Reviews

No Captain, but a Beefheartless supergroup assembled from various Magic line-ups

Debut album from London-based 24-year-old

First album in four years from survivors of star-crossed Southern rock behemoth

The Pastels always seem to find their wheelbarrow positively overflowing with acclaim, though some of us have struggled for over a decade to remember what they actually sound like. Here they wibble along, inoffensively enough, through a 25-minute accompaniment to the recent Brit road movie directed by David Mackenzie. It climaxes, if that's not too bold a word (it is), with a Jarvis Cocker collaboration, "I Picked A Flower", a parody of a pop hit which demonstrates that Cocker used up all his parody power a while ago.

Double CD featuring Velvet Underground chanteuse's solo comeback material from early '80s

New compilation in surround sound, plus unreleased Johnny Cash duet

Canadian fuckwit becomes God. The end is nigh

Wes Craven directed this fairly faithful adaptation of DC's horror comic muck monster: a scientist caught in a chemical explosion in a Louisiana swamp gets transformed into a vegetable superbeing. Sadly, the script's clunky and the make-up SFX are tatty beyond belief—notably, the rubber suit that makes ol' Swampy look like a giant walking turd. Result; a travesty.

Reworked by Claude Chabrol after the death of screenwriter Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Wages Of Fear, Diabolique), L'Enfer sees poor François Cluzet suspect pretty wife Emmanuelle Béart of infidelity then gradually lose it as paranoia and doubt undermine his entire existence. Beautiful, but painful to watch.

The Rolling Stones recently cancelled what would have been their first ever visit to China. But Morcheeba made the trip earlier this year and their visit is commemorated on From Brixton to Beijing WARNER MUSIC VISION . Live footage, film of the band tobogganing down the Great Wall and a cameo appearance by Lambchop's Kurt Wagner contribute to an intelligently produced DVD that is several cuts above your average point-and-shoot tour diary.