ALBUMS

Neil Finn -- 7 Worlds Collide

Regular readers (that's just about no one then) will know I'm a big Neil Finn fan.

Hence the chances of me giving this a bad write up are as remote as Tahiti.

The man is a genius, one of the best living songwriters and, at the risk of sounding even sadder than I already am, definitely deserves more recognition than he gets.

This album is a live gig Finn and a bunch of his mates played in New Zealand. His mates aren't just Terry and Bill from the local pub, they are musicians of the calibre of Johnny Marr (former Smiths man), Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway (Radiohead) and Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam).

It all adds up to a class album. And we don't just get some classic Neil Finn songs, we also get others such as The Smith's There Is A Light That Never Goes Out and Johnny Marr singing his own song Down On The Corner

One of the best moments comes not from Neil, but his brother Tim. Singing his lovely song Stuff And Nonsense (written in 1978) on just a piano, with Eddie Vedder, it is a real highlight.

Some might say this is a bit of an all-pals together back-slapping record, and there might be a little bit of that about it. However, it's still really good stuff and highly, nay completely, recommended.

Trigger Happy TV Soundtrack 3 -- various

You know how we used to make compilation tapes when we were kids. Tapes to play on long car journeys, tapes for home work, tapes for playing when Countdown came on.

Well this is basically a compilation from Dom Joly's record collection. Mr Joly, the man behind the fabulous Trigger Happy TV.

Anyway, regular viewers will know that he plays very cool music during the show and because TV and record companies have an eye for any money making scheme, inevitably accompanying CDs have been released.

The CD is good because Joly does have a fine taste in music.

SINGLES

Faithless --Tarantula

This is the usual Faithless trick of Rollo speaking in a deep voice before a beat starts up. It carries on like that three minutes and stops. It's not great.

TJ Davis -- Wonderful Life

The press release says this is "a monster peak time floorfiller remixed by the mighty Ian Van Dahl". This means this is a song originally released in the 1980s by Black. It was fine as it was. But as usual some upstarts get their hands on it, add a load of bleeps, blobs and beats and release it. Depressingly, it's got hit written all over it.

Delerious -- I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever

Delerious release a song that they wrote back in the early 90s. They've remixed it just in time for Christmas and are hoping that it's hymn-like sound will propel it high into the festive charts. Let's hope not because I've had more excitment painting. With no paint.

50 Grind featuring The Pokemon All Stars -- Gotta Catch Them All

Bizarre nu-metal song featuring that Pokemon thing -- which I presume is the sort of childish high voice that occasionally speaks at random intervals throughout this. I honestly don't know what Pokemon is but a young child on our street with buck teeth called Des reliably informs me that it's some sort of Japanese thing that has something to do with trading cards, films, videos and now, it seems, records. Is it for adults or kids? Haven't got a clue. I'm confused, tired and need a lie down.