Album

This Month In Americana

Fifth solo outing for fiftysomething Nashville maestro MILLER'S MORE ILLUSTRIOUS work as guitarist/musical director with Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle has sometimes put his solo output in the shade. A pity, because there's much to discover in the Ohio native's back pages. Earle swears he's "the best country singer working today", while Robbie Fulks calls him country's only living auteur.

Bill Frisell – Unspeakable

Versatile jazz guitarist's sample-based outing, produced by the eclectic Hal Willner

The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster – The Royal Society

At a time when much British alternative rock is hobbled by the demands of 'authenticity', Brighton's Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster strike a rowdy, triumphantly rulebook-flouting note. Clearly, they have their heroes—The Cramps, Dead Kennedys, Melvins and Kyuss among them—but the band's wide-ranging vision suggests they couldn't churn out copies of the music they love even if they tried. The Royal Society explores themes of mental derailment and the black arts against a backdrop of the heaviest psychobilly, grunge-metal and stoner rock.

Piney Gir – Peakahokahoo

Folktronic delight from Kansas-born Londoner

Queen

BECOMING QUEEN

Shirley Collins – No Roses

Definitive 1971 gathering of British folk-rock elite in their absolute prime

Double Diamond

Lord Upminster's startling '77 debut goes deluxe with extra songs and demos

Precious Metal

Ground-breaking German space-rock remastered by bass player Holger Czukay

This Month In Soundtracks

While There's Much wrong (the script, the acting, the smugness) with Channel 4's slick, rather silly series about transatlantic lovers who are struggling against the odds but, like, have shedloads of money, the soundtrack's wilfully hip. Granted it's put together by the kind of people who think Snow Patrol are cutting edge, but in liking what the music press has told them to like, they've packed an impressive stash of new-ish white boy music onto this.

Robyn Hitchcock – Spooked

Psychedelic Soft Boy heads for Tennessee
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