SUPERHEROES - ALCOHOL AND FIGHTING

THIS four-piece band of young Stratford-upon-Avon hopefuls are a force to be reckoned with live - their performance at Worcester's Marr's Bar last week was testimony to that.

Fortunately, their raw energy also translates to CD, with demo EP Alcohol and Fighting a polished recording from a band who are serious contenders to win a regional Battle of the Bands competition.

If this vitriolic slab of punk-rock is anything to go by, they may have it in the bag already, frontman Jolly at the helm with his snarling vocals harking back to the Sex Pistols as he proclaims "you're so ****ing boring" on opener Stole The Lead.

It's stumbling across musical treasures like this that make sitting through the output from all those mediocre acts around all the more bearable.

Surely one of the latest saviours of the British music scene who look set to put Stratford on the map, other than for being "that place where that bard came from".

VARIOUS - TEENAGE KICKS

CHRONICLING the glory days of punk and new wave, this hit-packed two-CD compilation is a nostalgic trip back to one of rock music's defining periods.

The late, great DJ John Peel's favourite and title track by The Undertones kicks off the proceedings and what follows is bound to get ageing rockers everywhere leaping out of their seats for a bout of frantic head-shaking and air guitar.

Big hitters from the likes of The Jam (Town Called Malice), The Buzzcocks (Ever Fallen In Love) and The Clash (Rock The Casbah) sit alongside classics from lesser-known bands such as The Vapours (Turning Japanese) and Martha & The Muffins (Echo Beach).

This is the musical template for any aspiring rock star.

VARIOUS - RED HOT HITS

WITH every great new act that comes along there's bound to be an equally awful one breaking through too.

That balance is certainly represented here on this compilation featuring some of the hits of the year - well, the year so far seeing as we're only a quarter of the way through.

The first disc is largely the one which would have been in a frisbee in another life and for which the skip, or in fact stop, button were invented.

Even some of the most tolerant people might find tracks like G4's dire cover of Queen classic Bohemian Rhapsody or the awful Ring Ding Ding Frog Song by Pondlife hard to stomach.

Salvation is there in part on the second CD which features the likes of the stunning indie band Bloc Party and swamp-rockers Kings

of Leon.

AMBULANCE LTD - AMBULANCE LP

SOME bands feel the need to arrive on the music scene all-sirens blazing, proclaiming how great they are.

Ironically, considering their name, it's not the case with this New York four-piece who let the music speak for itself - and what tunes there are here.

From the atmospheric instrumental opening track Yoga Means Union, we're led into the oh-so-cool Primitive (The Way I Treat You) with its slacker pace, the lead singer nonchalantly uttering "relax, don't think about the way I treat you".

Anecdote is a breezy, jaunty piano-led ditty contrasting with the glacial, moody Heavy Lifting before the pace changes again with the brazen guitar-pop of Ophelia.

This LP is a slick effort from a band who pull it off so effortlessly it's hard to imagine if it could actually have sounded any better if they'd actually broke sweat.

Time to tally up another chalk-mark on the classic albums chart.