CD REVIEWS

ophelia of the spirits THE SECRET GARDEN (the little label) Rating: 3/5 cobra starship HOT MESS (Warner) Rating: 2.5/5 newton faulkner REBUILT BY HUMANS (Sony) Rating: 2/5

EG Music

LISTENING to Newton Faulkner €” looks like a hippie, sounds like a suit, sells like a marketeer €” makes you want to reorder your sock drawer, file your receipts and read that Reader's Digest article about the pancreas. The really long one. Not to escape but to complete the picture. Like a constipated David Gray, an occasionally herbal Snow Patrol or a turned-down American power balladeer, Englishman Faulkner isn't truly appalling: his songs have choruses like steak dinners, his arrangements make nice cupcakes and acoustic instruments mix with electronic ones in matching outfits. You could fill a dozen television dramas with these songs. No doubt someone is making out to one right now. It's just that any thought of an active, interesting life drains away from you every second you listen.