SINGLES

ANGELICA: Bring Back Her Head (Fantastic Plastic) - These slightly warped Lancashire lasses have already had airplay on Radio One and could build on that with this gutsy effort. Mixing girl-next-door vocals with elegant violins and glockenspiels is one thing, but the Lancaster-based four-piece also have two extremely heavy guitars. They use them to great effect, mixing vocals and tough chord slams to produce some clever stop-start pop. (8/10) PB

SOLID GOLD CHART BUSTERS: I Wanna 1-2-1 With You (Virgin) - Gimmick-master and former KLF member Jimmy Cauty bounces back from oddball obscurity with a stupid techno tune built round a deliberately annoying mobile phone ring. The aim is to make people reliant on mobile phones look foolish, but it has a similar effect on Cauty's reputation, as if he cares.This is the silliest thing he's done since he and KLF pal Bill Drummond burnt a million pounds. But it could just work. (7/10) PB

SUPERGRASS: Mary (Parlophone) - The young upstarts have matured in leaps and bounds since their bouncy smash hit Alright. Starting with a slow, funky organ, this builds into an edgy, melodic stealth-rocking tune with droning guitars spiralling along. A Jagger-esque vocal gives the song a swaggering air on the rare bits when words are heard. (7/10) PB

ALBUMS

ALANIS MORISSETTE: MTV Unplugged (Maverick) - As in the case of Chris Evans, people either worship or detest Alanis Morissette. Some might say this is an emotive, acoustic masterpiece. Others could say it's Alanis's usual whining stripped of the rock guitars, leaving just the, er, whining. The version of Ironic is slowed down and just a little overblown, lacking the impact of the original, while opening track You Learn lends itself a little better to the unplugged format. (5/10) PB

CHER: The Greatest Hits (Warner/Universal) - The hugely successful lady with the flamboyant wigs celebrates her 35-year career. The material, however, draws heavily from the last 10 years, with every other song a karaoke favourite. Nothing new for converts here, but Walking In Memphis is still a great song. However, the re-working of the '60s hit Bang Bang is just plain awful. (6/10) RT

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.