Brooklynite Jon DeRosa's outfit are deceptive. At face value, PHAR offer little more than a sad shuffle, the odd cracked waltz and scattered flurries of noise. But give it time and these trampled-heart melodies burrow under the skin. Last year's Uncut-endorsed These Are The New Good Times was DeRosa's stoned-slacker take on slo-mo country mores, but here he broadens the palette with the addition of Low collaborator Marc Gartman as co-songwriter and ex-Mercury Rev pedal-steeler Gerald Menke.

Sparky, angular second from luckless young Brit-rockers

Second release from Californian dreamers

Emboldened by live triumphs, pop's one true genius re-enters the studio

Despite drug battles and internal strife, Jeff Tweedy's band sound newly liberated

Dazzling selection from back catalogue of the "cosmic" country visionary who changed the face of American music

Sorely overdue reissue of a masterpiece of '60s Brit improv, complete with previously unissued material

First 'solo' album appended with Beserkley Chartbusters tracks including "Roadrunner (Once)", and the one with "Egyptian Reggae" on it

Two towering '80s icons get back on track but with some way to go

Even the director of this film, recounting the tale of how road manager Phil Kaufman stole and burned Gram Parsons' corpse, was surprised when Parsons' wife and daughter okay-ed the use of his music. Parsons' "A Song For You" and "Love Hurts" and The Flying Burrito Brothers' "Wild Horses" evoke the era, along with Country Joe and Eddie Floyd. Gillian Welch tackles "Hickory Wind", and Starsailor handle "Hot Burrito No 2" bombastically. But The Lemonheads, Wilco and trend-whores Primal Scream just seek cred by association. Twangy.