The glory days of Led Zeppelin are chronicled comprehensively in Volume I, which leaves this package (covering the years between 1973 and 1979) with less of the obvious crowd-pleasers; but, 30 years on, it still succeeds as a potent reminder of just how powerful Zeppelin were at their zenith. Taken from the band's final four albums, the songs here-"No Quarter", "Houses Of the Holy", "Song Remains The Same"-brought audiences to their feet in stadiums across the world while the Zeppelin juggernaut trampled all competition underfoot. And, as with the first volume, there is the bonus of an enhanced track: a CD-ROM performance of one of the band's best-ever songs, "Kashmir", from their legendary 1975 Earl's Court shows. Zeppelin defined heavy metal and hard rock, but were also capable of a delicacy which sometimes gets overlooked, and if there was a criticism it would be that this dimension is missing from the picture of Zep offered here. Otherwise, these two companion volumes offer a rewarding introduction to Led Zeppelin. -Patrick Humphries.

Axis: Bold As Love, Hendrix's second album, doesn't resonate through rock history the way its gatecrashing predecessor, Are You Experienced? did. In places, it almost seems as if Hendrix is cruising, albeit sublimely. Yet it's nonetheless a vital album, containing some of rock's most molten milestones. There's the fluid psychedelia of "Castles in The Sand", the viciously funky "Little Miss Lover" and the so-beautiful-it-hurts "Little Wing. " Hendrix really hits altitude with "If 6 Was 9", where he waves his "freak flag high" over a tidal wave of guitar and a cacophonous army of Moroccan flutes-and "Bold As Love", based around Hendrix's typically far-fetched hankering for the axis of the planet to be tilted, thereby transforming life on earth. It works up into a head-melting frenzy of distorted guitar, a precursor to the staggeringly expansive leap forward he would take with 1968's Electric Ladyland. Hendrix dreamed the impossible and achieved it on his guitar. -David Stubbs.

Ever in pursuit of Americana beyond the mainstream (and generally from a southerly direction), guitarist Ry Cooder teams up in Mambo Sinuendo with legendary Cuban guitarist Manuel Galban. The session was inspired by the marriage of mambo and American pop that was spawned by Cuban composer Perez Prado in the 1950s, but Cooder and Galban seek a fresh perspective by setting the style for electric guitars. There are actually powerful reminders here of Marc Ribot Y Los Cubanos Postizos (1998) in which guitarist Marc Ribot paid tribute to veteran Cuban composer Arsenio Rodriguez. So, the sound may not be that novel, but by mixing the crisp, glassy tones of Fender Stratocasters with heavy mambo rhythms, Cooder and Galban produce an atmospheric evocation of the hazy intersection between north and south America. Cooder and Galban are technically far less ambitious than Ribot, and the guitar playing, like the album as a whole, has a rough, untutored feel. This may be contrived-Cooder and Galban have been at the guitar for many years-but the sense of amateurism adds to the folksy atmosphere and, effortful or not, they produce much attractive playing. Among the highlights are some shimmering false harmonic work on "Dru Me Negrita" and some barking chord fills on "Patricia" that recall Django Reinhardt at his most visceral. The band (also featuring Jim Keltner, Orlando "Cachaito" López, Joachim Cooder and Angá Diaz) builds up an exciting head of steam on the highlife-flavoured "Monte A Dentro", even if the track fades just as it should intensify. In fact, if the album has any shortcoming, it is a tendency occasionally to under-develop its material. The cynical may suspect Cooder's motives in following his mega-selling Buena Vista Social Club with another Cuban-based album. [+]

Soul and r&b legend Ray Charles may not have lived to see the success of Hollywood's ultimate tribute to him, but director Taylor Hackford's biopic (featuring a landmark performance by Jamie Foxx as the musical legend) will further burnish his legacy as one of the cornerstones of contemporary American music. Though it stretches from 1953's ecstatic, proto-soul "Mess Around" to a sublime, bluesy live take of "Georgia On My Mind" recorded in Japan in the mid-70's, this 17-track song-score can only be an inviting appetizer to the singer's epochal body of work. Charles' artistry may have virtually defined soul music itself, yet it also triumphed in genres as far afield as blues blues ("Nightime is the Right Time") and country ("I Can't Stop Loving You," "Bye Bye Love") during the 60's, the impossibly rich era from which the bulk of this soundtrack is culled. Crucially, fully a third of the cuts here are live recordings - including electrifying 1965 performances of "What'd I Say," "You Don't Know Me" and "Hallelujah I Love Her So" hand-picked for the film by Charles himself - the forum in which the singer consistently operated on a whole other artistic plateau from mere mortals. - Jerry McCulley.

There may be no music more appropriate for a long hot evening than the sleepy-time-down-South singing and guitar playing of J J Cale. Several of the songs on Live, which was recorded at various venues in the USA and Europe between 1990 and 1996, are from the distant backwaters of his catalogue: "After Midnight", "Call Me The Breeze" and "Magnolia" go back all the way to his 1972 debut album, Naturally; "Cocaine" and "Ride Me High" to 1976's Troubadour; "Sensitive Kind" and "Thirteen Days" to 1979's 5. Over the years Cale has tinkered with them a little but their essential feel is seldom changed. Indeed, they sometimes sound even more spacious and pastoral. These concert recordings, though presenting Cale for the most part in band settings, focus so tightly on the leader that you are hardly aware of anyone else: just those long-drawn-out guitar phrases twisting in the air like twirls of smoke from a summer night's barbecue. -Tony Russell.

Guitarist and vocalist Keb' Mo' seems to be continuing in the direction suggested by his previous album, Just Like You, with this release. That is to say, mixed in with the country-blues style that dominated his self-titled debut are elements of soul, R&B, and rock (the opening "Muddy Water" sounds, in Keb' Mo's hands, a great deal like the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Woman"). When this works, as it does on Slow Down's title track, it works very, very well. Some of the ballads, though, sound a little bland, and when the album returns to the tight, rock-inflected "Soon As I Get Paid" or the funky "A Letter to Tracy", it's refreshing. The real treats, however, come late in the album. With "Love in Vain" and "God Trying to Get Your Attention", Mo' gets down to the roots, and the sheer simplicity of the closing "I'm Telling You Now" is nothing short of beautiful, allowing Mo's considerable talent as a singer and guitarist to shine through. -Genevieve Williams.