Reviews

Doomed R&B singer's last great recordings

It's an odd time to evaluate Paul Simon's solo career in light of his successful 2004 reunion tour with Art Garfunkel. But maybe all that boomer nostalgia needs a little levity, and the sweep of his solo work proves Simon has never dwelled on the past. The Studio Recordings 1972-2000 is that rare bird—an attempt to collect an artist's entire oeuvre.

Clock-stopping, pulse-raising mega-pop

Two-CD, 26-track memento of Cali punk-funkers' London summer shows

Stunning all-star tribute to country music's first dynasty, produced by John Carter Cash As musical legacies go, the Carter Family takes some topping. From an obscure 100,000-watt Mexican radio station, the truly seminal recordings of Alvin Pleasant Carter, wife Sara and cousin Maybelle took country to a whole new coast-to-coast American audience in the '30s. As vocal-harmony innovators, they were as vital to the development of bluegrass as Bill Monroe.

Epic Scots find fresh focus for fifth LP

Fourth album from leading UK Americana exponents

Stylish, atmospheric future-noir

Crispin Glover scintillates in otherwise unremarkable horror remake

Stats show that Middle America's "mass moral outrage" at Janet's Superbowl boob-bearing came from a noisy couple of hundred. Her career may survive, then, though no thanks to this year's scrappy LP Damita Jo. This gathers all the videos from the last four, the best of which is "That's The Way Love Goes", where she maximises her feline moves, timid voice, and gorgeous loping grooves. But she's definitely in decline.