A good overview of Sting's radio hits and popular album tracks with no major omissions, Fields of Gold also offers three previously unreleased songs. "This Cowboy Song" and "When We Dance" appear on no other album, while "We'll Be Together" is an alternate interpretation. The import version of this collection offers a substantially different and expanded track listing, dropping "Fortress Around Your Heart", "Be Still My Beating Heart", and "Why Should I Cry for You"; and adding "Nothing 'Bout Me", "Mad About You", "Seven Days", "It's Probably Me", "Love is the Seventh Wave", and "Demolition Man". -Gavin McNett.

Blur's second album saw them finding their feet just before they suddenly went supernova. In songs like "Chemical World", they started developing the themes of everyday British life that would follow them to their Parklife era. "Sunday Sunday" provided its own blueprint for the Britpop scene, showing the traditional Sunday dinner with the family for what it really is ("You gather the family round the table and eat enough to sleep"), while "Advert" follows in the spirit of Blur's musical ancestors (art school punks and mods). "Blue Jeans", meanwhile, demonstrates that Damon Albarn has always had a talent for writing delicate, sad ballads. Modern Life Is Rubbish deserves to be heard, not only to show how much Blur changed over the years, but because it still stands up and holds its own against anything they came up with later in their career. -Emma Johnston.

Few things in life are as reliable as UB40. For more than 20 years the eight Birmingham lads, led by brothers Robin and Ali (the one with the odd voice) Campbell, have been plying their very individual, and very British brand of reggae. And, save for a slight shift from the rootsy Ska of their first top-10 single, "King/Food For Thought", to the more commercial likes of "Homely Girl", little has changed over their 43-single career. Although their own tracks were always laid-back and infectious, it was their reggae-lite makeovers of pop classics like "Red Red Wine", "I Got You Babe" and "I Can't Help Falling In Love", that brought their biggest hits and are the main focus of The Very Best Of. Not as comprehensive as previous compilations, The Best Of UB40 Volume 1 and Volume 2, it still boasts more memorable and happily lilting hits than most bands could lay claim to. Of those, two tracks standout a mile-the William Orbit (he who revamped American Pie for Madonna) styled production of their recent cover of "Light My Fire" is exceptional, but "Rat In Mi Kitchen", thanks to superb lyrics, sparse yet perfectly formed dub horns and a little hindsight, is just as good as Brit-reggae gets. -Dan Gennoe.

It's difficult not to feel jealous of the audience who were present for these shows at the Blues Alley club in January, 1996. Eva Cassidy's voice has the soul of Aretha Franklin, the smoky melancholy of Billie Holiday, the raw passion of Janis Joplin all rolled into one-and she'll never make another record. Later that same year she died of cancer, leaving behind a painfully small recorded legacy to be discovered belatedly and posthumously by the rest of the world. But those fortunate few in the Blues Alley club knew the secret long before. Thankfully, producer, mentor and (for a time) boyfriend Chris Biondo had the foresight to record Eva Cassidy for-as things turned out-posterity. So, imagine yourself in a dark corner of that tiny club and let the woman with the guitar and the extraordinary voice serenade you. The set consists of standards, mostly jazz-alternately bluesy and torchy-but with a sprinkling of folk ballads that she sings with haunting delicacy (Sting's "Fields Of Gold" being the stand out track). Perfectionist that she was, Cassidy refused to let this album be released unless a studio track-Pete Seeger's "Oh, Had I A Golden Thread"-was also included. But every track is a polished jewel in her hands: the limpid beauty of Johnny Mercer's evergreen "Autumn Leaves", the swinging blues of Billie Holiday's "Fine And Mellow", the uptempo soul of Al Green's "Take Me To The River". There are only four albums featuring Eva Cassidy, and one of those is a compilation of the other three, so for anyone who is haunted by her voice, Live At Blues Alley is a must-have. [+]

After a harrowing experience recording their previous album (1985's magnificent Fables Of The Reconstruction), R. E. M. reconvened the following year muttering something about a "poppier" sound. However, old fans were given little to complain about when Life's Rich Pageant was unveiled. Admittedly new producer Don Gehman had cleaned things up; you can even hear what Michael Stipe was singing on a couple of songs. And, yes, there's even a novelty cover ("Superman"). All these factors though, point to a band really enjoying themselves in the studio, from the euphoric clatter of "Begin The Begin" to the poignant waltz-time strum of "Swan Swan H". Highlights? Too many to mention-but it's hard to disagree with Stipe when he cites "Cuyahoga" and the hymnal "Fall On Me" as two of his very best. And, of the extra tracks, an exquisitely bare "(All I Have To Do Is) Dream" runs them damn close. [+]

If Scott Walker's first solo album, 1967's Scott, had been about wilfully laying waste to the pretty-boy pop star image he had established with The Walker Brothers, Scott 2 found him relaxing into the role somewhat, and is probably the better record for it. The basic modus operandi remained the same-epic, string-drenched ballads, written by a combination of Walker and his heroes Jacques Brel and Tim Hardin-but a more playful spirit was directing matters. The difference is reflected in the choice of Brel songs alone. On Scott, Walker had picked such grim room clearers as "Mathilde" and "My Death". Here, he kicks off with an exuberant romp through "Jackie", Brel's sketch of a cheerfully dissolute rock & roll wastrel (Marc Almond released a barely distinguishable version a couple of decades later). Later, he camps up Brel's hilarious military reminiscence "Next", and contributes a composition of his own called "The Amorous Humphrey Plugg"-it seems reasonable to suspect that Walker had been listening to a fair bit of Anthony Newley around this time. All this blithe good cheer can be taken so far, of course-the original sleeve notes, credited to "His friend Jonathan King", suggest that Walker could have been more cautious about the company he was keeping. -Andrew Mueller.

Forrest Gump (1994) is one of the most successful films ever made, winning Tom Hanks his second successive Best Actor Oscar (he won the previous year for Philadelphia) as well as claiming the Best Picture Oscar and many other awards and nominations, including several for music. A unique fable of American life from the 1950s to the 80s, the film blends comedy, drama, war, romance and groundbreaking special effects into a social and political portrait of the passing years, all seen through the eyes of the intellectually challenged but immensely likeable Forrest Gump. The soundtrack is a double album featuring 31 classic pop tunes plus a suite from Alan Silvestri's rich orchestral music, represented more completely on the companion score album. Opening with Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog", this is a fine anthology of three decades of American music, taking in everything from Joan Baez's "Blowin' In The Wind" to Aretha Franklin's "Respect", The Mammas and The Papas' "California Dreamin'" and Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson". Here also is Scott McKenzie with "San Francisco", plus Jefferson Airplane, the Supremes, Lynyrd Skynrd and many more. Like American Graffiti (1973), this is one of the great pop soundtracks, happily at home in just about any music collection. -Gary S. Dalkin.

Emotionally over-the-top pop extravaganzas like the string-swelling "Tonight Tonight", the Metallica-influenced alternative rock of "Zero", the techno via new wave of "1979"-the 28 songs on this swell two-disc album are as eclectic as their themes are epic and ambitious. Billy Corgan's thin whine isn't much of an instrument, but he makes the most of it by writing smart songs that take emotional chances that more-typical alt rockers would deem uncool. Pessimistic and feeling trapped but still wanting to believe in love, in a future, in something-this is the sound of Gen X at the millennium, with all the self-indulgence and power that would suggest. -David Cantwell.

After the expanded instrumental scale and sonic experimentation of Court and Spark and The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Joni Mitchell reverses that flow for the more intimate, interior music on Hejira, which retracts the arranging style to focus on Mitchell's distinctive acoustic guitar and piano, and the brilliant, lyrical bass fantasias of fretless bass innovator Jaco Pastorius. Known for his furious, sometimes rococo figures beneath the music of Weather Report, Pastorius is tamed by Mitchell's cooler, more deliberate ballads; these meditations coax a far gentler, subdued lyricism from Pastorius, whose intricate bass counterpoints Mitchell's coolly elegant singing, especially on the sublime "Amelia," which transforms the mystery of Amelia Earhart into a parable of both feminism and romantic self-discovery. This isn't Mitchell at her most obviously ambitious, yet the depth of feeling, poetic reach and musical confidence make this among the finest works in a very fine canon. -Sam Sutherland.