In an about-face that will infuriate technophiles, this group of dance revisionists celebrate guitars and "real instruments" in the face of processed music. The Williams brothers and their mate Jim Goodwin first had a hit with the disco-charged "Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use)", but disillusionment with the Manchester scene set in, so they picked up guitars and formed Doves-a band determined to infuse raw emotion into music. From instrumental opener "Firesuite"-which showcases their rumbling, restrained guitar firepower-to the tumbling acoustic shanty "Sea Song", the Latin guitar lines of "The Man Who Told Everything", the balmy Technique-era New Order rocker "Catch The Sun" and the aqueous, soaring "Rise", none of the album's 11 tracks bear any real resemblance to each other. Doves have produced an outstanding debut album in Lost Souls, alternately melancholy and uplifting, sparkling darkly with charged atmospherics. -Mike Pattenden.

Despite the photographic presence of an acoustic guitar (the rock & roll equivalent of a rubber bullet), the enviably lovely hair and the unassuming knitwear, Sheryl Crow is staring back at us from the cover of The Very Best Of with her chin resting on a fist clenched tightly with white-knuckled defiance. This is, after all, the girl whose wishful thinking led her to sing "All I wanna do is have some fun" while privately preferring to either curl up in bed for a very long time or roll over and die (she's recently come out of the closet with regards to her longstanding battles with depression). Yes, she's earned herself an armful of Grammys and has been damned with faint praise, but if you go easy on the relatively troublesome second-half of Sheryl Crow's 10-year solo career (the poppy optimism of songs like "C'mon C'mon" and "Soak Up the Sun" seems strained), then this decade-acknowledging resumé serves as a reminder of her narrative talents for summarising the pitfalls of burdensome workloads ("Everyday Is a Winding Road") and problematic squeezes ("My Favourite Mistake") within an MTV-friendly pop framework. Questionably, such gems as the James Bond theme "Tomorrow Never Dies" and the US abortion issue commentary of "Hard to Make a Stand" (both sizeable UK hits) have been omitted to make room for three new tracks, two of which, the evangelical "Light in Your Eyes" and the post-9/11 "Let's Get Free" betray the influences of George Harrison and the Beatles. -Kevin Maidment.

Perhaps the most talented "son act" in pop music, Jeff Buckley combined the often harrowing eclecticism of estranged papa Tim Buckley with the rock acrobatics of Robert Plant. This posthumously released collection of four-track demos and sessions helmed by Tom Verlaine indicates that Buckley's astonishing full-length debut, Grace, was no fluke. The young singer-songwriter puts his falsetto to good use on an extraordinary collection of original material, from the soulful "Everybody Wants You" to the psychedelic "Murder Suicide Meteor Slave". And while his bluesy take on Porter Wagoner's "Satisfied Mind" may not be as revelatory as his earlier version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", this album offers ample proof that Buckley was among his generation's most gifted voices. -Bill Forman.

If punk drove virtuosity from rock, Van Halen, with the flashy expertise of their debut LP, and as the stage-stealing support on Black Sabbath's Never Say Die tour, singlehandedly revived it. Main focus was guitarist Edward Van Halen, with his grinning good looks and startlingly fast fingerwork. The chiming, swooping instrumental "Eruption", which he'd often perform spinning on his back, sent a new generation haring down to the guitar shops. This was hard rock as no-holds-barred entertainment. Drummer Alex Van Halen would play with his kit literally in flames. Strutting, super-athletic vocalist David Lee Roth produced sexy, seedy, streetwise lyrics since matched only by Axl Rose from Guns 'n' Roses, but also possessed a pop sensibility that made hits out of "Runnin' With The Devil" and their cover of "You Really Got Me". Glamorous, humorous, heavy but heavily melodic, Van Halen was the high-water mark for 1980's US rock. -Dominic Wills At least half of the songs on Van Halen's eponymous 1978 debut are still considered classics, and the Eddie Van Halen instrumental "Eruption" revolutionised the guitar community by introducing a technique called finger-tapping into the heavy metal lexicon. A magnificent debut for sure, but maybe the band should have held onto a few of their blockbuster tunes to bolster the lean years that started after 1984, and continue to the present day. Regardless, Van Halen amply demonstrate their drive, showmanship, and musicianship throughout, blowing the needle off the scale on such tracks as "You Really Got Me", "Jamie's Cryin'", "Runnin' with the Devil", and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love". [+]

The delicate, folksy Emiliana Torrini you hear on Fisherman's Woman might not be one you know if you heard her previous record, 1999's Love In The Time Of Science. Recorded with Roland Orzabel of Tears For Fears, it was a pleasant enough listen, but did little to distinguish this Italian-Icelandic chanteuse from the trip-hop competition. Fisherman's Woman, however, is quite different: debuting a rustic edge possibly prompted by the acclaim that met "Gollum's Song", a track that Torrini contributed to the score of Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, these tracks harness her gentle, honey-sweet vocals to finger-picked acoustic guitar, gentle wisps of piano, and the chime of xylophone. The work of Nick Drake is a common reference point for music like this, but here it's certainly valid: shades of Pink Moon haunt the perimeter of tracks like "Lifesaver", simultaneously eerie and exquisite in its quiet beauty. The album highlight, meanwhile, comes with "Honeymoon Child" - a track written with Bill Callahan of American lo-fi institution Smog that's as enigmatic - and consequently, as strangely fascinating - as anything he's ever performed himself. -Louis Pattison.

Perhaps the most interesting decade in her career, GHV2 is a selection of the best songs from 1992's Erotica to Music in 2000. Throughout the 1990s, Madonna was well publicised for trying her hand at anything musical together with setting new styles and standards in pop fashion. GHV2 highlights her diversity as it shifts from the "In Bed with Madonna" period with tunes such as "Erotica" and "Deeper & Deeper" to the William Orbit and Mirwais phases of her last two albums by way of the Lloyd Webber musical, Evita. Fans of Music or Ray of Light who were not Madonna fans from back in the day may find the latter half of the album less easy going as it does not possess the quirkiness of her later material nor the cheesy but highly accessible quality of older tunes as featured on the first Greatest Hits, The Immaculate Collection. Nevertheless, there is far more to Madonna than cowboys and ultra-trendy producers; each of the 15 tracks featured here are definitely the pick of her five albums from this golden period. -David Trueman.

Before this astonishing album, Teenage Fanclub had released a couple of pleasant singles and a whole load of generic, indie dishwater. In the middle of 1991, they went into a Liverpool studio, with Don Fleming producing, and emerged with a masterpiece. Bandwagonesque is, of course, hugely derivative-difficult to make a record with two guitars, a bass and drums that isn't. More than a few reviews at the time suggested that Bandwagonesque had gone a step further, into the realm of pastiche and plagiarism, especially in regard to Big Star. Given time, however, it became clear that Bandwagonesque wasn't a problem even on those terms-it was at least as good a Big Star album as Big Star ever made. And on its own merits, Bandwagonesque is so near perfect as to make no odds. It contains stackheeled glam stomps that Slade would have been proud of ("What You Do To Me"), exquisitely lachrymose ballads ("December"), endlessly quotable lyrical couplets ("There's a side of me unknown/Big deal", from "Starsign") and gorgeous, ringing electric guitars and still more gorgeous Byrds-esque vocal harmonies (the whole album). Bandwagonesque is the sort of album that makes you wish you owned a convertible. Utterly unimpeachable, work of genius, etc, and Teenage Fanclub have since made at least three albums which are even better. -Andrew Mueller.

Enjoyment of Rock N Roll-Ryan Adams' follow up to his alt-country hit, Gold-is largely dependant on both your approach to it and your knowledge of rock's rich history. There's definitely plenty to enjoy, if you look in the right places and don't focus so much on others. If you know zilch about music, but love gritty, rough and ready rock with big, fat slices of tunes, crunching guitars and attitude, then this will make you growl. If you loved Gold, but secretly hoped something rockier would emerge after Adams's much publicised socialising with the Strokes and tribute-paying to Noel Gallagher, then this may be your record of the year. However, if you know your stuff, then you may feel uneasy. Not disappointed, but a little cheated. Why? Because, internal record-company politics and artistic tantrums aside, this is more Ryan Adams "In the Style of. " than anything else. [+]