His career currently on a roll, Magic reunites the Boss with employees, the E Street Band and it is terrific-a highlight in a long and illustrious catalogue. Brash and noisy and a lot of fun, Magic is packed with great, thoughtful songs. The stately "Your Own Worst Enemy" sounds full yet eschews histrionics, the atmospheric "Gypsy Biker' has a strong melody to match, first single "Radio Nowhere" is an unlikely country-rock thrash and "Livin' in the Future" has all the swing of "Cover Me", but without the drawback of dated production. In fact much of Magic nails that old Phil Spector trick of cramming a lot of blokes (and birds) into a small room, and getting them to play simultaneously. Given that the E Street Band are big blokes these days, the effect is magnified. Not only does Springsteen successfully recapture a sound that once seemed exotic, the same can be said of lyrics such as "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" and "Long Walk Home", rueful and distant and all the more believable than the evocative yet lifeless mini-film scenarios he once specialised in. The Sopranos has redefined the image of New Jersey over the last decade (Bruce and band even pose like a mob in their clubhouse, especially Steve Van Zandt), but Springsteen has reclaimed local pre-eminence with this excellent collection. Pulling off the rare combination of excitement and maturity, the grown-ups are really having a good time. -Steve Jelbert.

New Age diva Enya first became widely known when her 1988 album Watermark sold 4 million copies and launched the single "Orinoco Flow". Her follow-up, Shepherd Moons, was even more successful, selling over 10 million copies despite its slightly lower grade of ethereal enchantment. In 1997 she released Paint the Sky with Stars, an assortment of her best work from these two early albums plus gems from 1995's The Memory of Trees and the soundtrack to the BBC series The Celts. The most melodic and atmospheric examples of Enya's lovely Celtic-flavoured songwriting shine on this disc. Those unfamiliar with the former Clannad member will find charm in such sweet lullabies as "Marble Halls" and "China Roses" while delighting in the more energetic "Book of Days", "Storms in Africa" and "Caribbean Blue". Overall, an outstanding collection from an artist who gives New Age a good name. -Karen Karleski.

The Beatles' last days as a band were as productive as any major pop phenomenon that was about to split. After recording the ragged-but-right Let It Be, the group held on for this ambitious effort, an album that was to become their best-selling. Though all four contribute to the first side's writing, John Lennon's hard-rocking, "Come Together" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" make the strongest impression. A series of song fragments edited together in suite form dominates side two; its portentous, touching, official close ("Golden Slumbers" / "Carry That Weight" / "The End") is nicely undercut, in typical Beatles fashion, by Paul McCartney's cheeky "Her Majesty", which follows. -Rickey Wright.

The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac? Frankly, it depends where you live, in a sort of "I say tom-ar-toe, you say toe-may-doe" kind of way. Broadly speaking, the most notably interesting (and commercially successful) periods of Fleetwood Mac's episodic history remain the grubby blues of the original Peter Green-led incarnation of the late 1960s (big in Britain but a non-entity in America) and the refined, mid-1970s divorce-dissecting AOR of the Buckingham / Nicks Rumours era (big everywhere). It is fairly safe to assume that neither British nor American passport-holders are particularly interested in what happened in between. So then, the UK retail version of The Very Best of rightly condescends to throw in such Peter Green classics as the instrumental "Albatross" (a Number One single) and "Black Magic Woman" but-and here's the gripe-omits both "On Well" and "Green Manalishi" in favour of such peripherals as the less-than-spectacular 1988 Number 54 hit "Family Man". It could be worse. The American Very Best of (unlike its British counterpart, a two-CD set available on import) incredulously neglects to include anything from the Peter Green line-up at all, not even the sulky brooding of the sensuous "Man of the World" (possibly the finest song ever written), a little matter that American audiences ought to find time to raise with the United Nations. Still, there can be no quarrel with most of what is on here, after all, there's a sizeable chunk from the Lazarus-style comeback of Tango in the Night and the multi-platinum Rumours(the gossamer-like timelessness of "Dreams" even managing to withstand a recent faux-folky mauling from the Corrs) it's just that there isn't enough of it. Can someone please hurry up and make CDs that play for two hours? -Kevin Maidment.

Songs in the Key of Life was the highest high-point of Stevie Wonder's career. More sprawling than Innervisions and Talking Book, this 2 LP-plus-EP was also less of a consistent stunner than either of those masterworks. That Songs retains an enormous amount of visionary relevance, though, is demonstrated not only in Coolio's borrowing of "Pastime Paradise" as a template for "Gangsta's Paradise", but in the cold-as-ice synthesized string quartet of "Village Ghetto Land". This is Stevie, so naturally that cut's anger is balanced by the ultra-buoyant "I Wish," "Sir Duke", and "Another Star". -Rickey Wright.

This set surveys all of Stevens's stages, from the orchestrated late-1960s sides through his early-'70s peak to his more eclectic late-1970s experiments. Following the progression makes for an interesting endeavor as Stevens learns to harness his ambitious ideas with arrangements that don't obscure his rhapsodic messages. Few artists of his generation were more gifted when it came to plucking timeless melodies out of thin air, and his sumptuous voice was always able to movingly convey his bittersweet lyrics. As a career overview this set achieves its goal, hitting all of the chart successes along the way and basically defining his role as a sensitive '70s singer-songwriter, but some fans may opt for the classic early-'70s studio records, which find Stevens at his most consistently touching. -Marc Greilsamer.

If film and music fans sometimes wonder why soundtracks are often little more than pastiches of past pop hits and chart flavors of the moment, it's largely due to the blockbuster success of releases like this collection from 1987's surprise Patrick Swayze/Jennifer Grey romantic hit. The film's retro-romantic concerns came shrewdly wrapped in a (largely manufactured) dance craze conceit tailor-made for such pop chestnuts as the Ronettes' "Be My Baby," the Zodiacs' "Stay," and the Five Satins' "In the Still of the Night. " Mickey and Sylvia once again argued that "Love Is Strange"-if not quite as strained as Swayze's own attempt at balladry, "She's Like the Wind. " Eric Carmen's "Hungry Eyes" showcased the former Raspberries leader to good effect, but the real soundtrack sweepstakes winner here was the Jennifer Warnes/Bill Medley duet "(I've Had) The Time of My Life. " That performance not only won the Best Original Song Oscar the following year, but became one of the era's most performed songs and a ubiquitous radio staple. -Jerry McCulley.

M!ssundaztood is the follow-up to Pink's platinum selling debut. On Can't Take Me Home Pink established herself as one of the biggest R&B/pop acts of 2000; a status she later confirmed by stealing the limelight from fellow divas-with-attitude Missy Elliott, Mya and Christina Aguilera on their No. 1 cover of "Lady Marmalade". M!ssundaztood, however, reveals an ambition that extends far beyond the massed ranks of R&B's feisty female fraternity. Pink wants to be a pop star, pure and simple. Consequently, as well as the tried and tested R&B groove of first single "Get The Party Started" and funky hip-hop of "Respect", she adds a random yet brilliant selection of full-blown radio rock ("18 Wheeler", "Numb"), sassy pop ("M!ssundaztood") and emotionally charged laments ("Dear Diary", "Family Portrait", "Eventually"). Stylistically confused as it is- "Misery", a woozy bar room blues duet with Aerosmith's Steven Tyler is perhaps the most out of character-with some great tunes and a voice just as capable of fragile emotion as it is attitude, she somehow manages to pull it off. -Dan Gennoe.

After labouring in Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Neil Young finally hit perfect pitch-if his endearing off-centre whine can be called "perfect"-with his third album. He's equally passionate with trippy riddles (has anybody figured out what "We've got mother nature on the run" means in the title track?) and pointed protest (after 30 years of rock-radio overplay, "Southern Man" still rings with truth about redneck racism). His creaky ensemble, including pianist Jack Nitzsche and rotating members of Crazy Horse, transforms ramshackle country and folk songs into soulful hippie hymns. -Steve Knopper.

One of the defining moments of the 1990s, despite happening at the start of the decade. The guitars start jittering, then "BOOMA-ABOOMA-ABOOMA-ABOOM!", the drums kick in and grunge splatters itself all over a generation of MTV viewers. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" will surely always speak to alienated teenagers, while giving them something to thrash around their rooms to, kicking the whole thing off as it means to go on. "Come As You Are" is dark and twisted, while "Lithium" and "In Bloom" show Kurt Cobain's often overlooked sense of humour, and "Stay Away" highlights the best way to shred your vocal chords. It's nigh-impossible not to love this album, and it will remain Nirvana's most affectionately remembered work. It's just a shame that a misplaced sense of "selling out" (stupid term if ever there was one) led to such an internal rejection of ". Teen Spirit". A work of genius, no question. [+]

Jack Johnson's 5th studio album has been highly anticipated, not only because it's been a while since his last recording (In Between Dreams), but also because it's his first 'electric' (as in guitar) album. But despite being co-produced by JP Plunier-the man that produces Ben Harper and the mastermind behind Brushfire Fairytales-specifically to shake things up, Sleep Through the Static isn't that much of a departure after all. The mix of mellow sing-a-longs and slacker ballads are very much in line with earlier work, even if they do feel a little more mature and come with piano flourishes by new band member Zach Gill. The new maturity is evident not only in Johnson's lyrics, which deal with everything from his new life as a father to the Iraq war, but also from the song arrangements, which foreswear the bigger hooks of previous albums for a more even flow. If that sounds like the album fails to push the envelope musically, it should. The songs here are consistently good, but they're not groundbreaking. It might feel to some like an opportunity missed; but on the other hand Sleep Through The Static is full of what Johnson does best: easy-going campfire songs infused with that eternal stoner-slacker spirit. -Paul Sullivan.

In the liner notes of Sloe Gin, emerging guitar great Joe Bonamassa explains that one of his objectives is to experiment with acoustic elements he first encountered while listening to Rod Stewart's earliest work. "I think the heavy blues and acoustic mix well together," he writes, and the inviting variety of the disc's 11 tracks-from the rousing electric rave-up of the title track to the closing, tabla-propelled acoustic instrumental-persuasively underscores his point. Bonamassa is a major talent with a growing following, and as his fan base inevitably expands it may become difficult for him to keep everyone happy. Hardcore blues devotees no doubt will yearn for Bonamassa to stay perpetually plugged in, but in the long term that would be a disservice to his broad range of skills. Bonamassa rocks formidably and convincingly on "Dirt in My Pocket" (a bristling original composition), the title track (well suited for air guitar), and his Clapton-esque rendering of John Mayall's "Another Kind of Love. " Yet his softer works suggest that he sounds a little more comfortable and natural-vocally, at least-on the acoustic tracks. His retooled version of "Around the Bend" (his first take on this original composition is found on an earlier release) is an engaging, pastoral gem, and his paean to his upstate New York home ("Richmond") is perhaps this disc's most memorable selection. Bonamassa knows the blues (at the time of this release, he was the youngest member on the board of the Blues Foundation), but he also knows how to rock and how to sagaciously, artfully ease off the gas. -Terry Wood.

Any good singer can interpret a song, but it takes a stylist to make it his own. James Taylor is a stylist. You've Got a Friend obviously can't chronicle much more than the hits and high points of Taylor's career, but it nonetheless captures the artistic essence of a performer who's become a virtual synonym for "singer-songwriter" since his emergence in the late 1960s. A lot of ink has been spilled ruminating about Taylor's role in soothing a 60s-burned generation, but given his own well-known demons (depression, addiction) his gentle voice often sounds like the physician wisely healing himself. His muse seems fully formed from the opening "Something in the Way She Moves", a track cut for the Beatles' Apple label in late 1968 (and one that seems to share some symbiotic relationship with George Harrison's own classic "Something" from the period), its tone at once familiar and inviting-if ripe for a few decades of parody-as it wends its way from his seminal early-1970s hits through a slate of later originals, R&B ("How Sweet It Is", "Handy Man") and pop ("Up on the Roof") covers. Tellingly, he delivers those chestnuts with an offhand confidence and illumination that makes them his own, a sense that informs even his jazz and Brazilian ("Only a Dream a Rio") flirtations. The set's newly recorded bonus cut, John Sheldon's "Bittersweet", is a pleasant pop confection that showcases Taylor's knack for being laconic and upbeat in the same breath. -Jerry McCulley.

Since 2002's jaunty Waiting for My Rocket to Come, Jason Mraz has developed into a more mature, well-rounded pop artist. We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things is his most multi-dimensional work yet, covering everything from groove-based material to ballads. While tracks such as "Make It Mine" and "Butterfly" refer back to the catchy style of previous albums, there are many other styles and textures on display here. His duet with Colbie Caillat, "Lucky," for example, explores his folkish, acoustic side, as does the compelling "Details in the Fabric," both of which are excellent songs. Mraz gets a little more experimental on "Coyotes," which toys with a clubby electronica and strangely seems to work, and on "The Dynamo of Volition" for which he employs a hectic, rapping-style of vocal over a typically contagious rhythm. His ballads, such as "Love For A Child", "If It Kills Me" and "Beautiful Mess" (these last two saved for the end) show a more sensitive side; and even when his lyrics are occasionally clumsy, Mraz manages to make his point in an emotive way. Easy-going and sunny, but with laudable elements of depth and innovation, this is Mraz at his best so far. -Danny McKenna.