Big star

All of Ashcroft and co's plus two Urban Hymns outtakes

Only a perverse spoilsport could claim that Neil Young was not a giant among the North American singer-songwriters who emerged in the '60s. For this reviewer, he dwarfs all of them. Young is greater even than his hero Bob Dylan because he is more Heart than Head, more Body than Brain. There's something intuitive and primitively intense about Young's best music that Dylan rarely matches. More Dionysus than Apollo, Young puts music first, words second. And what music it is.

Hip record company attempts to thrust stardom upon unwilling recipient

Lauren Graham is Billy Bob Thornton's co-star in the brilliant new black comedy from Terry Zwigoff, Bad Santa.

First in five years from Brooklyn rapper

Extraordinary existential investigations yield mixed-up results

Demme knowing, nerve-shredding take on iconic conspiracy thriller pulls off the improbable

Carol Clerk, who covered Live Aid for Melody Maker, on the newly released DVD of the global rock spectacular

Key members of the US rock aristocracy roll across 11 swing states to try to persuade floating voters to ditch Dubya

The beloved entertainer showcases his fine new album north of the border