This week, Matt sits on the fence.

Lemon Jelly – Nice Weather For Ducks (XL Recordings)
You’ll either love or hate Lemon Jelly’s second single from their first album proper, Lost Horizons. You’ll go mad for the seriously twee jingle-jangle backing and the preposterously tongue-in-cheek “All the ducks are swimming in the water” declarations. Then again, it may get right on your tits. It does come backed with a new track, if you count Chicago’s schmaltzy If You Leave Me Now as new. Oh, and there’s the Space Walk video. And some nice packaging…

3Head – Silent Sound (Different Records)
Dark, haunting, dub dance from Brixton’s 3Head who feature Tindersticks’ drummer Al Macauley. Their first 7", limited to 1,000 copies, Silent Sound has been chipped out of the same black electronic granite as Massive Attack, Leftfield and Pressure Drop with it’s moody atmospheric production and soulful vocals. Definitely ones to watch.

Longview – Nowhere (4:45 Recordings)
“No Where” or “Now Here”, I’ve always wondered that. And the same could be said of Longview. The Manchester four-piece are your quintessential shoe-gazing indie kids who could either rise to fame like Travis or Coldplay, or disappear without trace like, er, say, Candy Flip – remember them? Actually they sound more like Gene and wouldn’t have been out of place in 1996. Their debut album, produced by Rick Parashar (Blind Melon), is expected in May.

JJ72 – Always And Forever (Lakota Records)
The second single from whingeing wailers JJ72, a remixed version of the album track by Roses producer John Leckie. As regular readers may remember, I don’t like them and this single does nothing to change my mind. If you like it, good luck to you. Matt Walton 16 January 03