Album

Revamped Glaswegians stay close to adopted West Coast roots on fourth LP

Cynical, articulate UK singer-songwriter sends home thoughts from abroad

Uncle Tupelo founder paints his masterpiece

More wonder and thunder from down under. Mick Harvey's extensive track record (Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, Crime & The City Solution) more than qualifies him to score a coming-of-age issue movie set in "a small coastal town in Australia". Interestingly, the debuting director, Paul Goldman, shot the videos for Boys Next Door's "Shiver" and The Birthday Party's "Nick The Stripper", so he and Harvey have been communing aesthetically for a while. Harvey's been getting award nominations already for this, and it seems there's little he can't turn his hand to these days.

Compilation of London trip hoppers' four albums to date, plus two new cuts

Kim Fowley's hoss is impossible to tether. Six-and-a-half-feet tall, resembling the worst nightmare in The Phantom Of The Paradise, too ugly for the agency, Fowley was born on the day Hitler invaded Poland. He grew up in the last Babylonian days of Tarnished Hollywood.

Double album from DJ who gave Elvis his 30th UK No 1 last year

Derby's foremost purveyor of wounded blues and fraught emotions on fine form

Debut album from Tricky's former partner, finessed by stellar producers

Certain rarely-heard names, such as Jo Jo Gunne or Atomic Rooster, are guaranteed to induce a nostalgia rush in men of a certain age. The fact that such '70s semi-stars aren't acknowledged 'greats' makes their very mention all the more bittersweet. In a good way.