Editors
An End Has A Start EMI (41m 56s)
. . .

THE poor man's Interpol no more, Editors' sophomore album is a strangely uplifting experience. Tom Smith's baritone soars higher in the mix as the scale of the songs just about stops short of Snow Patrol anthems. Smith is still all sulky northern Englishness but you sense he has a sniff of the big time and isn't going to let it go. For those who preferred Coldplay's debut to the follow-up this may disappoint;

but remember A Rush Of Blood. . .sold squillions more than Parachutes.

Download: 'Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors', 'Bones', 'Spiders'

Neil Dunphy

Dizzee Rascal
Maths + English XL (47m 31s)
. . . .

AT19, Dylan Mills became the youngest Mercury Prize-winner with his debut but failed to make the crossover. His third album might change that. A remarkably lighthearted record, Rascal takes the piss out of gansta culture while at the same time being almost reverential to oldskool urban music. He jumps from ambient jungle (the LTJ Buckham-like 'Paranoid') to soul to NWA-style siren romps . . .

and all that before you get to the Alex Turner and Lily Allen songs.

Download: 'Temptation', 'Wanna Be', ' Paranoid' ND White Stripes Icky Thump XL Recordings . .PERHAPS if the White Stripes would spend more time in the studio they would make a record that for once sounds finished.

This we're-so-effortless-we'reso-cool instalment is incomplete, messy and generally annoying.

'Conquest' sounds like Tenacious D, 'Rag and Bone' is just irritating and most of the riffs and solos are unpolished half-ideas. There isn't one great track on this album. It's still listenable, and occasionally alright, but when you can be brilliant, why not be brilliant? Maybe Karen Elson won't give Jack the time off.

Download: 'Icky Thump', 'A Martyr For My Love For You'

Una Mullally

Unkle
War Stories Surrender All (60m 06s)
. . .

UNKLE is more of a drop-in centre than a group. Having housed DJ Shadow, Scratch Perverts and Mani in the past, this new record is predictably not short of collaborators. 3D, Ian Astbury and Josh Homme all lend their touches as the trip hop is replaced with an autumnal rock session.

There's little originality, and no real structure or theme despite promising artwork and intentions, but there are a few highlights nonetheless. 'Mayday' . . . a glam romp with the Duke Spirit . . . is fantastic as is the instrumental jam of 'Chemistry'. Not bad at all.

Download: 'Mayday', 'Chemistry', 'When Things Explode'

UMPhil

Jazz

Ware Trio
In Our Own Time Living Room Project
. . . .

THIS debut from English-born, Dublin-resident pianist Phil Ware and his longstanding trio is already one of the best-received new releases in the history of Irish jazz, selling unprecedented numbers as far afield as Japan. It's easy to see why. The trio make their own sound but fans of the traditional piano trio will find much to relish in the swinging grooves, the lightness of touch and the depth of feeling, particularly on the ballads.

Compositions from all three are complemented by two well-chosen covers, Jackie McLean's 'Dr Jackle' and the James Bond tune 'Nobody Does it Better'. Recommended.

Cormac Larkin

Classical

Bach/ Boulez
David Fray Virgin Classics (67m 54s)
. . . .

THIS 26-year-old Frenchman will surely make his mark with this innovative release. Such pairing of Bach and Boulez as this is, on paper, an almost unfathomably sweeping interpretative statement.

But with Bach's Partita in D and his French Suite in D minor interrupted, as such, by Boulez's 'Notations' and his 'Incises', the listening experience is enriched by an awareness of both composers' experimental manifesto. Fray's Bach exudes the confidence and sensitivity of a far more senior pianist but under the guidance of the great composer himself Boulez's world seems more suited to this pianist's temperament.

Karen Dervan