For a man openly hostile to tie-dyed nostalgia, Bob Dylan's 1987 summer tour with the Grateful Dead was a confounding event indeed. The result on this concert recording is Dylan warbling across the usual Dead groove: neither rock nor roll. No new compositions emerged from the summit, so their repertoire is limited to an unsurprising list of chestnuts ("All Along the Watchtower," "Knocking on Heaven's Door," etc. ). Their meandering version of Dylan's "I Want You" would be a vicious parody of the original if it weren't so sadly true. And if these were the stadium tour's best performances, pity anyone who actually sat through one of these concerts with a clear head. -Steve Appleford.

Fourth album White Ladder made him the household name of 2000, but for the majority of the 1990s-the years from which The EPs 92-94 was compiled-David Gray's sales record was disappointing at best. Eventually, after re-mortgaging his house and setting up his own label to release White Ladder, the Manchester-born singer would prove that perseverance and unwavering faith are the stuff of one million album sales. Unfortunately for Hut Records (home of The Verve, Gomez and Placebo) their supplies of both ran dry in 1995 after Gray's second album, Flesh, bombed. Having missed out on the main prize of White Ladder, Hut here capitalise on Gray's success with this collection of his first four singles and respective b-sides. There is, however, more to this than just exploiting fans. While not as instantly compelling as White Ladder's highlights, nor as heart-wrenching as his other rarities selection Lost Songs, there are some beautiful moments amongst the 10 acoustic laments. His pretend accent (part-Scottish, part-Welsh, all totally unconvincing) aside, "Birds Without Wings" is gorgeous, "L's Song" is tender and "Brick Walls" is classic singer-songwriter material. For completists, it's a must for the b-sides. For fans of breakthrough singles "Babylon" and "Please Forgive Me", it's a less attractive proposition as, apart from "The Rice" and "Wisdom", some of his melodies are so subtle they're almost not there. But like everything with Gray, perseverance is rewarded, eventually. [+]

"You sound like you're having a good old time," a purist Dylan fan is spotted telling the artist in the documentary Don't Look Back just after the release of this, his first (half-) electric album. He certainly does. Updating Chicago blues forms with hilarious, tough lyrics-in fact, all but stealing the meter of Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business" for "Subterranean Homesick Blues"-on one side, dropping some of his most devastating solo acoustic science ("It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", "Mr Tambourine Man") on the other, the first of Dylan's two 1965 long-players broke it right down with style, substance and elegance. -Rickey Wright.

If you've ever cringed in anticipation of the schmaltzy warbling in a Disney picture, then this could be the album to confound your expectations. The idea of Phil Collins is a great start anyway, with his huskily strained vocals bringing a very different sound. On top of that, the marriage of his songs and voice into Mark Mancina's rollicking score is done in a very successful way. Their goal was to integrate Collins as a singing narrator, the trick being to avoid a clash between score ending and song beginning. Pleasingly the album retains much of that seamlessness. You might feel you could do without reprising duets with luscious boy band 'N Sync, but thanks to the jungle rhythms of Speed king Mancina, they do actually feel like a part of the whole. "Two Worlds" is a definite highlight of the collaboration for musicality, but "Trashin' the Camp" has the inventive laughs. And yes, it does finish on the famous Tarzan yodel! -Paul Tonks If anyone belongs in the "Whatever Happened To?" category of a game show, it's Phil Collins. Back in the 1980s, Collins was everywhere, having retinkered Genesis into a smooth, hit-making machine and embarking on a solo career that redefined adult contemporary music. He's still been busy, but nowhere near the spotlight. [+]