Listen and like.....

PETE AND THE PIRATES 'LITTLE DEATH'(STOLEN)

I'D heard the name and I didn't like it. Usually that would be enough to put it at the bottom of the pile, but in the barren Christmas period it jumped the queue (because there wasn't one as such).

One listen and it sounds like the first great album of 2008 - full of fantastic, super-catchy jangly old-fashioned indie, very English and unashamedly uncool, in that it doesn't appear to try to fit into any fly-by-night NME-created faux scene.

Perhaps that'll be a handicap, and a convenient bandwagon is often the way forward for impressionable fools in the media and public alike, but unless by coincidence it's something you should always be suspicious of.

Conversely, a new band doing their own thing and flying in the face of whatever toss is flavour of the month should be applauded for doing so - and more vigorously if they've actually got something of worth to offer.

There are half a dozen absolutely belting tunes on 'Little Death' of a standard that most of the current crop of chancers would kill for if they were honest; there's a retro element, but only in the same way The Coral or Supergrass take their cues from the past, so don't let that deter you.

Apparently terrific live, Pete and The Pirates should be looking at massive things in 2008, and this confident, charming and assured album is the benchmark for others.

GREGOR TRESHER 'A THOUSAND NIGHTS' (GREAT STUFF)

CREDIBLE dance music seemingly has a place in the mainstream again, what with the inexplicable popularity of the quite awful Justice album and Digitalism's hot and cold effort.

However, while both of those sounded a touch too self-aware and Nathan Barley cool, Gregor Tresher's the antithesis, and 'A Thousand Nights' is everything that they're not - considered, classy and sincere.

Existing somewhere between minimal techno, electro and tech house, it's very accessible without being at all cheesy, and displays a depth that contrasts with the majority of dance music; dancefloor-friendly but equally suitable for home listening (it'd sound wicked on headphones).

Hailing from Germany - which somehow makes you less suspicious of him before you've even heard anything - Tresher lists influences as diverse as Duran Duran, Placebo, Laurent Garnier and Depeche Mode, and while it would be stretching it to claim that all of these are apparent in his work it's clear that Tresher is whatever the audio equivalent of well-read is.

Not dance music for people who 'don't like dance music' (see the loathesome Faithless, Groove Armada, Moloko) but an album with broad appeal, and a masterpiece of its kind. I just hope it doesn't take Ministry of Sound violating a track with a vocal that makes your ears bleed to make people aware.

THE CLOUD ROOM 'THE CLOUD ROOM' (A & G RECORDS)

BACK to indie, and fairly generic indie at that. That's not to say The Cloud Room haven't got the songs; single 'Hey Now Now' stands out a mile, while two or three others ('Follow Me' for one) rise above mediocrity, but on the whole it's just not very remarkable.

Apparently they're American, and I'm not saying I disbelieve that but I always think it best to listen before reading up and I'd assumed they were Scandinavian. They actually sound like a band who might have headlined the Camden Falcon in the mid-nineties, and for all of the convenient reference points - Joy Division, Interpol, The Killers (none of whom seem terribly apparent to me) - there's nothing to get too excited about here.

AIDAN JOHN MOFFAT 'I CAN HEAR YOUR HEART' (CHEMIKAL UNDERGROUND)

IF you're unaware, Aidan Moffat was one half of Arab Strap - a band lazily written off as miserablists by the media, much in the same way The Smiths are (ie inaccurately).

Anyone paying attention would have been acutely aware of the sharp, sardonic wit at play, and that's still evident on this rather unorthodox release from Moffat (also known as Lucky Pierre, or indeed Mr. Lauren Laverne).

'I Can Hear Your Heart' is a set of intimate (= obscene) poems and short stories set to lo-fi musical backing; collages, crackles, minimal soundscapes, that kind of thing. The lyrical content is such that you should carefully consider the environment and company you're in before playing it, but I'm no prude and I can't say I found any of it in the least objectionable - if anything it made me smile.

Thoroughly engaging and entertaining, albeit with limited appeal.

LIONHEART BROTHERS 'DIZZY KISS' (RACING JUNIOR)

NOW these really are Scandinavian, and inescapably so - not that you'd want to, such is the remarkable knack for a belting pop tune they seem to possess in those parts.

The Lionheart Brothers hail from Norway, and what they bring to the table is instant, uncomplicated power pop, with a pinch of psychedelia thrown in.

Unashamedly and undeniably retro in sound and style, they have four or five terrific sunny indie pop anthems, with the shadows of Teenage Fanclub, Big Star etc al looming large in the background. While the rest of the album doesn't quite match up there's enough on here to warrant your attention, and the right choice of single could do it for them.