Overplaying the novelty card

Crazy Itch Radio by Basement Jaxx is over-the-top but will no doubt appear on the airwaves this summer.

* Basement Jaxx: Crazy Itch Radio
Label: XL Recordings
Verdict: The veterans lob lollipops and a kitchen sink into the mix.

* Moloko: Catalogue
Label: The Echo Label
Verdict: A posthumous Best Of that trims out the duff stuff.

* Quantic: An Announcement to Answer
Label: Tru Thoughts
Verdict: A nourishing genre-blending, globe-trotting mash-up.

* James Hunter: People Gonna Talk
Label: Go Records
Verdict: A direct feed into the pleasure centres of your soul.

* The Soul Investigators: Fat Slice O' Funk
Label: Invada Records
Verdict: Derivative, but hell, they wanted it that way.

It's a gutsy band that reacts to being sacked from their label by sticking a mangy dog fighting a losing war against fleas on the cover of their next album.

Then, just to crank the brave-ometer up to 11, they go for the doctor, make it a "concept" album and release it within a Gen-Yer's attention span of a Greatest Hits package.

Ye gads, are Basement Jaxx, erstwhile creators of all manner of devil-may-care, ass-shakery, moving into prog pop? And is that a shark they're about the pole vault over?

New ears tuning into over-the-top Crazy Itch Radio may not give a bugger, but their fourth album does have them looking a tad like waterskiing Fonzie. They know the appeal of those faithful old stockphrases is fading, so to prove their eternal youth remains they've resorted to playing pretend: "Look Mum, we're a radio station", while amping the novelty teenpop factor well into the red. As The Darkness said, "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing," and the Jaxx have done them proud with gluggy webs of strings, herds of horns, accordions and - why oh why? - banjos. Two words: Cotton-Eye bloody Joe. Remember kids, always, but always say no to men with banjos. Even so, Take Me Back To Your House will undoubtedly plague the airwaves near you this summer, but there are better options available.

Getting down is far more serious business for Moloko, a twosome who called time on the band and their relationship about a year or so ago, allowing the wonderful Roisin Murphy to croon solo. This Best Of epitaph comes out swinging, opening with their biggest big ones The Time Is Now, still a certified, solid gold stunner, and Sing It Back, before going on to showcase their braniac way with a hook, while thankfully avoiding the tedious noodlery that often infested their four-album career. But that's not all - this "value-pak" also comes with a Live at Brixton bonus disc. Wot no steak knives?

Another clever clogs clocking up his fourth long player is Quantic, Will Holland to his mum, the man behind the Quantic Soul Orchestra, and a fan as well as a producer of music. With a running time of less than 40 minutes An Announcement to Answer has to be standing on tippytoes to claim album status, but our Will's been a busy bugger of late with four releases over the past two years, so we'll cut the bloke some slack, and besides, forget the length, feel the girth. His salsa-flavoured Politick Society, featuring Noelle Scaggs from the Rebirth, even goes a fair way toward removing the nasty stigma of blokes playing teeny tiny guitars. Only some way mind. Ticket To Know Where also reprises last year's QSO v Nas hip-hop/soul remix with Ohmega Watts doing his thang over a raw-as Afrobeat groove. While a few of the instrumental tracks risk tumbling into filler territory, most can be served as tasty headfood to anyone with a hankering for Herbaliser or DJ Shadow.

Now, if there's any justice James Hunter's People Gonna Talk will fulfil its title's ambition, because this is quite simply a bloody marvellous album everyone should be discussing over coffee. It's smooth-stepping, jazz-inflected, blue-eyed soul from the same corner of planet Soul as Sam Cooke and Georgie Fame. From the Desmond Dekkery bluebeat of the opening title track all the way through to the closing All Through Cryin', Hunter has somehow rumbled a sound that's retro and right now at the same time. A definite album of the year contender, so buy it. Enough said.

Also from the old school, deep funksters Soul Investigators have been causing a righteous stir within the rejuvenated Northern Soul scene, in particular through their work backing former Brand New Heavy Nicole Willis on her Keep Reachin' Up album. Fat Slice O' Funk is a great to middling 16-track compilation of the super-spiky soul they've been cranking out since 1997. Maybe it's the winters over there in Finland, but to my ears there's not a lot of joy in their method, which seems obsessively set on keeping it real, raw and gritty. The love is there, but it veers too often toward funk fundamentalism. No matter, if reheated JBs or Meters is your bag, then look no further.