This week, Stuart looks for roses.

Fort Lauderdale – Rock'N'Roll (Memphis Industries)
Wilfully eccentric UK pop from a stable known as purveyors of such. From their past ambient meanderings, Fort Lauderdale appear to have toughened up, at least in a 70s glam-tough way. Rock'N'Roll manages to meld a T-Rex guitar boogie with a primitive electronic pulse. It's quite bizarre and very appealing, as if former Felt and Denim mainman, Lawrence, had taken Bowie's Diamond Dogs and put it through the indie mincer. Other tracks, Quasimodo (a Hammer House analogue baroque piece) and Psalm (a deranged, Hitchcockian piano ditty) complete the feast.

Calexico – Alone Again Or (City Slang)
Terrific, life-affirming Tex Mex pop that shuffles in on a breeze of brushed drums and Spanish guitar before hitting some very satisfying vocal highs, all capped off with soaring Morricone trumpets and fast flamenco handclaps. Alone Again is one of those songs where a pained “I will be alone tonight my dear” – i.e. someone else’s pain – makes you feel deliriously uplifted. Track two, Convict Pool, meanwhile heralds a redemptive paean to freedom and shows off Joey Burns’ immensely capable vocals to fine effect.

Kraftwerk – Tour De France 2003 (EMI)
You may well have seen plenty of Kraftwerk posters adorning the bus stops and walls of our cities of late. Any moves by Kraftwerk are to be heralded as important, they being the massive techno behemoth responsible for so much music on the electronic side of the musical fence. Composed to celebrate the centenary anniversary of the Tour De France, famously keen cyclists Kraftwerk update their old classic and make it a totally new and lush trance-out, complete with bicycle-chain noises.

The Nu Forest – I Picked A Flower (Geographic)
This ode to the perils of infidelity, a warning against the temptation to covet another fella's missus – “I found a rose in another man's garden” goes the lyric – is as breezy as The Darling Buds Of May, but darker. It's nice. But somehow, when Jarvis Cocker guests on tracks, as he does here, you can't help feeling “Ooh, that's Jarvis” to the detriment of the song's whole. The sentiment is wise, though. “Hey, lover, you must not be lazy / or you will lose her and it will drive you crazy”. Cute pop backing from The Pastels serves as a splendid garnish.

Rocket Science – Being Followed (Eat Sleep Records)
It's a funky strutter with 1996 Tears'-style Hammond riff. Among so much mediocre rock music being churned out, this one almost passed us by. Rocket Science are from Melbourne and do the garage rock thing proper, like The Seeds or The Count Five, ie, with wit and passion and a musical clue. Being Followed is great, while track two, Fashion Queen, comes across like The Stranglers leering at Kate Moss on a beach. Snake is a tad desperate but, really, this lot should not be ignored. Stuart Turnbull 11 July 03

All singles released 14 July 03.