Bullet For My Valentine – Venom
WELSH rockers Bullet For My Valentine have come a long way since emerging in 2005.
A far cry from their rather emo hits such as Tears Don't Fall, Venom is fierce, aggressive and not for the faint-hearted.
Despite being their heaviest album yet, singer Matt Tuck's melodic vocals still feature heavily and contrast wonderfully with the harsh screaming and thundering beats.
This is done particularly brilliantly on tracks like The Harder The Heart (The Harder It Breaks), You Want A Battle, Worthless and the title track. Meanwhile, Skin is a pure metal adrenaline ride, complete with squealing guitar solos, and Army Of Noise is made for aggressive head banging.
The album may not be as catchy or varied as some of their older work, but their fans and metal fanatics will love it.
It's also refreshing to see a band getting heavier, rather than softening up, to increase record sales.
Rating: four stars
(Harriet Shephard)
Pavement – The Secret History Vol 1
CALIFORNIAN alternative rockers Pavement spawned a generation of indie bands and were influential in shaping the musical direction of a post-Britpop Blur.
They broke up in 1999, having released five albums – but rarities collection The Secret History Vol 1 shows they were prolific in the studio and, as the title suggests, there is more to come.
The compilation is made up of sidelined tracks from sessions that spawned the band's debut album Slanted And Enchanted, along with alternate takes, B-sides, John Peel sessions and live recordings.
The band's label Matador, says: "Each of their official albums has a shadow album and it's usually as strong as the album that actually did come out." The music bears this out.
Opener Sue Me Jack, the B-side to single Trigger Cut, is a vortex of feedback and incanted vocals, while Baptist Blacktick rocks on a robotic Fall-like riff with singer Stephen Malkmus on wonderfully snotty form.
There are also alternate takes of classics such as Here and Summer Babe, the latter garnished with a squall of noise yet still gliding along unsullied like the exquisite alt pop gem it is.
Rating: four stars
(Mark Edwards)
Belinda Carlisle – The CD Singles 1986-2014
AMERICAN singer Belinda Carlisle has had chart success over the past three decades with songs such as Heaven Is A Place On Earth, Leave A Light On, Live Your Life Be Free and In Too Deep.
Fans can relive all those tunes with this bumper 29-disc compilation box set, including more than 130 songs, rare B-sides, live tracks and various remixes, as well as the previously unavailable track, In My Wildest Dreams, which featured in the 1987 film, Mannequin.
As Carlisle (57) has an October tour planned, there's no better way to savour memories of her soundtrack to the '80s and '90s – and this colection will most definitely help.
Rating: three stars
(Shereen Low)
Tim Arnold – The Soho Hobo
TIM Arnold appeared on the last season of BBC's The Voice, performing a cover of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill and winning a place on Ricky Wilson's team, but anyone expecting a mainstream album from the singer-songwriter should think again.
Arnold has created a series of songs about Soho, an area of London he has long championed, as he rails against the increased commercialism of its once seedy glamour. Many of the tracks hark back to a bygone era, with jaunty opener The Hunter And The Hunted setting the tone as narrator Peter Straker reels off the names of a number of infamous Soho characters such as Peter Cook and Jeffrey Bernard to winning effect.
Although designed to be listened to as a cohesive whole, there are some stand-out tracks, particularly the excellent Soho Sunset, a duet Arnold sings with his partner Jessie Wallace, best known for playing Kat Slater in EastEnders. Equally effective is Ain't Made To Measure with actor Phil Daniels recreating his Cockney geezer persona which he used so effectively on Blur's Parklife.
With music veering from early 20th century music hall, brilliantly brought back to life on The Piccadilly Trot, to others which sound like a hybrid of early Madness and Ian Dury's Blockheads, this is a delight, and an unexpected one, too, given that appearance on the BBC talent show.
Rating: four stars
(Kim Mayo)
Fred Abbott – Serious Poke
EVER since indie folksters Noah And The Whale were harpooned earlier this year, lead guitarist and keyboard player Fred Abbott has been beavering away on a solo album with a definite change of direction.
Serious Poke sees a confident Abbott come over all Tom Petty on 10 tracks of pure drivetime rock. Helped out by former band-mates Matt 'Urby Whale' Owens, Tom Hobden and Michael Petulla, some songs would not sound out of place on the latest American Anthems compilation.
Funny How Good It Feels and piano-led closer Lucky People, are stand-out tracks, but sadly Abbott's debut lacks some, erm, serious poke.
Rating: two stars
(Review by Andrew Carless)
Don Broco – Automatic
DON Broco's 2012 debut saw them break into the Top 30 with a sound reminiscent of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Busted – but the second album from Rob Damiani, Simon Delaney, Matt Donnelly and Tom Doyle deviates a fair bit: there's definitely a bit of Duran Duran in there now.
With Automatic, Bedford's finest are clearly trying to avoid falling into a formulaic trap, but while there are fun choruses galore with a more thrusting sound, the overall effort is a little bit flat.
While there's nothing here to grumble about, aside from perhaps the slightly creepy lyrics in I Got Sick, there's also nothing to really get excited about.
Let You Get Away is catchy, but it may not be enough to either keep their existing fans – or attract new ones.
Rating: two stars
(Katy Pearson)
