In fairness, there are a couple of inventive moments, such as the screaming high school girl chorus on 'Try It Again' but really when you've boxed yourself into a musical corner as narrow and irritating as this then it's difficult to appeal to new listeners.

Download: 'Try It Again', Tick Tick Boom', 'Hey Little World'

Neil Dunphy
Iron And Wine The Sheperd's Dog Sub
Pop (49m 50s) . . . .

TEXAS and the midwest around the turn of the milennium was a hotbead of new and radical American music.

Sometimes called alt-country, other times and further east it was called nu-folk and took in artists as diverse in style as Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo (later known as Wilco), Austin desert rats Calexico and Austin-based Iron and Wine. The latter is the creative moniker of Sam Beam, a somewhat reclusive musician who paints his music with a wild palette of organs, marimbas and a distinctly lo-fi feel.

His third album is a cosy gem, a little like Bonnie Prince Billy's 'The Letting Go', it serenades you into its opium den and renders you perfectly stoned.

Download: 'Carousel', 'White Tooth Man', 'Peace beneath The City'

ND Gavin Glass & The Holy Shakers
Orphan Records (60m) . . . .

THERE are few people in Ireland today who can craft songs as expertly as Gavin Glass. He and his band have that ability to create songs that feel like they've been around forever. Robust melodies and excellent musicianship form the foundation for 12 rolling country and soulful tracks that are in equal parts touching, jaunty, soothing and memorable. Lovers of Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker will fall for 'Older Than My Years' and 'Ragdoll' and fans of Duke Special will definitely find something to love in the excellent finishing track 'Wrecking Ball'. Altogether, quite a triumph.

Download: 'Older Than My Years', 'Sweet Ophelia', 'Wrecking Ball'

Una Mullally
Kill City Defectors Mutiny Sounds
R&R Records (44m) . . .

DURING the opening chords of Kill City Defector's first song on the launch night of this record a brawl broke out in Eamonn Doran's in Temple Bar. The band played on. It's that raucous line between dancing and scrapping that KCD walk. Here, they've transferred their frantic live performances onto a debut album.

Although there's a slight dependence on similar hook structures, more than occasionally KCD break out and come up with a sinister sonic surprise, notably on the spooky 'Black Sheep', all twisted synths and lyrics that speak of excess. Drunken, rowdy, funky: all in all, it's a pretty rocking record.

Download: 'Your Mutiny', 'Black Sheep', 'So Lo' UM