SINGLES

JJ72: October Swimmer (Lakota Recordings). This Irish three piece make a pretty good fist of Suede-kissing indie rock, despite their basic line-up of guitar, bass and drums. The soaring vocals of singer-guitarist Mark Greaney are a little more high-pitched than those of Brett Anderson. An understated Suede or Radiohead on happy pills? Either way, this band seem to ooze confidence and could be one to watch this year. (8/10) PB

MANIC STREET PREACHERS: The Masses Against The Classes (Sony/Epic). Top stuff from the Welsh rockers. A great start to the New Year and deserves to do well in the charts. (7/10) PA

ALBUMS

MIKE OLDFIELD: The Millennium Bell (Warner). The music of this oddball genius is such a diverse mixture that it can be hard to fathom. There's lots here that's exciting, but there's much more that's highly doubtful. He changes pace and style so frequently that it's hard to tell what he's trying to achieve. He seems to go from ambient to polka to religious chants in the blinking of an eye.There was a time when he was light years ahead of his contemporaries, but his techno-type dabblings here sound like a dubious mixture of Enya and Enigma. Mike Oldfield may have provided some of the inspiration for today's bedroom techno, but he has been left trailing by the ambient innovators of the dance music age. (5/10) PB

VARIOUS ARTISTS: Muppets From Space (Sony/Epic). The sound of this album, inspired by and contained in the movie of the same name, is based firmly in the funk-soaked days of the 70s. It's been that long since I last watched The Muppets, so it's hard to tell which characters are singing which songs here. I think the singers are Muppets, anyway. They all have growling American accents, but they could be real funk singers. Starting with Kool And The Gang's disco party piece Celebration, it's a lively album of good-time songs which owe more than a passing nod to the exploits of Funkadelic legend George Clinton. There are plenty of basslines and although the inch-perfect sound reeks of a highly-paid session band, it's good clean fun which gets feet tapping and heads nodding. (7/10) PB

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.