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HURRICANE #1
Hurricane #1
(Warner Bros/Sire)

Former Ride guitarist Andy Bell thinks his new band, Hurricane #1, is black while Diana Ross is white.

Well, jokingly, anyway. He made the comment in reference to being compared to fellow Brits Oasis, taking the piss at being likened to a band he feels lacks the necessary funk that drives the eponymous debut of his recent pet project.

And he may have a point in some twisted way. Hurricane #1's sound shows much more diversity than the aforementioned. "Just Another Illusion" swaggers cheeky basslines around like a month of Happy Mondays, and we all know they got their funk from some black artist.

Or did they? And does it matter that it's second generation ethnic privilege Hurricane #1 are claiming with a subtle smirk? Not really, as one of the singles, "Step Into My World," reeks of "Don't Look Back In Anger," anyway.

So, issues of color awareness aside, Hurricane #1's debut hardly escapes (not so) recent Britpop conventions, both good and bad. There're as many Stone Roses in Bell's new garden as befits an Oasis of lush guitar swaths rummaged through by passing Charlatans in UK. There, that about covers it, and it's a pleasant album, anyway. (Laz)

In a nutshell:  Lots of wind about the same old thing.