Latin for "common era," Era Vulgaris holds a pair of common threads with the four Queens of the Stone Age records that preceded it. One, it crosses colossal guitar chords with the most volatile of hard rock melodies. And second, it's as loud as loud gets, thanks to Josh Homme, the impatient instigator behind the ever-evolving cast of personalities that make up the band. Detonation comes with track one, as the jagged riffs of "Turning on the Screw" lead the listener into "Sick, Sick, Sick," where Julian Casablancas spews his vocals beneath a wall of multi-guitar catcalls. Although the head Stroke will likely garner the most attention, perpetual Queener Mark Lanegan's velvety pipes earmark two of Era's most booming selections: the funky "Make It Wit Chu" (complete with Temptations-like backing vocals) and the heart-racing three minutes of "River in the Road. " Add the garage rock of Homme's "3's & 7's" and "Suture up Your Future," easy pickings for most likely crossover hit, and Era Vulgaris- hypnotically and explosively common-holds its own with any in the QoTSA discography. -Scott Holter.

One of ZZ Top's great gifts is its concision; even in the side-long-jam era of the 1970s, the Texans almost always fit 10 cuts on their albums. Surveying two decades of their output, Greatest Hits isn't the perfect overview you might expect, but it's still a pretty darn good driving album. The disc goes easy on the pre-Deguello stuff surveyed on their earlier best-of, and seems to digitally boost the drums on tracks like the 1975 "Tush". Still, later cuts like "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide" and "My Head's in Mississippi" are full-on triumphs of this trio's very weird, very blues-drenched sensibility. -Rickey Wright.

As much as any record, CSN's 1969 debut ushered in the early 1970s singer-songwriter boom. Yes, this was a group but it was one made up of three equal composer/vocalists, each with a heady resume-Crosby an ex-Byrd, Stills in Buffalo Springfield, and Nash a former member of the Hollies. Each supplied distinctive material and contributed to CSN's trademark harmonies. The addition of Neil Young made the supergroup an edgier outfit. There's a purity to the original trio recording, however, that would never be recaptured. -Steven Stolder.

The Essential Clash demonstrates once again why the Clash were so much better than any of their punk peers. It is the lasting irony of punk that while the effects of the movement continue to resonate decades later, most of the actual music has dated badly-there is no reason, other than the most desperate nostalgia, why any sane person should wish to subject themselves to the tuneless inanities of, say, Sham 69 or the Lurkers. Even the great singles of the Sex Pistols, perhaps because they encapsulated the time so perfectly, can do little more than remind the listener of 1977. It is a sorry reflection on the period into which this fine double-CD collection has been released that the Clash sound more and more vital from the apocalyptic foreboding of "London Calling" to the resentful sulk of "I'm So Bored with the USA". There is simply nothing wrong with any of this. When Clash frontman Joe Strummer died, aged only 50, in late 2002, much was made of the political conscience he had brandished throughout his career. While he deserved some kudos on this front, it should be remembered that appearing a great thinker in comparison to other rock singers is no great accomplishment. Appearing a great rock singer in comparison to other rock singers is rather more impressive, and this collection is an irrefutable case for the genius of Strummer and the band he led. -Andrew Mueller.

As emblematic of its time as of its sorcerer-like creator, 1967's Are You Experienced? unleashed Jimi Hendrix onto a world in the midst of such cultural and musical shake-ups that it really didn't seem as "far out" as it actually was. It wasn't just Hendrix's virtuosic skill as a pure player that was so impressive; it was, even more, the range and scope of sheer sound that he coaxed, cajoled and ripped out of his instrument. "Purple Haze", "Manic Depression" and "I Don't Live Today" filled ears with indelible sonic images and songs like "Foxey Lady" and "Fire" pointed the way toward a new brand of rock-charged soul music. And how about a hand for drummer Mitch Mitchell? -Billy Altman.

The middle album of the trilogy that includes Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years, Rain Dogs is Waits's best overall effort. The songs are first-rate, and there are a lot of them-19 in all, ranging from grim nightlife memoirs ("9th and Hennepin," "Singapore") to portraits of small-time hustlers ("Gun Street Girl", "Union Square") to bursts of street- corner philosophy ("Blind Love", "Time"). The album also contains the original version of "Downtown Train", which Rod Stewart turned into a smash hit. The image of "rain dogs"-animals who've lost their way home because the rain has washed away their scent-is an appropriate symbol for the entire cast of characters Waits has brought to life over the years, and this album has thus far proved to be his most enduring effort. -Daniel Durchholz.

About as complete a selection of fan and artist favourites as any single-disc Bruce collection could be, this is a surprisingly coherent listen given the many stylistic and attitudinal shifts it charts. The inclusion of only four of Born in the U. S. A. 's obvious hits leaves space for less obvious choices like "Atlantic City" and four new cuts, among them songs recorded by a briefly reunited E Street Band. The pace lags a bit near the end-"Secret Garden" is turgid enough to take its place on a Sting album-but Greatest Hits earns its place in the CD player with stuff like "Born to Run," "The River" and "Dancing in the Dark. " -Rickey Wright.

Echoes is a double-CD collection of some of Pink Floyd's best songs; it's also an interesting document of the band's history. They began life as Syd Barrett's mandrax-flavoured nursery-rhymers-gnomes, scarecrows, cats and bikes a speciality-before clasping the wings of Icarus and ascending towards the sun on an epic space-rock odyssey, eventually turning left once they reached the dark side of the moon and burning up on re-entry, crash-landing on every earthlings' home hi-fi with the imperious but seething embitterment of their (or more pertinently, Roger Waters') pomp rock; the sociological (Animals), totalitarianism (The Wall) and World War (The Final Cut). And it's all here-30 years of the Floyd's awesome back catalogue trimmed down to two handsome CDs. It is worth reiterating that, despite a fondness for pyrotechnics (and fittingly-and perhaps deliberately-the album was released on November 5th), Pink Floyd were never a prog-rock band. Sure, some of their songs were a bit long, and they never released singles (at least not for 11 years), but the same could be said for Led Zeppelin. Clinically devoid of the cod-classical overtures and vainglorious musicianship of that era, Pink Floyd were a pole apart; Meddle's epic maritime tone-poem "Echoes" remains The Floyds' apogee. But here, on this collection, "the albatross" which "hangs motionless upon the air" has had its wings clipped-seven full minutes are missing, but you'd never be able to tell. The sonar bleeps, the screeching seagulls, the howling winds are all retained and whoever wielded the editorial axe did so carefully, Eugene. Interestingly, the non-chronological track listing works-the summery, childhood enchantment of "See Emily Play" timetabled right next to the square-bashing school discipline of "Happiest Days Of Our Lives"-and at least this way no-one will switch off when material from "A Momentary Lapse in Reason" comes around. Despite the curious omission of "Atom Heart Mother", this really is the very best of the Floyd-from the throbbing "One Of These Days" (conceived as an attack on disc jockey Jimmy Young), to the pop operatic "Great Gig In The Sky" and the genius silvery fluidity of Dave Gilmour's guitar work. [+]

"I may be hungry, but I sure ain't weird," Don Van Vliet, a. k. a. Captain Beefheart, famously intones on this bright-sounding re-mastered version of the 1967 debut by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band. Safe as Milk is a bold, tough-ass distillation of Delta blues stomp and 1960s garage-punk swagger, fused with a radically polyrhythmic and tempo-shifting style that one might term "art rock". Listening to the delightfully playful, absurdist "Abba Zabba", it's easy to see why Lester Bangs called Beefheart "the only true dadaist in rock"; the song is a good indication of the intricate, rule-breaking music the Magic Band would continue to hone. But there are also formidable ballads (the psychedelic "Autumn's Child", the lachrymose "I'm Glad"), mid-tempo pop-soul tunes (the Otis Redding-ish "Call on Me"), and straight-ahead blues-rock workouts ("Plastic Factory"), all of which showcase the fretwork of a young Ry Cooder. Much has been made of Beefheart's multiple-octave vocal range; he sings menacingly on "Dropout Boogie" and allegedly broke a very expensive microphone on the eerie "Electricity". The last seven tracks on this reissue (for the most part fascinating, unfinished instrumentals) were recorded with a different line-up; they are outtakes from Mirror Man Sessions. -Mike McGonigal.

Unplugged was the last collection recorded by Nirvana before the untimely death of Kurt Cobain and it caught many by surprise. As a testament to the group's live dynamic in a acoustic setting, it's a fantastic document that emphasises the nuances of one of the greatest bands of recent times. Cobain singing "I swear I don't have a gun, I don't have a gun" with clenched teeth instead of a loud howl is a revelation as is the subtle guitar playing on the haunting "About a Girl", from their earliest LP. Highlights include covers of three Meat Puppets tracks (featuring special guests Curt and Kris Kirkwood of that influential "college rock" band), the weepy cello on the Vaselines' "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" and their cover of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World". -Lorry Fleming.