Album

If Gillian Welch floats your boat, chances are Laura Veirs will, too, though her take on homespun Appalachia is tempered by modernist tendencies. Anyone familiar with 1999's eponymous guitar-and-voice-only debut will be taken aback here, ditching much of its thorny agit-folk for dreamily intoxicating balladry, sawing strings and near-perfect vocal phrasing.

Massachusetts noiseniks' major label debut

Shoehorned onto this page because there's now a parallel DVD, which means this compilation of Volumes 1 and 2 (Cherry Red 1982-84) counts as a soundtrack, okay? The label's reissue of its golden age revels in the courage to be slightly twee. It's the sound of Englishness, only without the mindless violence. Art-rockers like Monochrome Set and Fantastic Something stand up well, having first politely checked that nobody minds if they do. Morgan Fisher's version of "Un Homme Et Une Femme" shrugs coolly, while Felt's "Penelope Tree" carries a torch for Television.

Third album from Canadian rapper

First UK release for NYC singer/guitarist/multi-instrumentalist responsible for immortal The Moray Eels Eat The Space Needle LP

Veteran Louisiana-born country-soulster runs the gamut of musical styles and moods on her daring and dazzling follow-up to 2001's critically lauded Essence

Two discs including tracks from albums one to four and five to eight. Oh, and the best hard rock ever recorded

From Airplane wannabes to folk-rock deities...

New York punk trio surpass media hype with cataclysmic debut

First new work in six years. Todd Rundgren guests