Phil Collins is regularly thrashed in the press for playing it safe and churning out predictable dependable music for yuppies. He was once accused of being "a rich superstar whose music only sounded good in a BMW. " On A Hot Night in Paris, Collins again jumps into the shallow end of the pool and comes up playing Le Jazz Hot, with a 20-member band including a Count Basie arranger and some old-timers he borrowed from Buddy Rich's band to augment his regular players. To his credit, Collins worked out to a video designed for jazz drummers to get in shape for the project, but his muscular timekeeping lacks the color and subtleties of players born to the art form. Also, there is very little of what he does best: singing. The only vocals on this album are a few grunts and moans during an almost-note-perfect rendering of the Average White Band's funk classic, "Pick up the Pieces," which almost rescues the album from banality. Thrown in for recognition value are instrumental renditions of some of his better known solo chart-toppers, such as "Sussudio," "I Don't Care Anymore," and "Against All Odds. " But more surprising, the former Genesis skinbeater threw in four numbers from the rock band's extensive songbook, including a swing version of the eccentric "Los Endos Suite. " The only thing missing from this CD, recorded live in Paris and Montreux, is the clinking of cocktail glasses. -Jaan Uhelszki.

With his singular retro-rock vision, Chris Isaak had already graduated from cult figure to music-video heartthrob when he delivered this 1995 album. But if all the surface elements are intact, he has assimilated his chief vocal influences, Orbison and Elvis, even further, and Isaak's songs dig even deeper into his favourite subject, heartbreak, to shorten the distance between writer and singer. "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing", the set's opener, employs the same growling rock-speak as George Thorogood's notorious "Bad to the Bone", but without a trace of irony-Isaak lashes the listener with the torment of a betrayed lover, telegraphing fear, desire, and anguish as he wheels from rumbling accusations to keening falsetto cries. Elsewhere, he withdraws to the more lyrical croon of his previous work, his band wreathed with the throbbing tremolo and ghostly reverb that are their natural elements. There's a folk-rock jangle to the lovely, forlorn "Somebody's Crying", a disarming directness to the simple but aching title song, and another burst of fevered agony, "Go Walking Down There", which gallops over a perfect mid-'60s guitar arrangement. For all its letter-perfect allusiveness, though, Forever Blue feels authentically heartbroken, not just cleverly crafted. -Sam Sutherland.

Bob Dylan remains the single most influential singer-songwriter in the history of rock, but sometimes it can be an expensive-and repetitive-business keeping up with him. The original Bob Dylan Greatest Hits appeared in 1967, More Bob Dylan Greatest Hits followed in 1971; since then there have been two more Greatest Hits, The Best Of Volume 1 and a box set-1985's excellent Biograph-all of which have included Dylan's best-known songs. Not that Dylan doesn't merit such devotion, but for die hard fans The Best Of Bob Dylan Volume 2 will involve an inordinate amount of repetition, while newcomers to Dylan's genius are probably better served by 1997's The Best Of Bob Dylan which gathered together all those inspiring songs ("Blowin' In The Wind", "Like A Rolling Stone", "Forever Young", "Knockin' On Heaven's Door") for the first time. Volume 2 once again finds space for "It Ain't Me Babe", "Hurricane" and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"; but the real enticement is the inclusion of Dylan's first new song of the 21st Century-the driving and curiously compelling "Things Have Changed". There is also the bonus of an out-take from 1989's Oh Mercy: the original, undubbed "Dignity", one of Dylan's best songs of the last 20 years and the only one-so far!-to mention the Duke of Edinburgh. -Patrick Humphries.

From the opening "It Takes A Worried Man" to the singalong close of "I Wanna Go Home", this is as much Lonnie Donegan's party as it is Van's. Most of these songs are old Donegan favourites anyway, including such warhorses as "Lost John", "Alabamy Bound", "Railroad Bill" and "Frankie & Johnny". The veteran King of Skiffle revitalised his career on the excellent Muleskinner's Blues album thanks largely to the support and encouragement of Van Morrison, and he goes a long way towards returning the favour here as he helps make The Skiffle Sessions a stomping, rollicking celebration of what pensionable-age rockers do best: get back to their roots. The two frontmen strike sparks off each other as they trade acoustic guitar licks while the storming backing band supply all the really neat fills. Dr John pops up briefly to tickle his ivories, while Chris Barber and other old friends put in guest appearances, but it's the Van and Lonnie show all the way. Everyone involved is obviously having such a good time-including the audience-that it's hard to resist raiding the kitchen in search of a washboard and joining in the fun. Great party music and probably the only opportunity you'll ever get to watch your Gran really rock. -Mark Walker.

For a man renowned for his sartorial elegance and the most prudently maintained facial hair in rock, you'd expect One More Car, One More Rider-Eric Clapton's first live album since 1992's zeitgeist-capturing Unplugged set-to be full of well-tailored highlights from his biblically-proportioned (well, some people still call him "God") back-catalogue of bristly, well kempt blues. And of course you'd be absolutely right. Recorded in Los Angeles and Tokyo during his 2001 world tour (the simultaneously released DVD of the same name is taken exclusively from the Los Angeles show) and featuring the musical accompaniment of such luminary hired-hands as Andy Fairweather-Low and Billy Preston, it's an album that serves to satisfy both the Clapton purist (there's a four-song segue of tracks from Pilgrim, shorn of their original anodyne synthesizer embellishments) and the adult popsters who prefer their blues from the decanter rather than the bottle ("Tears In Heaven", a sublime "Bell Bottom Blues" and a rather poised, applause-ridden "Layla"). It's a shame that the solo-slot extemporisations of Reptile-Joe Pass meets George Benson meets Weather Report-arrive a little too early in the main course for the listener to prepare for full-on mastication. And there also remains a minority of people for whom "Wonderful Tonight" is the biggest pre-coital turn-off this side of farting in bed (or "Lady in Red" by Chris de Burgh). However, such pallid flaws are only trifling grievances for One More Car, One More Rider is an engaging live document that finds Clapton far from asleep at the wheel. -Kevin Maidment.

In addition to the three-disc Hits/The B-Sides set, Prince's 1993 release list included separate editions of the two Hits volumes. By beginning with "When Doves Cry", Volume One would seem to promise a fairly mainstream overview of the man's career. But what can such a small word mean to an artist who writes love songs like this disc's "Adore" ("You can rip up my clothes, smash up my ride. well, maybe not the ride") and who can put a cryptic religious fable (we think) like "7" in the Top 10? -Rickey Wright.