You can always rely on Danny Boyle's movies to have decent music and The Beach doesn't disappoint even if it's unlikely to connect as extensively as the Trainspotting soundtrack. Musical co-ordinator Pete Tong has pulled out all the stops to secure exclusive tracks from major artists, and no less than seven of the numbers here have never been released before, while those that have-including UNKLE's desolate Lonely Soul with Richard Ashcroft, Barry Adamson's paranoiac Vietnam dream sequence Richard, It's Business As Usual and Moby's beats lullaby "Porcelain" from Play-are of the highest class. The new material doesn't disappoint either. Leftfield open up the album with some whiplash drums, Underworld make their customary contribution playing down frantic beats in favour of the jogging mantra "8 Ball", All Saints enjoy their best-ever moment parading along the sunkissed "Pure Shores" with William Orbit, and Sugar Ray rerecord Brian Eno and John Cale's gossamer pop number Spinning Away. Elsewhere New Order provide their first new music since the release of Republic with "Brutal", a trademark number with production from Rollo who returns with Faithless on the bubbling, mesmeric standout "Woozy". Orbital close the package with their pumped up interpretation of the Angelo Badalamenti score complete with snippets of Leonardo DiCaprio's dialogue. Life's The Beach, then you die. -Mike Pattenden.

Blame Tricky and Portishead. They started this whole Bristol sound thing, with sleepy techno beats overshadowed by the chirrupy vocals of some slumberland chanteuse. And, just when you think the approach has lost all its steam, all its relevance, along comes a new outfit to make the music a few degrees sleepier and the singing a tad more dreamy. And singers don't come any dreamier than Skye Edwards, whose lissom trill infuses every track on this sophomore outing with a tranquil ennui. You don't jump around to Morcheeba numbers like "The Sea". You sit back and let them creep up on you, as steady as the tides. -Tom Lanham.

45. 33 might well confuse some of the music purists convinced that great art and commerce must never mix. This 45-minute suite of music, you see, is the result of a commission from sportswear company Nike, who hired LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy to write music to accompany the perfect exercise workout. Murphy, perhaps aware that the gradual, building tempo and euphoric highs of a great run could be seen to closely mirror the dancefloor dynamic of a great DJ set, agreed, and the result is perhaps the most synthetic, funky, altogether club-like records to appear under the LCD name to date. Commencing with rising analogue synth notes, the piece shuffles into life on a sultry Studio 54 tip, a mid-tempo disco beat decorated with handclaps, euphoric piano, and soulful vocals. Before long, though, it's shifting and mixing, first through an alternate instrumental cut of "Something Great" (which would later appear in full on LCD's 2007 album Sound of Silver) then through phases of kosmiche electronica, velvety soul, and brass freak-outs-all intent on keeping the tempo pumping. Also included on this CD issue of 45. 33 is three bonus tracks, the conga-tapping "Freak Out/Starry Eyes", a bleepy, dubbed-out mix of "North American Scum", and the bouncy bass grooves of "Hippie Priest Bum-Out". -Louis Pattison.

"No-one Ever Really Dies" according to hip-hop uber-producers The Neptunes (aka Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo), who have reincarnated themselves (along with singing high school pal, Shay) as N*E*R*D, a crew of buddhist gang-bangers. And if that sounds like a contradiction too hard to reconcile, then you may just be right. In Search Of kicks off with N*E*R*Ds signature tune, "Lapdance", which purports to contain a socially conscious message but works best as a lascivious blast of brainless bump and grind that the group are hard pushed to better. As their moniker suggests, there's something distinctly awkward about these guys. Although more than competent musically, lyrically much of "In Search Of" sounds as if they're trying too hard to be different. To level his karma after "Lapdance", Shay feels compelled to blurt out "I just want your brain" to a prospective partner (on "Brain"). On "Provider", he attempts to soften his street-hustling activities by insisting to his boo that her welfare is his primary concern. The geek humour of the between-song skits falls completely flat. But when all fails they simply return to the tried and true. The insistent bassline of "Lapdance" reprises on "Truth Or Dare", along with stark dramatic strings and a guest vocal from Kelis. [+]

Is it possible to sound like you're having more fun than The Go! Team? Probably not, going on Proof of Youth, the second album from Brighton's brightest pop experimentalists. As on its predecessor, 2004's Thunder, Lightning, Strike, the eleven songs of Proof of Youth burst out your speakers like tangy pop bubblegum, but on closer inspection, suggest a broader, braver web of influences; many bands can remind you of the chirpy soul singalongs of The Jackson 5, the metallic guitar clang of Sonic Youth, or the cut-and-paste sonic collages of Public Enemy's The Bomb Squad, but only one can do it in a single song. "Grip Like a Vice" and "Titanic Vandalism" prove The Go! Team template is present and correct, joyful melanges of car-chase horns, double dutch vocals, melodic guitar, and crowd-hyping rapping from MC/cheerleader Ninja. But there's more here than formula. "My World" is a simple, pretty interlude of acoustic guitar, shaker, and synthesiser straight from some Look Around You-style 1980s science show, "I Never Needed It Now So Much" is a naïve pop song featuring vocals from Solex, and the glorious "Flashlight Fight" is a Public Enemy pastiche that actually features Chuck D. Skill. -Louis Pattison.

Before music journalists were throwing around terms like "drum & bass" or jungle, the Prodigy's Liam Howlett was creating high-energy dance music by marrying sampled, pitch-shifted beats to all manner of electronic timbres. This album has it all: complicated break beats, housey piano riffs, lush analog pads, frenetic and computeresque melodies, and subsonic bass. In fact, the mélange is so dense that the material demands full attention and repeated listenings to gain a complete understanding of the rhythmic interplay. -Michael A. Massa.

Like its predecessors, Kenny G's Breathless is a collection of tuneful, easy-listening instrumentals baited with a couple of pop-soul vocal numbers. This album is built on Kenny G's most obvious strengths: his knack for writing hummable pop hooks and his ability to play those radio-friendly melodies in a breathy, fluid style that invites the listener to lie back and relax. When it comes to background music that's slightly catchier and peppier than most new age music, Kenny G is a master of his genre. The titles of Kenny G's instrumentals on are a good clue to his approach: "Sentimental", "The Joy of Life", "Forever in Love" and "The Wedding Song". Sentimental, in the sense of simplifying life to a set of comfortable feelings, is a good adjective for Kenny G's music, for even his wordless instrumentals push the listener's warm glow buttons while ignoring anything more complicated. The saxophonist himself programmed many of the drum, bass and keyboard parts on Breathless, contributing to the sense that everything's running on autopilot. -Geoffrey Himes.