Even if you remain immune to the dark charms of Joss Whedon’s mighty Buffy The Vampire Slayer, you’ll have noticed that some of us drone on about The Musical Episode from season six like it was the second coming of Abbey Road, Diamond Dogs and Closer. It is absolutely that and no less. The soundtrack, my most prized possession since someone burned it off a mobile MP3 laptop duck-billed web-pager for me (or whatever), is now officially released by popular demand, the first authentic use of the phrase ‘by popular demand’ since Disraeli’s era. It rocks, desperately and epically, and is funny and heartbreaking. Love it without irony.

The genius Whedon wrote the music and lyrics, which is as quietly depressing for the rest of us as learning that F Scott Fitzgerald was Gershwin in his spare time. The cast perform gutsily, but not slickly, which gives it a spooky, sour edge. Whedon often employs a Greek chorus, resulting in fantastic moments such as a demon taunting the declining slayer with, “She’s not even half the girl she…ouch”, and rhyming “my life’s endeavour” with “yeah, whatever”. Willow and Tara sing of their lesbian love. Anya and Xander have an acidic divorce-looming song?”When things get rough he/Just hides behind his Buffy/Now look?he’s getting huffy”, while neutered punk vampire Spike wallows in unrequited angst?”If my heart could beat it would break my chest/But anyway I can see you’re unimpressed”. Eventually they all heroically “Walk Through The Fire”, but not before Willow responds to “I’ll kill her” with “Erm, I think this line is mostly filler”. No room here to list a tenth of the prime-cut gags, any of which Seinfeld or Sanders would slay for. That the songs are genuinely great is a ridiculous bonus. The best album by a bunch of actors playing resurrected bisexual sometime-demon archly witty mutant cuties ever.

After the steamy funk of Boogie Nights and the Aimee Mann tearjerkers of Magnolia, PT Anderson’s new film basks in heady strings and wonky harmoniums, scored by regular collaborator Jon Brion. It’s deliberately dizzying and disorientating, and not always pleasurable. But the borrowing of Nilsson’s “He Needs Me” from Altman’s Popeye, sung with sugary desire by Shelley Duvall, is inspired. Waiting to interview Anderson in a hotel lobby recently, I congratulated Emily Watson on her singing of this. It’s the only thing I’ve ever said to Emily Watson. She politely replied, “That isn’t me, that’s the Shelley Duvall recording.” When it comes to fact-checking, the soundtracks column lives on the front line.

Underwhelmed as we are by franchise McBlockbusters, this score’s by the really rather talented Howard Shore, who was responsible for the coolly sexy sounds which rippled under David Cronenberg’s Crash. His soppy strings for the first Baggins movie won him all manner of awards and made the UK Top 10. This one is distinguished by its remarkable guest vocalists: Iceland’s Emiliana Torrini and former Cocteau Twin Elizabeth Fraser?from “Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops” to Gollum and Samwise: it makes a kind of sense, no? What with this and Lisa Gerrard regularly elevating Michael Mann’s films, can we soon expect to hear Kim Deal singing the Harry Potter theme song? Maybe not.

It’s easy to be cynical about a windy old narcissistic diva but less so to heckle one who’s come back from a horrible brain disease: 18 months ago Minnelli was told she’d never walk or talk again. That she battled back to do these live shows at New York’s Beacon Theater is the kind of courage that wins you a whole new audience, possibly even including some heterosexuals. On the other hand, if she’s really unlucky, she might just get saddled with further Pet Shop Boys collaborations. This is the real juice, defiantly arms-akimbo glamorous?”Cabaret”, “Over The Rainbow”, “New York, New York”?and despite the control-freak hubby’s gushing sleevenotes, it’s the-show-must-go-on-tastic.

The “In The Fish Tank” series is the brainchild of Dutch label Konkurrent. The concept is straightforward. While playing shows in Holland, Konkurrent invite bands to record new material (“in the tradition of jazz”) with the following guidelines: they are only allowed two days’ studio time to lay down “20 to 30 minutes” of whatever they please, to 24 tracks.

After collaborations between Low/Dirty, Willard Grant Conspiracy/Telefunk and Tortoise/The Ex, In The Fish Tank No 9 is a three-way studio fest between Jim O’Rourke, Steve Shelley, Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth (with additional percussion from William Winant), Ab Baars, Hans Bennink and Wolter Wierbos from Dutch jazz outfit ICP, and Luc and Terrie from New Zealand noise-rock unit The Ex.

The resulting eight tracks explore territory that will be familiar to Sonic Youth fans who bought the band’s SYR EPs and kept abreast of solo projects by Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo. In particular, much of this CD will remind you of Moore’s work with Nels Cline.

There are also throwbacks to the John Coltrane of Ascension, to Albert Ayler at his most blistering, to Ornette Coleman, as well as to contemporary avant-jazz players such as Evan Parker and Derek Bailey.

The terrific closing track, with its horns, lumbering bass rumble and classic Sonic Youth fretwork, sounds not unlike the kind of stuff the Youth were playing when they started out. The rest of the album teases, prods and jousts with the listener as squalls of guitar, brass and percussion cut in and out with taut ferocity.

A fine album for Sonic Youth die-hards, lovers of all things avant-garde and jazz nuts.

Armenian liturgical chants and Joy Division may not be the most obviously winning influences, but Deleyaman (also including French, Turkish, Swedish, Georgian, Orthodox, Anglican, Cramps, Banshees and Bach inspirations in its five-piece fold) create a charismatic, shifting, sensual ambience from these dirge-like elements.

It’s gypsy cathedral music, exotically sacred and nomadically slippery, plus a touch of the dancefloor and the spy film, with unearthly male and female spiritual cries.

While Richard Warren’s previous sonic escapades saw him navigating the outer limits of motorik austerity, the follow-up to 2000’s Volume 2 finds his alter ego’s drone-rock aesthetic enveloped by a warm, electro-pop hue. Despite the vaguest hint of mainstream surrender, the results are as charming as they are accessible, with “Lately Lonely” and “Automatic Eyes” proffering sweet respite from electroclash’s icy self-regard, while the quickened krautrock pulse of “Wasted Spaces” ensures purists are similarly assuaged. The boy done good.

Philadelphia’s appropriately named Brian McTear is Bitter, Bitter Weeks. His deceptively lo-fi indie troubadour sound should find favour with those enamoured of the first, mostly acoustic Ryan Adams album. McTear’s neither as snotty nor as convinced of his own genius, which makes for a humbler, more open emotional journey. Dashes of Alex Chilton’s ragtag pop and Jonathan Richman’s childlike wonder give a warm glow to this boy-and-his-guitar bundle of agreeably melodic, soft-pedalled laments.

The distinguishing mark of world music is that it’s sung in other languages, which makes lyric sheets and translations crucial for comprehension. This three-disc guide fails to provide any such documentation, leaving the tracks to succeed or fail as pure sound events. If you don’t mind not knowing what the hell a singer is singing about, you may be in the market for these themed discs (World Party, World Caf

Any new Roots album comes with a three-part guarantee: sublime, R&B-guested crossover (“Break You Off” with Musiq, “Complexity” featuring Jill Scott), muso indulgence (the hideous epilogue muddying the otherwise sparkling “Water”) and, crucially, a willingness to push the envelope of their organic jazz-rap that leaves the competition standing. The latter is best exhibited on the riffy “The Seed 2.0” and stripped-bare squiggles of “Rolling With Heat”, less successfully on the electroclash-influenced “Something In The Way Of Things”. Thankfully, though, Phrenology is more therapy than quack science.

MTV show-hosting brothers Benji and Joel Everly are the driving force behind Good Charlotte’s second album. They co-wrote all 14 of these slick, punk-pop songs. Though, on occasion, they are Green Day-lite, there are enough solid rock moments to keep their youthful following happy.

First single, “Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous”, is a speedy thrash at celebrity-whingeing (“All they do is piss and moan inside Rolling Stone”), while sole ballad “Emotionless” really is quite lovely.

The death of mentor Eazy-E, the imprisonment of original member Stanley Howse (alias Flesh-N-Bone) on gun charges, and last album BTNH Resurrection’s poor sales may have been the end for less resilient acts than Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Fortunately, the four remaining members simply refused to stop recording. The rapping, backed by sharp beats from DJ U-Neek, remains speedily impressive. The misogyny of “Not My Baby” and the Phil Collins-sampling “Home” apart, Thug World Order is an invigorating return to form.

The brainchild of Seattle-born 21-year-old Ryan Beatty, Serene’s debut is nothing if not big on ambition. Beatty admits a fondness for Built To Spill and Sunny Day Real Estate, and much of the music taps into the loud/quiet dynamic and stuttering invention of the latter’s How It Feels To Be Something (1998).

There are echoes of Pavement and Modest Mouse among the pulses and explosions, but it’s not until the home straight that he finally sounds uninhibited, cutting loose on “Last Words Of A Fallen Angel” and relaxing into the stoner vibe of “Autumn”.

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat?that’s a guy singing. Acoustic songster Jeff Hanson has a high, airy voice that makes Badly Drawn Boy sound macho, but his pop sensibilities are not far removed from those of the woolly-hatted one.

With a super-spare production and an emphasis on subliminally infectious tunes possessed of a childlike simplicity, Hanson could be the Marc Bolan of the sadcore set.

First released in America two years ago, the third album from the independently-minded pianist-songwriter Jennifer Terran is a conceptual exercise in which the musician of the title is a tortured character called Mad Magdaline who liberates herself and ends up killing the corporate suits?metaphorically or not?who are messing with her art.

Although the character is fictitious, it’s clear the songs are deeply personal. Haunting and intense, she sounds like a rawer version of Tori Amos. But Terran possesses a uniquely fierce and uncompromising voice.

Starbelly

In November 2001, the owner of Tongue Master records invited Mark Eitzel to fly out to Greece and record an EP with Greek musicians under the guidance of Greek composer/producer Manolis Famellos. Backed up by a sort of Greek Buena Vista Social Club, the EP bloomed into this full-length LP.

As well as six balalaika-adorned re-workings of classic American Music Club tracks (“Western Sky”, “Here They Roll Down”, “Jenny”, “Nightwatchman”, “Will You Find Me”, “Last Harbor”), Eitzel offers one decent new song (“What Good Is Love?”), an unremarkable Famellos composition (“Love’s Humming (Black Love)”) and new versions of two previously released solo songs (” Take Courage”, “Anything”). This has self-destructive career move written all over it. Like Alex Chilton before him, Eitzel alternates between genius and audience-baiting mediocrity. After two fabulous albums?The Invisible Man and Music For Courage And Confidence?he gives us this. Whatever next?

Scandinavian by design but closer to the Dutch school of happy-go-lucky power pop, breezy Beezewax jerked the radar when Ken ‘Posies’ Stringfellow produced their South Of Boredom disc.

They have that charming second language factor, using it to combine adventurous harmonies and wall-of-sound drumming with wistful lyricism. “The Brighton Concorde” and “Ballad Of The Beaches” finger their Anglophile sensibilities. Pungent rather than cheesy, Oh Tahoe’s full-force folk rocking refreshes a vintage formula. If you liked Posies’ Frosting On The Seater but are tired of waiting for a decent follow-up from that Seattle band, this could do the (cheap) trick.

Like a soundtrack for a film that never was, most of the dozen tracks on this one-off from the pair behind New York’s innocent urbanites Madder Rose are entirely instrumental. Weirdly echoing guitars and analogue synths weave dreamily between stark piano chords and eerie strings, like Air jamming with Calexico. It’s atmospheric, yet the introduction of vocals on “See The Stars” comes as a relief amid the otherwise chorus-free fare.

The news that The Tragically Hip had headed off to record in the Bahamas with fashionable producer Hugh Padgham (Sting/Genesis/Bowie) instilled fears that perhaps they were about to live up to their name in the most unfortunate manner. Fortunately, Padgham resisted the temptation to give them an artful makeover and instead opted to capture the synergy of the band’s live sound. The result is a pleasing LP of R.E.M.-style guitar rock, and at least one song?”Use It Up”, with its splendid refrain, “I’m a fool for music that can take you away”?is an instant hit.