Mere months passed between the release of Neil Young's mid-career milestone Rust Never Sleeps and this 1979 tour recording, which documents a late-'78 San Francisco performance. Indeed, Live Rust boasts four songs from the album that gave it its name. It's also sequenced in the same spirit as its studio sibling. As with Rust Never Sleeps, Live Rust opens with steady-flowing acoustic numbers before swirling into an electric vortex. What was side four of the original two-record version-"Like a Hurricane", "Hey, Hey, My, My", and "Tonight's the Night"-is arguably Young and Crazy Horse at their peak as a live unit, with all due respect to 1991's estimable Weld and 1997's desultory Year of the Horse. Few rock bands rank with Young and his stalwart electric trio, and Live Rust presents them in all their raging glory. -Steven Stolder.

Back in the World is a collection of Paul McCartney's performances from his 2002 world tour. Critics may quibble over the creative roller coaster that's been Sir Paul's post-Beatles solo career, but few can deny his status as one of rock's most buoyant live performers and consistent crowd pleasers. That drive to stake his claim onstage (said to be one of the factors that drove the Fabs to dissolution) energises this otherwise largely backward-looking collection; fully two-thirds of the double-disc's 35 tracks hail from the Beatles catalogue, with the rest slanted toward early solo-career standouts such as "Jet", "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "My Love". But Macca and his focused backing quartet deliver them with a punchy edge and sense of abandon that's largely MIA on previous McCartney live releases. Other than pausing for tributes to his fallen comrades ("Here Today", a solo acoustic paean to John Lennon followed by a touching, ukulele-backed nod to George Harrison with "Something"), it's largely a rollicking career retrospective from a musician whose restless drive to perform invests this collection with something more than mere nostalgia. The singer who invoked Bach at 22 may still refuse to act his age, but here that's not a bad thing at all. -Jerry McCulley.

There is always cause for concern when a promising new artist follows up a solid debut with a live album rehashing all the same material. After seeing Erykah Badu steal the "Smokin Grooves Tour" in the summer of 1996, however, it only makes sense that her record company decided to release Live as a stopgap between her next studio recording. To put it mildly, the Badu live experience is anything but typical. There is a kindred bond between the singer and her audiences which translates wonderfully onto the disc. It's in the warmth of the songs, the intimacy with which Badu addresses the crowd, and the constant chants of "Erykah!" emanating from the masses. For her part, Badu does a wonderful job revisiting the material from her superb debut Baduizm. She also takes on an assortment of covers, ranging from Roy Ayers's "Searching" to the Mary Jane Girls' "All Night Long", making each one sound distinctly her own. The most captivating moment, though, is a new number called "Tyrone", in which she most eloquently tells a dense boyfriend to take a hike. -Aidin Vaziri.

Culled from the two Madison Square Garden shows that closed out the revived E Street Band's 1999-2000 tour, the 19 songs on Live In New York City deftly entwine fan favourites with fresher material, including two new offerings, the stately "Land of Hope and Dreams" and the solemn "American Skin"-the latter prompted by the shooting of unarmed New Yorker Amadou Diallo by police officers. When Springsteen and company (including both Miami Steve Van Zandt and his successor, Nils Lofgren, on guitar) look back, they temper the force of the original arrangements with ingenuity and a sense of spacing. The E Street Band in their heyday may have served up four-hour marathons, but they felt stopwatch-tight. Here Springsteen reconciles his rocker and reflective sides as "The River" curves along through a serpentine course, "Mansion on the Hill" is given a curious (albeit lovely) Hawaiian treatment and "Born in the U. S. A. " resurfaces as a deep-blues lament. The gang can still muster a take-no-prisoners attack, as witnessed by the hard-charging likes of "Two Hearts" and "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out". -Steven Stolder.

The Who: Live at the Royal Albert Hall commemorates a remarkable charity gig in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. Roger Daltrey does allow himself a smirk as he declaims his famous hope that he'll die before he gets old, but other than that, The Who are to be commended for playing their reunion entirely straight. Their souped-up rhythm'n'blues was always propelled by a self-belief as fervent as it was absolute; had any irony been allowed to impinge on proceedings here, the spectacle of three men well into their 50s delivering a set of what remain definitive hymns to youth and its attendant furies would have been wholly preposterous. As it is, the three surviving members of The Who (Daltrey, Pete Townshend, Jon Entwhistle) combine with keyboardist John Bundrick and drummer Zak Starkey (son of Ringo Starr) to altogether engaging effect. There is, obviously, nothing wrong with the songs "Pinball Wizard", "The Kids Are Alright", "You Better You Bet", and they all get the treatment they deserve here. In fact, the only downsides are the many guest performances, which are either redundant, like Noel Gallagher's rhythm guitar on "Won't Get Fooled Again", or actually detrimental, like Kelly Jones' dreadful braying of "Substitute". -Andrew Mueller.

Recorded during a 1994 European tour, this solid and satisfying collection finds the Weller band jamming in a comfortable, early-1970s rock groove that's light years removed from what he did with either The Jam or Style Council. -Jeff Bateman.

It's the rarest of live albums whose songs add anything to the majesty of the original studio recordings. This one adds immeasurable data to the Velvet's story. Without 1969: Live we might never have known that they were more than just an art outfit, that they could actually rock with fury. Check out Reed's strumming on "What Goes On" if you want to have your mind blown. None of these staples of the V. U. catalogue can be truly known without hearing these fully formed, fleshed-out versions, so for history's sake alone we must treasure this. History's tragedy of course is that we get to hear the excruciatingly light applause-it sounds like there's only 10 people in the room at some points-after each course in ass kicking. They were wrongly under-appreciated in their time, and for this we must all pay forever by playing this record constantly. -Gene Booth.

Oh, the title wasn't quite as apocalyptic as all that: after Farewell To The World, their final concert together as Crowded House, New Zealand brothers Neil and Tim Finn continued to make music, sometimes even together as The Finn Brothers. For fans, though, this 24-song set - recorded at the Sydney Opera House in front of 100,000 people - should stand head and shoulders above the band's extensive back catalogue of bootleg live recordings. The hits, as you might expect, are present - "Four Seasons In One Day", "Fall At Your Feet", and what's perhaps the group's finest moment, a kaleidoscopic "Pineapple Head". (Less expected is a bit of X-rated onstage banter, which finds drummer Paul Hester claiming to have "deposited a bit of sperm in Sydney town from time to time" - nice!). Elsewhere, the band show off their admirable chops, "Hole In The River" branching off into the sort of jazzy, prog-tinged instrumental break that'd shame most jam bands. From start 'til finish, though, they've got the crowd in the palm of their hands, right through to a tearful, valedictory "Don't Dream It's Over". - Louis Pattison Oh, the title wasn't quite as apocalyptic as all that: after Farewell To The World, their final concert together as Crowded House, New Zealand brothers Neil and Tim Finn continued to make music, sometimes even together as The Finn Brothers. For fans, though, this 24-song set - recorded at the Sydney Opera House in front of 100,000 people - should stand head and shoulders above the band's extensive back catalogue of bootleg live recordings. The hits, as you might expect, are present - "Four Seasons In One Day", "Fall At Your Feet", and what's perhaps the group's finest moment, a kaleidoscopic "Pineapple Head". (Less expected is a bit of X-rated onstage banter, which finds drummer Paul Hester claiming to have "deposited a bit of sperm in Sydney town from time to time" - nice!). [+]

An astonishing reminder of exactly why the Clash were once considered to be the greatest rock & roll band in the world, From Here To Eternity follows the band from the humble stage of London's Music Machine to New York's Shea Stadium enormo-dome. Along the way, the band steadily gravitate from rough and ready punks to fully-fledged, international rock icons. Their artistic remit swiftly expands from the three chord cavalry charge of their eponymous debut ("What's My Name") through London Calling's fierce embrace of genre-vaulting fusion ("Armagideon Time") to the assured swagger and radical chic of their Combat Rock swan-song ("Should I Stay Or Should I Go"). Pure, unalloyed energy erupts from the speakers as Joe Strummer spits self-righteous vitriol, Mick Jones chops hippie complacency into toothpicks with his trusty six-string and Paul Simonon anchors the resultant passions to Topper Headon's rock solid percussive foundations. Undeniably awesome. -Ian Fortnam.