Original Pirate Material
The Streets

Apparently coz we English talk proper we're not well suited for the art of rapping, our more precise diction (ha!) means we don't have the loose-lipped chops to "flow" as our colonial friends say. Enter Mike Skinner, a white kid from the mean streets of Birmingham, who flows in his own, distinctly Eng-er-lish way that isn't really rapping as such, instead he sounds more like snotty punk poet John Cooper Clarke than Eminem. Skinner spins tales of boozing, clubbing and kebab-eating against a musical backdrop that's a smorgasbord of English club music like 2-Step Garage, Reggae and Trip-Hop. Beyond the novelty chuckles to be had from lines like "sex, drugs, and on the dole" this is a brilliant snapshot of England today in all it's fucked-up glory, made by someone with a real gift of the gab and a groove artistry that MJ Cole and Massive Attack wouldn't be ashamed of. To use the vernacular, it's the dog's bollocks. [Official Site]
The Pearl
Aquanote

Just when I was starting to get bored with Naked Music's brand of designer House music they come along with this rather fine album which has the usual suaveness of other Naked releases (plus the trademark buxom wenches on the sleeve) but the House grooves are nowhere to be found. Instead "The Pearl" is a sophisticated slice of glossy R&B that takes the breezy old skool licks of a Roy Ayers, gives them a modern facelift and adds some En Vogue-ish womanly swagger with vocalists Lisa Shaw and Zoe Ellis. This sort of uptown Halston-Gucci-Fiorucci soul might be too slick for some, but for anyone who's ever gotten their well-dressed groove on to the classy sounds of Gamble & Huff or tried to sweet-talk a young lady out of her pants to some sexy 80s-style Bedroom Soul this will bring back sweet memories. [Official Site]

Finisterre
Saint Etienne

St. Etienne have made a career out of rummaging around at the jumble sale of pop culture, mixing together a rainbow of styles and obscure cultural references with the smarts of nerdy pop geeks who hold a PhD in Popology. "Finisterre" (Latin for "the end of the earth" and an obscure BBC Shipping Forecast reference. See what I mean?) revisits the aesthetic of their first two albums by cut-and-pasting together handbag-disco anthems, loungy Bacharach ballads, theme tunes for nonexistent TV shows and cryptic spoken word sloganeering for a fabulous pop-art mix of electronic beats and go-go-girl vocals that has all the subversive mod cool of Sandie Shaw singing at an art happening staged by the KLF. Their clever-dickness would be insufferable if they didn't continue to put out albums as poptastic as this and, of course, if Sarah Cracknell didn't still sound like just the sort of girl you'd like to take out for a milkshake or two. [Official Site]
The Herethereafter
Miranda Lee Richards

A more cynical person might think that Ms. Richards and her album had been assembled in a laboratory by evil marketing geniuses to win over the hearts and wallets of the coveted 18-35 demographic. From the sleeve that looks like an Abercrombie & Fitch ad to the neo-hippy stylings of the music ('cause, you know, the 60s were, like, totally cool) she does seem a little too tailor-made for the trendy coffee bar, designer bohemia lifestyle. But while I can't quite shake this feeling I'm not cynical enough to let that prevent me from actually liking this record, she has a voice as lovely as her face and the music has a pretty paisley and denim folky psychedelia that's very easy on the ears. So cynicism be damned - though I heard a rumour that if you play the last track backwards you can hear a voice saying "drink at Starbucks...shop at The Gap..." [Official Site]