DiS welcomes the second installment from our friends at The Lipster (thelipster.com) as they cast their expert eye across this week's new releases, including Glasgow's favourite angular foursome Franz Ferdinand making their long-awaited comeback...

With the charts still being ridden by Lady GaGa's 'Take Away The Directional Hairpieces & Oh, Look It's Aguilera' sex-pop, this week sees Glasgow's favourite angular foursome make their long-awaited comeback, alongside some mod revivalists and a superlative new French trio...

SINGLE OF THE WEEK!
We Are Enfant Terrible – 'Eagles Don’t Sparkle'
Parisian unsigned upstarts, We Are Enfant Terrible, could have claimed Single of the Week by dint of their incomprehensible song title alone, but fortunately they've also managed to fashion a splendid pop record crammed with tinny hi-hats, some deliciously wobbly sub-bass, and 8-bit beats before it starts to sound very much like an N64 you’ve placed too near the radiator. Feist lookalike frontlady P.Clo has the sort of gloriously detached, echoey vocals that sound like a bored, electropop Kim Gordon, and that is a very good thing.
www.myspace.com/weareenfantterrible
[Free download at the superlative Discodust blog here]

Franz Ferdinand – 'Ulysses' (Domino)

"I’ve found a new way, baby" sings indie's favourite Greek, but sadly there's more than a little disappointment to be had when your ill-fated comeback ponders the yawnsome notion of doing drugs (man). Which is a shame, because it's easy to forget that this used to be a band who would write about afternoon cinema showings when they really meant sex, unlike the enormous lyrical signposts that seem to be acceptable here. The distorted, fuzzy synths which greet Kapranos' inducement to "get high" point to a band interested in fine-tuning and updating their dancefloor potential, but unlike Girls Aloud, the Franz were never going to do as Mr Higgins told them. And perhaps this is why this is so muddled - that "La, la, la, la" Kaisers-style chorus rankles, those talky vocals are sort of embarrassing. In fact, the Franz faithful might do well to lie and pretend they've heard this while secretly leaving it untouched in their iTunes library – not unlike those who claim to have read the titular novel.

The Rifles – 'Fall to Sorrow' (679)
Like the last two and a half decades never 'appened, best friends of Paul Weller The Rifles seem determined to avoid the thorny issue of what year it is by continuing to produce the sort of bloke-rock which they might just about have got away with when the Merton Parkas were in the charts. This has shit-all to do with now and will be the perfect Stella soundtrack for those who think modernism is about ensuring you've got the latest limited-edition Fred Perry V-neck. Frankly I'd rather be locked in a room and forced to listen to twelve hours of Twelve-Note classical.

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - 'Thou Shalt Always Kill' (Sunday Best)

Calling in a remarkably well-preserved Posdnuos for a re-rub would be a stroke of genius, were it not for the fact that Dan Le Sac & Scroobius Pip's most troublesome problem right now is how to fan away the whiff of fifth-form political brick-batting that informs their biggest hit. Nestle, War and Coca-Cola are Very Bad, readers, and all the Day-Lar in the world will not stop those notions being just a little bit annoying when you write performance poetry pop about them.

Kid British – 'Leave London EP' (Mercury)
Starting 'Lost in London' with a conversation betwixt an out-of-townie Manc and surprisingly helpful cabbie (of the sort never encountered in real life), this then descends into a suspiciously polished, Gorillaz-style workout with elements of Lily Allen’s ska-lite and the sort of distended vocals favoured by boy bands – all rather confusing, not to say alarming. 'Elizabeth' is at worst a reminder of The Ordinary Boys and at best an exuberant, easy skank which may or may not be about the Queen. Indeed, it’s difficult to avoid the upsetting idea that Kid British may in fact be a sort of irie Kooks – with questionable lyrical content that aims for the Streets’ goofy urbanity but ends up falling short. "On the way back he relieves himself upon his neighbour’s hedge/But his aim is quite abysmal, so he’s pissing on his leg," being a case in point. On the plus side, unlike lots of things at the moment, this does not sound like The Killers or Joy Division.

Tinchy Stryder feat. Taoi Cruz – 'Take Me Back' (Island)
Ruff Sqwad’s self-proclaimed Prince of Grime will doubtless get into all sorts of trouble with grime’s purists, but while they cling by their fingernails to the original manifesto, the rest of us get to enjoy a proper popstar whose irrepressible cheekiness is matched only by an unabashed and gluttonous attitude to vocoder vocals. This is already absolutely massive, and quite right too.