The Coral
Singles Collection
Four stars
Ok, so they've never achieved their true commercial potential – due partially to ill-luck and partially to their own willfulness – yet The Coral remain one of the great cult groups of British pop.
Singles Collection gathers together 14 of their finest moments – with a bonus disc of out-takes, demos and live tracks – which prove beyond doubt that they're worthy heirs to those Scouse kings of jangle, The La's.
Savour again the gorgeous harmonies of Goodbye, the Rickenbacker loveliness of Jacqueline and and nimble bassline of Dreaming of You and realise where the Last Shadow Puppets borrowed many of their best ideas from.
This month's essential purchase.
Deltasonic
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Katy Perry
One of the Boys
Two stars
Sometimes you just wish people would stick to what they're good at. Take Katy Perry. Purveyor of enjoyably daft sauce-pop on her debut single I Kissed A Girl, she comes a cropper when she ventures into adult-oriented rock on its parent album, One of the Boys.
"I can belch the alphabet, just don't dare me," she proclaims on the title track while Waking Up in Vegas, a tale of morning-after regrets, couldn't sound more like Avril Lavigne if it tried. It's not all bad – U R So Gay raises a smile with lyrics like "I can't believe I fell in love with someone who wears more make-up than me" and Hold n Cold has an appealing electro bounce – but when the guitars kick in again on Self Inflicted it all feels so very wrong.
Virgin
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The Streets
Everything is Borrowed
Three stars
It seems the tide of critical opinion has finally turned for Mike Skinner. After years of being praised to the skies for releasing geezerish guff like Dry Your Eyes and Has It Come To This?, the Guy Ritchie of UK garage suddenly finds himself knocked for sticking to his guns.
Funnily enough Everything is Borrowed, his fourth album, actually sounds – to these ears, at least – like one of his better records. Heaven For The Weather is breezy pop-rap that finds the one-time party animal contemplating the afterlife and preferring "hell for the company", The Way of the Dodo ruminates on mankind's ultimate fate over looped beats while The Escapist boasts an uplifting gospel chorus.
The twin parables On The Flip of a Coin and On the Edge of a Cliff make good use of guitar and trumpet samples respectively; if only Skinner hadn't attempted to go funky on The Sherry End or soppy on Strongest Person I Know. Still, you can't have everything.
Sixsevennine
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The Verve
Forth
Three stars
Here we go again... "The door is open, I'm reaching, yeah like a prodigal son", "I see mountains, blood-red sunsets", "And when it comes to my Valium skies, she don't mind if I cry"... Yes, Richard Ashcroft, the poet-seer of Wigan is back to enlighten us about life, the universe and everything. Gobbledy-gook lyrics aside, The Verve's first album in 11 years is actually an above-average affair – thanks, in large part, to the epic soundscapes created by the band's guitar whizz Nick McCabe, bass player Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury. While frontman Richard Ashcroft blusters on about understanding "the world's affliction" and seeking answers to his nebulous questions, his cohorts embark on some of their finest jams, full of intricate improvisation and fascinating rhythms. McCabe's sublime backwards guitar on Judas is one particular highlight, as are the soaring dynamics of I See Houses.
Parlophone
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Little Man Tate
Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy
One star
What promises to be "an exciting new dawn" after a difficult 12 months for Sheffield quartet Little Man Tate actually sounds more like a sad goodnight. Beginning unpromisingly with the Charlatans/ Oasis homage Money Wheel ("We'll sit out in the dark with acoustic guitars/We'll play all the songs off Definitely Maybe"), Nothing Worth Having... serves up one dispiriting indie number after another. As it draws to a close with the bog-awful Shoulder to Cry On, you thank your lucky stars the whole sorry business is over in 35 minutes.
Yellow Van/Skint
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