REVIEWS

After hearing this album once I thought it was pretty ordinary.

Why is it then that for the next four days I could not stop singing different songs?

The album starts with Tie Up My Hands. It uses just one acoustic guitar for the chorus and instantly shows what a superb voice singer James Walsh has.

Poor Misguided Fool is good, while Lullaby is simply a superbly written song.

The album's final track Coming Down is very good as are Poor Misguided Fool and Lullaby. The former sounds like it has been written by an older, wiser and bitter 40-year-old, not a bunch of Chorley lads fresh from college.

Sure, it is a bit boringly acoustic but even if you hate acoustic records, it is impossible to call this a bad album. Starsailor could well become the biggest band in Britain.

Victoria Beckham -- VB

Victoria's album is hard going.

I managed four and a half songs and found it difficult to distinguish where one ended and another started.

All the songs are like the single Not Just An Innocent Girl so on the off chance you liked that, buy this. But bear in mind it's a truly awful offering.

Bob The Builder -- The Album

Bob's album, like Victoria's is bad, but at least the builder knows it is. The makers do not try to take it seriously. And it works.

We get some cracking lines, the best the double entendres in Blonde Haired Girl In A Hard Hat, when Wendy reacts to Bob's romantic attention by saying the immortal words: "You can buy me lunch, pay the tab and tips, but don't fool around with my cement mix." Brilliant.

One interesting thing about the Bob album is that after 11 songs of juvenile kids' stuff we suddenly get Elton John at the end singing Crocodile Rock. Why? No one knows.

Eels -- Souljacker

E (the man behind Eels) has yet again managed to produce another good album.

It is not as good as the last two albums but it is certainly different.

E made this album after going to a meditation retreat where he was not allowed to speak, read or write for 10 days.

He came up with the idea of writing an album called Souljacker, a kind of personal essay about whether it is possible to steal someone's soul.

There are several fine moments but fans should be warned. This is a much rockier album than Eels' last two efforts and takes a bit more listening to appreciate. Give it time though, you will be rewarded. SINGLES Usher -- You Got It Bad

Very pedestrian, kind of Craig David style R&B which sounds, for the first 30 seconds, as though Mr Usher is playing his guitar at the North Pole.

It is okay, very inoffensive and, if you are into it this kind of thing, then probably quite good.

Luther Vandross -- Take You Out

Genuinely thought I had put the Usher CD back in by mistake. It is almost identical -- the same R&B croon, with Vandross singing Can I Take You Out Tonight about 6,000 times.

Luther -- named by his dyslexic mother after her favourite material, leather -- still has a good voice but the tunes are sadly lacking.

Pulp -- Trees/Sunrise

Jarvis Cocker and his long fingers return with a double A-side which I think is excellent. Produced by Scott Walker, both songs are lush and well arranged.

It needs a few listens to fully appreciate how good both songs are but it is well worth persevering. Trees has a fine, catchy chorus and though it probably will not go down a strorm with 12-year-old single-buying kids it bodes well for the forthcoming album.

Sum 41 -- Fat Lip

One of the better Blink 182 impersonators around. These four guys are massive in America and their album, which sold by the bucketload cross the Atlantic, was actually pretty good.

If you are into that light heavy rock scene (if you know what I mean) then this is for you.

Super Furry Animals -- Rings Around The World

A pure pop moment from the Welsh band, recently nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

There is none of the Furries' famed experimentation on this record. It is simply Beach Boys' style, very straightforward three-chords summer pop. Except that it is Autumn.

A bit lightweight for me but a pleasant tune nonetheless.