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.

That's the great thing about being a written off as a one-hit wonder-it really focuses your mind on making a stunning, no-holds-barred eat-that-you-smug-critics album the year after. It happened with Radiohead, from "Creep" to The Bends; Supergrass, from "Alright" to In It For The Money, and, most notably, with Beck, from "Loser" to Odelay. As thrilling today as on its release, Odelay is the sound of new musical frontiers being opened up: no-one before had thought to arrange a shot-gun marriage between hip-hop and Bob Dylan before and, as the subsequent slew of poor imitators proved, that was because only Beck could pull it off (with the help of the Dust Brothers, who also produced the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique). "Devil's Haircut" and "New Pollution" warped pop's boundaries on entering the Top Twenty; and "Where It's At" still kicks like a mule in a can-can line. They were calling him "The White Prince" by the end of the year, you know. -Caitlan Moran As it turns out, Beck isn't just a funny guy with a good blues-rap hybrid novelty up his sleeve-he's a funny guy with a deep understanding of the history of pop music, an unstoppable universalist impulse, and a whole lot of excellent songs up his sleeve. Produced with hyperactive kitchen-sink technique by the Dust Brothers (of the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique fame), Odelay sounds like 60 years' worth of radio at once, but the foundation beneath the flash owes more to pre-war blues than anything else. Beck can turn a surreal pomo phrase like nobody's business, and he knows a good drum break when he hears one; his greatest strength, though, is having enough respect for tradition to make it sound modern. -Douglas Wolk.

The first clue to the sound of Avril Lavigne's third CD, The Best Damn Thing, comes in the form of her kickoff single, "Girlfriend," which is filled with singing, clapping, and cheerleader-style chanting. The song is quite a sonic contrast to her previous disc, Under My Skin, which was considered to be Lavigne's more mature follow-up to her 16 million-selling debut CD, Let Go. Like that debut, The Best Damn Thing will be largely and deeply embraced by teenage girls, and is packed with songs that will create enthusiastic sing-alongs in concert. There are a handful of numbers that will appeal to a wider audience; "Innocence" and disc closer "Keep Holding On" would both fit perfectly in a Gray's Anatomy episode, while the sultry message and solid harmonies in "Hot" will appease ears of many ages. Lavigne's husband, Sum 41 frontman Deryk Whibley makes an appearance as producer and instrumentalist on a handful of tracks; their union, however, seems to have bred more than love. "I Don't Have to Try" and "Everything Back But You" both have a frenetic pace and chorus that is so eerily Sum-like that if they weren't married, a copyright lawsuit might ensue. That aside, the record oscillates between lyrically acerbic fare ("One of Those Girls," "I Can Do Better") and fluffy sugar-pop melodies ("Contagious," "The Best Damn Thing") delivering far more spunk rock than punk rock. -Denise Sheppard.

"The Power of Love" was Celine Dion's first chart-topping song in America, but it was a career-defining moment in more ways than one. It established her as a dependable hit-maker and also fixed the pattern of her biggest successes to come-songs that begin with delicate melodies and spare instrumentation and build into big, powerful productions over which Dion's incomparable vocals hit stratospheric heights. Dion attempts other directions on The Colour of My Love, such as the light dance-pop of "Misled" and "Everybody's Talkin' My Baby Down", but they don't ring as true as her duet with Clive Griffin in "When I Fall in Love" (from the film Sleepless in Seattle) and the title track. -Daniel Durchholz.

JJ Cale penned two of Eric Clapton's career-defining solo hits, "Cocaine" and "After Midnight. " And since Clapton has often fashioned his persona in a WWJD manner (what would JJ do?), this collaboration is long overdue. But despite the rather slick production and long list of guest backing musicians (including four bassists, four drummers, five other guitarists, and three percussionists), The Road to Escondido is still dominated more by Cale than Clapton. The relatively reticent Okie wrote 11 of the 14 tracks, and it's his low-key soufflé of blues, jazz, and country that shapes and directs the disc's tone, with Clapton along for the ride. The opening "Danger" sets the dusky mood as the duo rides a typical Cale swamp groove that gives way to a tightly wound Slowhand solo. They trade lead vocals on a lovely version of the after-hours jazz blues classic "Sporting Life Blues," and the ubiquitous John Mayer makes an impressive appearance on the subtle blues of "Hard to Thrill. " Clapton hasn't sounded this relaxed or involved in his own material for years. The traditionally laidback, if not quite snoozy, Cale responds with a comparatively energized performance, likely due to the high-profile company. When the two harmonize on the mid-tempo foot tapper "Anyway the Wind Blows," the result is so natural and spontaneous it's a shame these two didn't join forces earlier. On paper, it appears that Cale has the most to gain from partnering with an established superstar, but the fact is this collaboration yields Eric Clapton's most engaging and contagious roots-rock release in a long time. [+]

Managing-sort of-to keep within the Pet Shop Boys tradition of one-word album titles, the moniker of this latest best-of, PopArt, is typical of the band-arrogant and somewhat pretentious yet also tongue-in-cheek and slyly self-aware. All the 35 tracks on these two CDs are indeed both pop and art and rather than being in chronological order have been split in fairly arbitrary fashion across a "Pop" and, erm, an "Art" disc. The band are doubtless well aware that much heated discussion will take place among fans about which track belongs where, and indeed, as evidenced on the commentary of the accompanying DVD, squabbled about the splits themselves when compiling this release. Philosophical debates aside, this is an absolutely essential collection for anyone who enjoys the Pet Shop Boys' unique mix of bittersweet poignancy, archness and occasional high camp-or indeed for any discerning pop (or art) fan. Encompassing almost all their single releases (only "Was It Worth It?" and "How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?" are missing), this is a glorious retrospective of one of Britain's finest pop institutions. Let's hope there are another 35 singles half this good for a quadruple box set in another 18 years' time. -Rikki Price.

Here's Dave Grohl as you've seldom seen him before: not just live, but as the title Skin And Bones may hint, stripped down to his acoustic core. Well actually, not quite. Rather than just Grohl and a six-string, this collection - recorded at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles - harks back to the ensemble feel of Nirvana's 1994 album Unplugged In New York, familiar songs rebuilt by the Foos and a cast of musicians including violinist Petra Haden, keyboardist Rami Jaffee and even a member of that now legendary Nirvana session, Pat Smear. Stripped of the anthemic breeziness and solid, muscular riffing that have become Foo trademarks, Skin And Bones relies more on prettifying the arrangements with strings, shakers and slow splashes of cymbal, and occasionally uncovering new levels of pathos beneath the sweat and grit. "Walking After You" feels custom-written for this format, while the crescendos of "My Hero" gain a little more humanity in this more intimate setting. And when the bigger hits come, Grohl makes up for the absence of feedback and fireworks with sheer frontman charisma, summoning up some throaty Springsteen emotiveness on "Best Of You" and climaxing with a heroic "Everlong". -Louis Pattison.

Strangely for a greatest hits compilation, Green Day's International Superhits opens with two new songs recorded in 2001. "Maria" is Green Day playing to their strengths, a burst of rattling skinny tie new wave that has you itching to join the nearest mosh pit, and the cool acoustic pop of "Poprocks and Coke" is worthy of the trio's Nimrod. The implication is clear: the unfortunate diversion undertaken by 2000's Warning (where the band horrifically mutated into The Levellers) is over and now it's business as usual. Thank God for that. Although a host of skate chancers have tried to rewrite the likes of "Basket Case" and "Brain Stew", no one does punk pop better than Billie Joe and the boys. No one does it quite as intelligently either. "Longview" almost sneers at the slacker ennui it seems to embody, "Welcome to Paradise" sneaks in a cheeky steal from Dead Kennedys, and "Redundant" runs on a sublime psyche melody worth of Elliott Smith. All of which proves you don't need a potty mouth and a dull 'tude to be a real rebel-and dreadlocks and dogs on strings are a definite no no. -Ian Watson.

Even though it was greeted at the time as U2's reinvention as a dance/rock post-modern revue, with a bit of post-Wall Berlin thrown in for luck, distance now shows that Achtung Baby is in fact a suite of extraordinarily perceptive and tender songs on the breakdown of the Edge's marriage. "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses", "The Fly", "One", "So Cruel"-it's as if Bono shuffled into the studio and said "Er, Edge. Was it a bit like this?" And the Edge wept until his hat became soggy. U2 fans will argue until the end of "Until The End Of The World" which is the best album in the band's exemplary canon, but with Bono sounding like a scorched St Paul, the Edge augmenting those electrified sheets of sound with deft funk-flicks and producer Brian Eno keeping it spacious, hot and holy, chances are, this is it. -Caitlin Moran.

Solid Bronze: Great Hits is the follow-up to the Beautiful South's phenomenally successful first best-of, Carry On Up the Charts. Considering that as many as one in seven people in the UK own that previous collection, one could be forgiven for wondering what the point is in releasing a follow-up. But rather than capping off their career, Carry On. merely served as the half-time flag, as Hull's finest have busily followed up that success with more albums (Quench, Blue is the Colour, Painting it Red) and, of course, more singles. So, in addition to the old favourites such as "You Keep It All In" and "A Little Time", Solid Bronze also contains newer classics such as "Perfect 10" and "Don't Marry Her" (the clean version here). Additionally, fans are given something worthwhile in the brand new track "The Root of All Evil", as well as two rarities ("Pretenders to the Throne" and "Dream a Little Dream") and a Morcheeba remix of "The Mediterranean". -Ted Kord.

Considering that Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, the English duo known as Tears for Fears, were avid followers of Arthur Janov, father of the Primal Scream form of mental therapy, it wasn't surprising that one of their biggest hits was titled "Shout". What was surprising was how the two managed to take all their deep- rooted inner turmoil and make such positively buoyant music. Case in point: their other Songs From the Big Chair-spawned, No. 1 hit, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", was a meditative contemplation of the struggle for power within interpersonal relationships as a metaphor for global supremacy-which, thank god, had a good beat so you could at least dance to it. -Billy Altman.