NEW RELEASES

Martha Wainwright

I Know Youre Married But Ive Got Feelings Too

DROWNED IN SOUND ****

It can't be easy trying to establish your own identity in amusical clan such as the extended Wainwright family. There weretimes, on her self-titled debut album, when it seemed that Marthamight not have the distinctive character to cast off the familialmoorings, like her brother Rufus. But such doubts are roundlydispelled by the feisty, bloody-minded I Know You're Married ButI've Got Feelings Too, an album every bit as brash and assertive asits title suggests.

Here, Wainwright demonstrates her maturity as a composer,featuring confessional songwriting of a brutal frankness, butextrovert and angry rather than pitiably introspective. In songafter song, she confronts those who hurt or spurned her - some ofwhom, one suspects, never realised she carried a torch for them. Theobject of her unrequited affections in "Bleeding All Over You", forinstance, has since married and moved north, leaving her angry andfrustrated at his ignorance that her "heart was made for bleedingall over you"; likewise, the protagonist of "Jesus and Mary" seekssolace in religion for another jilting.

Living and working in the music industry doesn't exactly helpmatters, musicians being famously unfaithful and insufferablyegotistical. In "Hearts Club Band", she expresses the frustration ofhaving to play second fiddle to another artist's muse, knowing he orshe will always love their work more than any mere human: "Youalways wrote a song a day/ And there were always words/ And it mademe want to say 'Shut up!'." But being an artist herself, revenge isalways only a chord-sequence away, as she notes with relish in"Comin' Tonight" - where, anticipating a concert by an old flame,she muses on stealing one of their melodies.

Her once wayward, childish voice has crystallised into adistinctive delivery with something of the rustic charm of CerysMatthews, shifting, on the lilting waltz of "Tower Song", into themore soulful territory occupied by Thom Yorke. The arrangements aremostly rooted in classic folk-rock stylings, but the understated useof dark, swirling strings, subtly haunting horns and variouskeyboards (played by, among others, The Band's Garth Hudson andSteely Dan's Donald Fagen) lends depth and power. The punchy pop of"You Cheated Me" harks all the way back to such anthems ofestrangement as "It's My Party" and "It Might As Well Rain UntilSeptember", albeit with a more dangerous, infuriated edge: this is arazor-tongued artist bent on revenge.

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'Hearts Club Band', 'You Cheated Me', 'Bleeding All Over You','Tower Song'

Bon Iver

For Emma, Forever Ago

4AD

****

In an age of ever-expanding conformity, the most valuable giftmay be the singularity of one's artistic vision. Take Bon Iver, thenom de disque of Justin Vernon, formerly part of an obscureWisconsin quartet. Recorded during a winter spent alone in asnowbound cabin, chopping logs to keep from freezing and shootingdeer to keep from starving, For Emma, Forever Ago has a distinctive,haunting presence comparable to Jose Gonzalez's Veneer and BonniePrince Billy's I See a Darkness - though sounding unlike either. Astrange assemblage of memories and ruminations delivered in Vernon'shigh, keening multi-tracked falsetto over little more than simplestrummed guitar, its beauty lies in its enigmatic mystery: it's hardto pick out more than the occasional phrase, but the cumulativeeffect is powerfully hypnotic. He's working through personal issuesof loss and abandonment, but though wounded by separation, there's ahappy ending of sorts in the concluding "Re: Stacks", which endswith the line, "Your love is safe with me" - a testament, like thealbum as a whole, to the healing power of memory.

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'Flume', 'For Emma', 'The Wolves (Act I and II)', 'Skinny Love'

Various Artists

Rock On

ACE

****

This is one of the more loosely themed of compilations. There's alittle bit of country, a little bit of cajun, a fair amount of soul,some rockabilly, a sizeable tranche of rhythm and blues, and asmattering of garage-rock. Rather than anthologising any particularstyle, it's a pot-pourri of rarities and gems uncovered and offeredfor sale at Rock On, the London collectors' record mart establishedby Ted Carroll in 1971, first as a market stall off Portobello Road,before moving to more stable premises in Camden. It's a tribute tothe rapidly-disappearing independent record shops upon whoseexpertise vinyl junkies, in pre-internet times, relied to feed theirhabits. It's also virtually filler-free, from the late-Fiftiesofferings by the likes of Amos Milburn, Charlie Feathers and Huey"Piano" Smith, through to such Seventies classics as Don Covay'srumbustious "It's Better to Have (and Don't Need)" and RokyErickson's bonkers sci-fi proto-punk offering "Two Headed Dog".

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'It's Better to Have (and Don't Need)', 'Don't You Just Know It','You Little Baby Faced Thing', 'Shake Your Hips', 'Chicken ShackBoogie'

Martina Topley Bird

The Blue God

INDEPENDIENTE

***

Martina Topley Bird's CV of former collaborators is one of themore impressively varied in modern pop: since she was discovered byTricky way back in the mid-Nineties, her vocals have appeared onrecords by David Holmes, Mark Lanegan, Primus, The Jon Spencer BluesExplosion and Gorillaz, to name but a few. It was while working withthe last in 2004 that Bird became chums with the project's producerBrian "Danger Mouse" Burton, and over the intervening years the pairput together this follow-up to her Mercury-nominated debut Quixotic.But the industrious Burton's character rather swamps Topley Bird's:the diversity of his approaches, from the swooning, Chris Isaak-esque twang of "Valentine" to the Portishead-style haunted pop of"Something to Say" and the alluring, almost Martin Denny-likeexotica of "Baby Blue", leaves her voice with little to do but poutin sultry manner, its deadpan blend of innocence and experiencefailing to resonate as it did on previous releases. "Funny how thenoises I am making can't drown out the sound of my heart breaking,"she sings, presumably unaware of the irony.

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'Baby Blue', 'Phoenix', 'Something to Say'

Death Cab for Cutie

Narrow Stairs

ATLANTIC ****

Naming your band after a Bonzo Dog song is risky, but Death Cabfor Cutie's moniker hasn't hindered their progress, judging by theplatinum sales of 2005's Plans. This follow-up is more experimental.There's still a fair complement of standard American indie-rock insongs like "No Sunlight", a catchy piece of stomp-pop that recallstheir chums The Shins, and the opener "Bixby Canyon Bridge", whichbuilds from a quiet thrumming of guitars to a vortex of sound. Butelsewhere, there's an African sparkle to the arpeggios of "Your NewTwin-Sized Bed", while "Long Division" and "I Will Possess YourHeart" suggest the band have discovered the hypnotic attraction ofNeu!'s motorik groove. The latter track is impressive; eight minutesof tremulous guitar and piano throbbing along, with singer BenGibbard only entering four minutes in to plead for tolerance. "It'slike a book elegantly bound, but in a language you can't read," heclaims, perhaps anxious about how the fans might react to the newdirection. On this evidence, he needn't worry.

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'I Will Possess Your Heart', 'Your New Twin-Sized Bed', 'NoSunlight'

Adem

Takes

DOMINO

***

On Takes, nu-folk philosopher Adem takes time out from the spacemetaphors and cosmic speculations of 2006's Love and Other Planetsto offer covers of some of his favourite songs from the Nineties - adecade when he was immersed in largely fun-free indie music, judgingby his choices. An instrumental palette based on harmonium, guitar,glockenspiel and banjo-ukulele suits some tracks better than others:the parched emotional terrain of PJ Harvey's "Oh My Lover" isrendered with subtlety and warmth, and the lonely plaint of SmashingPumpkins' "Starla" comes via a repeatedly rising carillion ofguitars, bells, bass and percussion that doesn't overpower thelistener. The most startling transformation is that accorded AphexTwin's "To Cure a Weakling Child/Boy Girl Song", which acquires anunexpectedly light, uplifting character.

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'To Cure a Weakling Child/Boy Girl Song', 'Oh My Lover', 'Starla'