Reviews

Strong best-of bolstered by five unreleased tracks

Final helping of the Wachowskis' techno-shock triptych

Matthew Barney's extraordinary Cremaster Cycle has won outrageous accolades: "greatest living artist", "best fusion of art and cinema since Buñuel", etc. This is the climactic 31-minute scene of that epic, and it's every bit as wildly mind-boggling as you'd hope. Barney scales the Guggenheim Museum-staircase, assaulted by molten Vaseline, tapdancing girls, metal bands and a cheetah. The perfect intro to a warped genius.

All four movies from the interstellar belly-bursting-baddie franchise in extended form, plus five discs of extras

Swoony Californian dreamscapes in the vein of Mazzy Star

A return to traditional song, exquisitely sung, in a perfect setting

All-female tribute to country's First Lady features her own reworking of title track

Nashville legend's formative years unearthed

After the voracious onslaught of The Jimi Hendrix Experience's debut, Are You Experienced, Hendrix throttled back a little. For the band's second album, Axis: Bold As Love, the sound was lither and more fluid, indicating that there was more to him than the faintly racist caricature of the sex-hungry, gimmick-happy Wild Man Of Rock. Rough glimpses of his burgeoning versatility and easy self-confidence are in evidence on this two-disc collection—though such is the quality of these outtakes that the emphasis is generally on rough.

Those folky solo years of the late Face