Album

Glaswegians' fifth album of orchestral pop

Third UK release from rising Seattle heartbreakers

Lee Perry-produced reggae diva's 1977 classic

Anniversary package from independent dance label with chart aspirations

Dreamy debut from electro-hippies formerly known as Slum

More no-fi than lo-fi, this rough, bootleg-quality document released on singer Paul Haig's own label acts as a companion to 2000's excellent Crazy To Exist (Live). You need to be a fan to sift through the murk in search of what made the band—who barely managed to release an album during their mayfly career—special, but once your ears adjust to the gloom, the caustic glory of Haig and Malcolm Ross' twin guitar rattle is well worth the effort. Magical, if muddy.

Mini LP from new badly drawn boy on the block

Stunning two-disc live set from recent dates in Toronto and Bloomington, Indiana. Accompanying DVD to follow

Glasgow platinum-shifters ring (albeit subtle) changes for their fourth long-player

Before the sex pistols there was New York's Lower East Side: trash aesthetes with short hair and kinky vixens in B-movie stilettos. Kids with minor drug habits and slim volumes of symbolist verse. Pre-punk 'punk' was Gotham's reaction to smug denim California and prog-pomp stadium blow-out. The new Bowery Bop was about immaculate posing, street-corner nihilism. It was railroad-apartment art-rock out of the Velvets, Stooges, Dolls, with a side order of Nuggets garage psychedelics.