Reviews

The musical side project of Jack Black and his guitar-playing sidekick Kyle Gass, Tenacious D are a pomp-rocking hybrid of Spinal Tap, South Park and The Darkness. This meaty double-disc set contains a live Brixton concert, the duo's original HBO series, scatological short films and tons more. It's all strong stuff, with cameos by Spike Jonze and Dave Grohl as the Devil. A cult worth discovering.

The Old Weird America rediscovered in Chicago

Produced by T. Bone Burnett, and an essential purchase for White Stripes devotees as Jack White gives five brand new performances. By "brand new", we mean four of them are traditional, like "Sittin' On Top Of The World" and "Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over", interpreted by he of the tight trousers and eye for Renée Zellweger with minimal fiddles-and-mandolins support and a folksy vocal. "Never Far Away" is his own.

Bleakly beautiful drone-grooves from singer-songwriter tipped for greatness

First in series of reissued twofers from Nashville country giant

Entertaining trawl of WEA's rap vaults

Stevens launched Deram, Decca's off-shoot progressive label, in 1966 with "I Love My Dog", followed by further hits "Matthew & Son" and "I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun"—ingenious, idiosyncratic, albeit lightweight pop. Like label-mate Bowie, Stevens was clearly an unorthodox talent. Typically, the singles and B-sides then bolstered Stevens' debut album, an impressive, diverse collection despite Mike Hurst's archaic production and fussy arrangements. By New Masters, Hurst was deploying an even heavier trowel.

Weary thriller starring Al Pacino as ageing PR man

Philip Seymour Hoffman—in faint danger of over-exposure recently—does a Michael Moore, fronting a hand-held, ramshackle documentary which asks why Bush is so bad and the Democrats only marginally better. He hits those hanging chads and Supreme Court sinners with the help of Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Jesse Jackson, Courtney Love and Eddie Vedder. Lively.

Beautifully played, smartly directed low-key change of pace from Ridley Scott. Nic Cage plays a neurotic compulsive-obsessive grifter who has to deal with the unexpected arrival of his teenage daughter (Alison Lohman) as he and his partner (Sam Rockwell) prepare to pull off an elaborate con. It failed to ignite at the box office, but is well worth catching now.