With 1970's The Man Who Sold the World, David Bowie set aside his pop and singer-songwriter aspirations and headed in a harder-rocking direction. Producer Tony Visconti provided a thick, dense setting with guitarist Mick Ronson playing the role of guitar hero to Bowie's megalomaniac frontman; think Keith Richards and Mick Jagger sprinkled with fairy dust. The new approach flowered on Hunky Dory, but the outline for the master plan is here. The title track, "The Width of a Circle," and "All the Madmen" are essential Bowie, as he slips from cryptic to straightforward, celebratory wordplay. -Rob O'Connor.

"Virginia Plain", "Street Life", "Love Is The Drug", "Avalon"-they are all here on this splendid, all-encompassing greatest hits package. As on the other Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music hits compilation, Street Life, the early years of Brian Eno period Roxy Music are largely overlooked in favour of Ferry's later, less avant-garde fare, from the extraordinarily camp "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" to the chirpy "Let's Stick Together". Throughout, it's hard to resist the potent combination of Ferry's vampiric croon and Roxy Music's art school chic. A sexy and exciting ride through some of the finest pop moments of the 1970s and 80s. -Amber Cowan.

With a touch of Robyn Hitchcock in his vocal timbre, a smidgen of Steve Earle in his narratives and instrumental writing and a heap of Gram Parsons in the fullness of his overall sound and structure, Ryan Adams steps well above Whiskeytown with Heartbreaker, his solo debut. By turns raucous, wistful, raspy and simply sweet, Adams makes the most of a top-shelf acoustic band, including Gillian Welch and David Rawlings and even a guest spot from Emmylou Harris on the tenderly yearning "Oh My Sweet Caroline". There is little dependence on the usual alt-country twang and a far more rounded sense of textures here (the multiple vocal tracks on "Amy", for example, sound Beatles-esque), with glockenspiel, organ and more signalling a sonic field of extensive depth. His spare guitar and stretched-thin vocal delivery alternate smartly with a bigger-shouldered guitar and throaty voice, never leaving behind a band conception straight out of Parsons's oeuvre. Adams signals occupancy of the post-alt country vanguard-if there is such a thing. -Andy Bartlett.

Music from the OC Mix 1 is strangely unique for a TV soundtrack compilation. Often, US teen dramas don't put a great deal of thought into the show's music, relying heavily on bland, melodramatic MOR (think Paula Cole and Dawson's Creek). However, a glance through the track listing reveals a host of acclaimed indie guitar bands from around the world. Goodtime retro acts such as Jet ("Move On") and the Dandy Warhols ("We Used to be Friends") in addition to more downbeat artists such as Turin Brakes ("Rain City"), South ("Paint the Silence") and the Doves ("Caught By the Rain") make for an eclectic mix of new music. Music from the OC Mix 1 serves well as the soundtrack to a hit show but more importantly, it's a great introduction to good bands who many may not have been discovered without it. -David Trueman.

Top Gun (1986) must be counted one of the most influential movies of the 1980s. It propelled Tom Cruise to superstar status, and jetted director Tony (True Romance, 1994; Enemy of the State, 1998) Scott's career into the stratosphere. It also allowed producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer to perfect their multiplex-friendly blockbuster formula of join-the-dots plot, MTV-inspired visuals and rapid-fire action. Not least, it all but invented the modern pop soundtrack. Certainly it was the success of Simon and Garfunkel's The Graduate (1967) which inspired many song soundtracks in the pre-Star Wars (1977) decade, but since Top Gun, soundtrack pop has been gunning for the top like never before. Two singles dominate the album, Berlin's massive hit, "Take My Breath Away", and Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone", both co-written by Giorgio Moroder, who also scored Midnight Express (1978) and penned Blondie's "Call Me" from American Gigolo (1980). Most of the remainder is up-beat, energetic American AOR stadium pop-rock by bands like Cheap Trick and Loverboy, huge names at the time of the film's release. Rounding out the collection is the electro-instrumental "Top Gun Anthem" by Harold Faltermeyer, the man behind "The Heat Is On" from Simpson and Bruckheimer's previous box-office bonanza, Beverly Hills Cop (1984). All in all, a landmark soundtrack. -Gary S. [+]

Way back in 1980, the original wave of Talking Heads fans were pleasantly stunned to hear Remain in Light, produced and co-written by Brian Eno, on which Byrne and company are joined by guitar god Adrian Belew, and funk legends Bernie Worrell (keyboards) and Steven Scales (percussion), among others, for a fuller, funkier sound nobody imagined they had in them. The first three songs are long, layered, full-body dance parties, with incessantly repeated phrases (musical and lyrical), and increasingly catchy melodic hooks that won't let go for days. "Once in a Lifetime" was the big hit, but the rockingest track is the third, "The Great Curve", after which the songs get more linear and subdued. It's still great stuff, right through to the especially Eno-like droner, "The Overload", but the second half is maybe better to sleep to than dance to. Which is fine: after the exuberance of the first three songs, you'll need a little nap. -Dan Leone.

Hotel California represented a commercial peak for the Eagles, selling nine million copies in its year of release alone. Founder member Bernie Leadon quit and was replaced with tougher-sounding guitarist Joe Walsh just before the band spent eight months in the studio crafting this album. Unfortunately, as often happens with albums that take so long to make, spontaneity is almost wholly sacrificed to a virtuosity of a somewhat sterile kind, and some of these songs appear in far more energetic and interesting versions on the band's Live album. Still,Hotel California has had a massive influence-its formula of soft country and hard rock has been endlessly imitated, but few acts have recaptured the weary loveliness of the Eagles' template. -JamesSwift.

Managing-sort of-to keep within the Pet Shop Boys tradition of one-word album titles, the moniker of this latest best-of, PopArt, is typical of the band-arrogant and somewhat pretentious yet also tongue-in-cheek and slyly self-aware. All the 35 tracks on these two CDs are indeed both pop and art and rather than being in chronological order have been split in fairly arbitrary fashion across a "Pop" and, erm, an "Art" disc. The band are doubtless well aware that much heated discussion will take place among fans about which track belongs where, and indeed, as evidenced on the commentary of the accompanying DVD, squabbled about the splits themselves when compiling this release. Philosophical debates aside, this is an absolutely essential collection for anyone who enjoys the Pet Shop Boys' unique mix of bittersweet poignancy, archness and occasional high camp-or indeed for any discerning pop (or art) fan. Encompassing almost all their single releases (only "Was It Worth It?" and "How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?" are missing), this is a glorious retrospective of one of Britain's finest pop institutions. Let's hope there are another 35 singles half this good for a quadruple box set in another 18 years' time. -Rikki Price.

It's often said that a musician's debut represents the culmination of a lifetime's worth of experiences, but their sophomore effort is usually derived from just the intervening year. By waiting 12 years between The Red Shoes and her new double CD, Aerial, Kate Bush has tried to regain that lifetime. It's a remarkably coherent recording, reflecting the unique world of sound and spirit Bush has inhabited since her debut. The first disc, subtitled A Sea of Honey, is a suite of personal reveries. It ranges from "King of the Mountain", a contemplation of unbridled celebrity and its isolation that references Elvis and Citizen Kane, to the piano-and-voice study "Mrs. Bartolozzi", an ode to household chores whose chorus is "Sloshy sloshy sloshy sloshy, get that dirty shirty clean". With its Depeche Mode-influenced synth-pads, electro pulses, and lyric cadences, "King of the Mountain" is vintage Bush pop. But many of the songs attain more epic proportions, like the dynamic "Joanni", a hymn to Joan of Arc. It's the second disc-a suite called A Sky of Honey-on which Bush really comes into her own. Using metaphors of the turning of the day and the flight of birds, she orchestrates a meditation on the cycles of life. [+]

Having hit big with their folky debut Dreamboat Annie, Heart quickly reinvented themselves as a stadium rock band of massive proportions, a period peaking with the Zeppelin-esque Bebe Le Strange. Though the early 80s saw them fade, a move to Capitol Records and an embracing of mainstream balladeering raised them to their highest-ever levels of popularity. This album's collects a decade's worth of Capitol singles, and includes such hits as "Alone", "These Dreams" (both chart toppers), "Never" and "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You". Sadly, being a singles collection, it ignores much of the band's best work during that period (almost without exception written by the Wilson sisters), for instance the howling epics "Bad Animals" and "The Night", and the wonderfully delicate "Under The Sky". Yet, with most of the entries here being penned by such hit-machines as Dianne Warren, Albert Hammond and Steinberg/Kelly, the quality remains high and it's all, of course, hugely energised by Ann Wilson's near-unbelievable voice, without doubt one of the finest in rock's long history. An acceptable Greatest Hits that leaves you yearning for a Best Of. -Dominic Wills.