CAN'T Canadian musicians just stay in one band? Thankfully not.

Here's the first really blatant Arcade Fire-influenced record from a band including and associated with members of Wolf Parade, Pony Up, Swan Lake and Frog Eyes (Canadians love animals). It opens positively, with the jaunty 'The Mending Of The Gown' and there are plenty of nice ideas and quirky little hooks. But on occasion, the entire thing deconstructs so desperately that your ears begin to flinch and your brain starts to melt.

Not the best thing to listen to hungover. Download: 'The Mending of the Gown', 'Stallion'

Una Mullally

The Checks Hunting Whales (35m 54s) Full Time Hobby . .

INDIE blues, scratchy vocals, jamming rock. The Checks . . . a New Zealand five-piece . . . are not doing anything different, and what they are doing isn't exceptional. Predictable bluesy chord changes and riffs that were exhausted by an indieblues resurgence five years ago are still being trawled through. Predictably, they make up the spaces between boredom and apathy with obligatory guitar solos devoid of hooks and melody, but full of hairtossing hammer-ons. The Checks clearly work better with stoner rock, not the fashionable edge they are attempting to file on their sound.

Download: 'Take Me There', 'See Me Peter' UM

James Blunt All the Lost Souls Warner Music (38m 45s) .

IN THE process of reviewing CDs I usually listen to about six, narrow the shortlist to two or three and listen to each six, seven or eight times, depending on how enjoyable they are. I have no hesitation in confessing this got three listens.

Okay, two. But good news: there doesn't seem to be anything here quite as annoying as Back to Bedlam. Better, James offers genuine humour in the way he selfparodies his equine singing style.

One song is even a conversation between the Little General and a bottle of valium. You couldn't make it up, could you?

Download: '1973', 'Same Mistake', 'Give Me Some Love' Neil Dunphy

Foo Fighters Echos, Silence, Patience & Grace Sony BMG (51m 03s) . . .

FOO FIGHTERS often feel like a band on the verge of something really great . . . before disappointing you. This sixth album is a microcosm of this. Starting with a formulaic quiet/loud/quiet/loud stomper, it ambles along the hard rock freeway until it reaches a point where it can't go any further so it is forced to take an exit. Here we have an acoustic ballad followed soon after by an instrumental acoustic number and the standout track 'Statues' . . . a song so interesting you wonder how this band could have written it. Foo Fighters often feel like a band on the verge of. . .

Download: 'Statues', 'Home', 'The Pretender' ND