Album

Run-DMC did more than anyone to bring rock into hip hop in the mid-'80s. Greatest Hits shows the band at their best (the Tipper Gore-baiting "Mary Mary") and worst (the cutesy "Christmas In Hollis"). The purists sneered at the Jason Nevins makeover of "It's Like That",but those warehouse visuals will have turned a new generation of suburban 13-year-olds on to hip hop.

Hallucinatory, spectral folk debut from NY sisters Sierra and Bianca Cassidy

The return of the widow Gainsbourg, with friends

Flawed, fascinating psych-folk curio

Filmed in 1979, directed by sitcom stalwarts lan La Frenais and Dick Clement, To Russia With Elton is the antidote to the current Elton live show. Accompanied only by drummer Ray Cooper, he seems to have a genuine hunger; unsurprising, perhaps, in light of the commercial failure of '78's A Single Man and the following year's critically reviled Victim Of Love. Probably the last time Elton was ever vital.

Young south coast refuseniks' Merseybeat-and-Cocteaus-soaked pop debut

Her ninth studio album, and first after leaving Arista, her home since 1975

The monumental songwriting prowess of Jacques Brel has traditionally been far too clever for the non-French-speaking masses to care. Even in English. According to the sophisticated French-speaking masses, the translations are a travesty. Not always so. In the devoted, talented hands of Elvis lyricist Mort Shuman, adaptor of the bulk of the songs on this compilation, they pack a heavyweight lyrical punch rarely experienced in the comparatively feeble 'rock' lexicon.

November 2003's AIDS benefit in Cape Town was made special by the presence of one person. No, not Bono, Beyoncé, Geldof, Gabriel or Ms Dynamite, mightily as they perform. On this showing, the biggest star in the world is currently Nelson Mandela, who inspired the event and gets a cheer 10 times as long and loud as the rest combined. A vital cause, some decent music, a few dodgy stadium rock moments and the world's only living saint.

Jon Langford's perennial discontents make retro modern