The Mag: Play: CD REVIEWS.

Byline: PAUL COLE

Shangri-La (Mercury)

MARK KNOPFLER

AFTER the long lay-off resulting from his bike accident, Knopfler returns with a soft shuffle of an album that long-time fans will find comfortable as carpet slippers. For best results read the lyric sheet while listening to narrative cuts such as the sad Song For Sonny Liston and respectful Donegan's Gone, the latter recorded in tribute to late skiffle legend Lonnie Donegan, one of Knopfler's heroes. An unlikely highlight is single Boom, Like That, a song inspired by Ray Krock, the man who gave us McDonald's.

kd LANG

Hymns Of The 49th Parallel (Nonesuch)

LANG pays tribute to her fellow countrymen on a Canadian songbook album featuring loving interpretations of songs by Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Ron Sexsmith and Jane Siberry. Best are warm readings of Young hallmarks Helpless and After The Gold Rush, backed by piano and strings, but even they pale beside covers of Cohen's haunting Hallelujah and brilliant Bird On A Wire. Lang offers her own contribution, too, with Simple - a song that lives up to its title but sits well in such illustrious company.

GREEN DAY American Idiot (Reprise)

PICK OF THE WEEK

BILLIE Joe & Co blend snappy slices of punky power pop with social commentary in an unlikely concept album detailing the disillusionment of youth in George W Bush's America. At the heart of the album are Jesus Of Suburbia and Homecoming - two nine-minute genre-spanning sets in themselves - but it's the punchy title track and anthemic Are We The Waiting that remind us why we fell in love with the band in the first place. Best is the haunting Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, one of the year's essentials.

Fried (London)

FRIED

WHILE the nation was raving about Amy Winehouse, Fine Young Cannibal David Steele was finding the real thing in New Orleans songbird Jonte Short. Already being mentioned in the same breath as Aretha Franklin, but credibly up-to-date, she serves up Motown-style soul on Whatever I Choose I Lose and the autobiographical Sugar Water Days, then funks it up for finale Getaway. Best is the spine-tingling Love In A Stranger, a subtly haunting song co-written by Portishead chanteuse Beth Gibbons.

FATBOY SLIM

Palookaville (Skint)

NORMAN Cook serves up a treat that's as much at home in the living room as it is out on the dancefloor, crossing genres at will. Hence Long Way From Home could easily be an indie rock anthem, Wonderful Night takes rap out into the mainstream and The Joker is a commercial reworking of the Steve Miller pop classic. Jin-Go-La-Ba has busy synths revising the Santana hallmark and Put It Back Together - a song worth the price of admission alone - finds Blur's Damon Albarn somnolently singing sweet soul.