Reviews

Satisfactory comeback album from '80s hit-makers

A best-of from the prankster rapper, with every track reinvented and re-recorded

Mode mainmen square up in solo showdown

In most cultures, seven is a magic number. Not in rock'n'roll, where to sustain any degree of originality beyond album three or four is about as rare as a sober Shane MacGowan.

Classic youth cult soundtracks to ITV's Sounds Of Underground London series

Reissue of four classic albums coincides with founder member Bargeld's decision to quit Nick Cave's Bad Seeds

Bluegrass anthology compiled by Grammy-winner Colin Escott, the brains behind BBC2's history of country music, The Lost Highway

Fantasy mayhem from prolific Japanese director

Released in 1972, Federico Fellini's extended love letter to his adopted home city is less of a linear drama than an impressionistic anthology of autobiographical memories, sketchy anecdotes and documentary-style snippets. With sumptuous cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno and a lush Nino Rota score, Roma is a minor Fellini work but a ravishing and innovative visual symphony.

Another belter from the late Kinji Fukasaku's back catalogue. Loosely based on a true story, Fukasaku presents a chaotic swirl of gangland melodrama torn from the prison diary of a Yakuza footsoldier (Bunta Sugawara), seasoning his wild rumination on the loss of the old warrior's code with frequent bursts of histrionic Day-Glo brutality.