No More Apologies
	(Setanta/LP/CD)
	Howard Johnson

Another 15 songs of off-kilter pop from a five-piece Irish band with the melodic nous to be enormous and the wilful madness to shoot themselves in the foot. Cry Easily is a hit waiting to happen, but even in this straightforward number there is a strange kernel of nuttiness - maybe it's Susan Kavanagh's odd backing vocals - that is...well, disturbing. My Sweet Life's nasty chording and frankly barmy keyboards show why vocalist Dave Couse sounds subversive rather than sickly, even when singing something as innocuous as "If you ever get one chance/You should grab it with both hands". Produced by Mike Hedges with the same sure touch that graced the Manic Street Preachers' Everything Must Go, A House's fifth album is for all who love beauty best when it's bruised.