CDs.

THE CARDIGANS

Long Gone Before Daylight HHH 

Polydor - March 24

Swedish pop favourites The Cardigans return with a more basic and heartfelt album. More rock than pop, there's an almost AOR-meets-Nashville country feel to some of the songwriting. The lush lilting tones of Nina Persson are backed by whirling Hammond organs and twanging guitars with a cinematic undertow. The low-key and laidback tunes will gently insinuate themselves into the Heart FM side of your brain.

APPLETON

Everything Eventually HH

Polydor - February 24

Natalie and Nicole Appleton, one half of self-consciously cool girl group All Saints, make their bid for credibility and solo stardom with their debut album Everything Eventually. The 13 tracks are a pick `n' mix of mournful ballads, guitar-laden anthems and electronic chants, recalling the ebb and flow of Pure Shores with a raw, rocky edge. Madonna producer Marius De Vries and newcomer Gareth Young showcase the sisters' vocals, building to a gloriously camp crescendo on MWA (that's Mystic Wisdom of the Ancients to you and me), which the girls describe as "the Andrews Sisters meets hip-hop" with its unlikely blend of rap and floating harmonies. Incredibly listenable, utterly forgettable.

F-MINUS

Wake Up Screaming HHHH

Hellcat Records - March 24

For anyone after some serious volume and velocity, here's your boys: full-tilt California punk fellows F-Minus' new 15-song barrage of singularly rabid rock, all spitball throatiness and wrist-wrenching guitar thrashery. Their almighty racket is as simple and as tune-packed as Blink 182 or Green Day but 10 times angrier, louder and crunchier. And due to one-time Nirvana producer Steve Albini's input you can virtually feel the grit flying out of the speakers. Guaranteed to become beloved of a moody teen near you soon.

HAR MAR SUPERSTAR You Can Feel Me HHHH

B-Unique - March 17

An unlikely but intensely catchy mix of Milli Vanilli meets Prince-style funk with quirky off-kilter Beck-rock moments. Cheesy beats, synth-funk keyboard lines and rap breaks that are more prankster than gangster are only part of an entertaining album. Cheeky tunes include the classic No Chorus which has, brilliantly, no chorus but a suspended silence until the verse is heartily crashed back into. Its indie-kids go electro disco beat style might confuse some listeners but let yourself be immersed in the disco-flashback melodies and entertainingly Carry On-style saucy lyrics and you'll soon find Har Mar (aka Harold Martin Tillman) working himself into your boogie consciousness.

GORKY'S ZYGOTIC MYNCI

20 EPs and Singles HH

Allumette - March 3

Prolific and varied sounds have always abounded in the GZM camp. This compilation of tracks from their early years is a mixed bag of colourful and sometimes broken tunes with the band often seeming to deliberately destroy their own melodies with wilful extremism. Raw recordings, pastoral folk-pop settings and gentle Welsh lyrics are interspersed with blurts of stentorian Welsh vocals and bizarre time changes. If you can trawl through the chaos of their experimental ideas you will find some psych-pop and pomp gems but it can be hard work.

TURIN BRAKES

Ether Song HHHH

Source- March 3

Mild-mannered songsmiths Olly and Gale having more than proved their prowess with acoustic guitars and mellow presentation have been to Los Angeles with big-name producer Tony Hoffer. Unafraid of a stripped, raw sound they now embellish the nuances of gently-plucked strings and fingers on frets with richly-layered melodies and glorious harmonies. An airy production is enhanced by gently burbling electronics, unhurried swirling keyboards and gradually swells into a full-blown pop symphony.

THE MOLDY PEACHES

Unreleased Cutz And Live Jamz HHH

Rough Trade - March 24

Prolific New York songwriters Adam Green and Kimya Dawson have enough ideas and songs between them to keep a top 20's worth of bands going for quite a few years. This double album of 55 tracks includes demo versions of hits, live favourites and even an irreverent cover version of Big Girls Don't Cry. The cracked vocals, scratchy guitars and splattered drums sometimes make it hard to dig down to the tuneful gems underneath. It's a stone worth turning but perhaps not an ideal starting point for newcomers.

APHEX TWIN

26 Mixes For Cash HHH

Warp - March 24

Richard D James applies his cavalier and diverse work ethic to what seems like a perversely random selection of tracks. Travelling an eclectic path he veers from the modern composers, Gavin Bryars and Philip Glass, to the industrial beat of Nine Inch Nails via pop saviours Saint Etienne. The resulting mixes don't necessarily bear any resemblance to the original tracks - each one ending up as an atmospheric Aphex Twin original.

MATCHBOX TWENTY

More Than You Think You Are HHH

EastWest - March 3

American stadium rockers with sales of more than 20 million albums and three Grammy Awards release their slickly- produced anthemic rock album alongside a mini tour of UK arenas and larger venues. A definite MTV sound pervades the album from the Bon Jovi-esque wah-wah rockers through to the more Elton John-styled lighters aloft ballads to ensure that surely a live DVD will be the next release.

THE KILLS

Keep On Your Mean Side HHHH

Domino - March 10

Anglo-American boy-girl duo VV and Hotel work with an amalgamation of dysfunctional guitars, rough beats and torn vocal stylings to release an antidote to the over-produced pop of today. Tough-girl-meets-bad-boy-on-the-mean-street, blues-infused punk, this record demands your attention for it's basic, bleak, pinch-eyed songs.

THE `BURN

Sally O'Mattress HH

Hut Recordings- March 31

Young quintet from Blackburn, Lancashire, release a Brit-rock album with Celtic-rock cues underlying some of the more pounding mosh-pit tunes. The occasional slow number allows for happy snakebite-fuelled swaying from their student audience. Their successful support slots with Paul Weller, Oasis and The Music make perfect sense and will no doubt result in a firm following around the universities.

APPLIANCE

Are You Earthed? HH

Mute- March 3

Mesmerising soundscapes from trio with their third album, this one recorded in London and Berlin. The space-pop keyboard machinations make this an ideal album for robots with psychotherapists.

THE SLEEPY JACKSON

The Sleepy Jackson HHHH

Virgin- February 24

Australian quartet play simple countrified tunes with a laidback style. The sound of bleary blues with muffled vox and dancing violins drifting peacefully into a moody mumbled bliss. With a whimsical air reminiscent of English Sixties cup-of-tea- with-acid styles, they come over as a druggier Beatles and recall the wistful lost summers of Kevin Ayers.

THE GO-BETWEENS

Bright Yellow Bright Orange HHH

Circus Records - March 3

Guitar pop maestros Robert Forster and Grant McLennan team up once more, following their comeback album The Friends Of Rachel Worth. Slightly tremulous vocals feeling their way gently through the chiming guitars heighten the famously poignant melodics. It's good to hear a comeback album that doesn't feel the need to jump on the electro-clash or synth-pop bandwagon.

THE DETROIT COBRAS

Seven Easy Pieces HHH

Rough Trade - March 10

Female fronted Motor City band release a new mini-album of classic, though often obscure, soul and R&B stompers reworked with wild punk fervour. Rachel Nagy's feline soul howl electrifies and, if they can write some tunes half as good as the covers they play, they could take over the world (or at least Detroit).