (who is on two tracks). Chill out album of the month. – Graeme Watson
