WHEN you open your difficult second album with a deliberately distorted song that will have listeners wondering if the product is faulty, you don't endear yourself to anyone - not least the legion of critics who think you are nothing more than a David Byrne clone.

However, when the ears acclimatise to this, it reveals textures of mad fairground, nursery-rhyme spacerock. Alec Ounsworth won't be winning any new friends though; there are only three 'normal' songs here.

Download: 'Love Song No 7', 'Satan Said Dance', 'Yankee Go Home' Neil Dunphy Cold War Kids Robbers and Cowards V2 (52m 33s) . . . .

THIS debut from four evangelical Christians from LA could be just the band to take 2007 by storm.

With vocalist Nathan Willet, they have a Jack White warbler who yowls the blues to stomping drums, barroom pianos and driving punky guitars. Singing about rapists, death-row inmates and assorted misanthropes, these dudes sound like they were born under the belly of an Alabama alligator. Due to support last year's saviours of US indie, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, in Dublin on 1 February, they might be the ones getting all the applause.

Download: 'Saint John', 'Pregnant', 'We Used To Vacation' ND Bloc Party A Weekend In The City Wichita (51m 14s) . . . .

HOW to move on from 'Silent Alarm', Bloc Party's debut and one of the best British records of recent years? Take away what made it special; gone is the jitteriness of frantic choppy guitars and busy drumming, replaced with a fine attention to unique song structures, inventive beats and personal lyrics resulting in a dark, angry, political and deeply personal second album. Once again Bloc Party display a higher intelligence and artistic reverence that towers above their peers.

Download: 'The Prayer', 'Uniform', 'I Still Remember' Una Mullally Klaxons Myths of the Near Future Polydor (53m 43s) . . .

IF IT wasn't for the tireless championing of The NME, Klaxons would be lost, lonely in their own slightly pointless universe. Their 'nu-rave' is just another silly pigeonhole to title music features with, yet Klaxons have latched on to it, hamming it up with glo-sticks, air horns and limited-edition trainers.

On this, their debut, the singles sparkle. If only they had followed through with the rest of the content.

Even the vaguely distracting cover of 'It's Not Over Yet' feels a little uninspired. To paraphrase Lily Allen, there's not enough rave in nu-rave.

Download: 'Two Receivers', 'Golden Skans', 'Magick' UM