With 1970's The Man Who Sold the World, David Bowie set aside his pop and singer-songwriter aspirations and headed in a harder-rocking direction. Producer Tony Visconti provided a thick, dense setting with guitarist Mick Ronson playing the role of guitar hero to Bowie's megalomaniac frontman; think Keith Richards and Mick Jagger sprinkled with fairy dust. The new approach flowered on Hunky Dory, but the outline for the master plan is here. The title track, "The Width of a Circle," and "All the Madmen" are essential Bowie, as he slips from cryptic to straightforward, celebratory wordplay. -Rob O'Connor.

It's hard to pinpoint the exact moment Modest Mouse started sounding like a real band. But on Good News For People Who Love Bad News, front man Isaac Brock sounds like he's finally touching the earth, and the band-minus founding member and drummer Jeremiah Green-follows suit. For the longest time, singer-songwriter Brock seemed to exist solely to defy the established rules, forging forward on sheer momentum and ingenuity. Even Pavement looked relatively ordinary in comparison to the band's early releases like 1996's This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About and 1997's The Lonesome Crowded West. A relaxed mood prevails, not so much in volume but in attitude. On the follow-up to the group's 2000 major label debut, The Moon & Antarctica, big sloppy melodies battle it out with brass on punky epics such as "Float On" and "The Ocean Breathes Salty. " The lyrics are simpler, the arrangements tamer, but the vitality remains. The prevailing mood is that Modest Mouse has pulled off something extraordinary here: a well-rounded, lovable record that doesn't sound anything like David Gray. -Aidin Vaziri.

Some are calling it a Tom Waits career retrospective, but Orphans, the new triple CD opus from rock'n'roll's most enduring and enigmatic adventurer, is so much more. For a start it contains over 30 new songs - everything from versions of tracks previously given out to other artists, to music recorded in the garage with his kids and covers of everyone from The Ramones to Leadbelly. For another, it's split up into three separate CDs - Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards - and as such not only spans a huge selection of music but also presents it in a much more coherent way than usual. Where Brawlers focuses on Waits' grittier, upbeat side with a procession of roadhouse rock and diner blues, Bawlers profiles his way with a waltz and his love of ballads, highlighting his capacity for truly poignant songwriting. Bastards, meanwhile, is perhaps the most interesting set: a stream of experimental output that features covers, Bukowski poems, horror stories and gags. Ambitious and sprawling yet well selected and carefully executed, Orphans is so much more than the sum of its parts and a beautifully frank portrait of a true musical legend. -Paul Sullivan With these astounding 54 songs, Tom Waits has added a vital new work to his catalog. The title, Orphans, refers to the songs either being from a range of outside projects, various impulses, and whims, or simply not having found a place on the albums for which they were intended. While that scenario has constituted a stopgap measure for lesser artists, this set stands alongside Waits's finest work. He has shaped it into three separate discs, each one separately titled after the prevailing character of its tracks and playing with its own mood and dramatic arc. [+]

Amidst the denizens of fabricated boy bands, Westlife's debut comes as an unexpected gem. With a strong management team behind them-courtesy of Boyzone's own Ronan Keating-Westlife became the first Irish boy band to top the charts with their first three singles. "Swear it Again", the album's opener, is reminiscent of 1970s American balladeers Chicago, but their weak cover of Abba's "I Have A Dream" is a welcome omission. Instead, we're treated to a fantastic reworking of funk metal outfit Extreme's "More Than Words"; singer Bryan's plaintive vocal make it a superb choice. With producers Steve Mac and Pete Waterman in charge, as well as perfect string arrangements and surprisingly thoughtful lyrics, Westlife puts these boys in place to inherit Boyzone's pop crown. -Shanthi Sivanesan.

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.

The Ultimate Collection is the first comprehensive retrospective of the Small Faces' recorded legacy. Crucially, this stunning 50-track, double-CD set is the first to feature both Decca (disc one) and Immediate (disc two) material and it's also the first to be fully sanctioned by the surviving members of the band. All 14 of the Small Faces UK singles are here, along with 12 B-sides and an astute selection of album tracks. The Decca disc, 1965-67, finds the sartorially sharp quartet majoring in amphetamine-fuelled R&B aimed directly at mod dance floors. Especially ace are the debut 45 "What'cha Gonna Do About It", its pivotal riff cheekily pilfered from the Solomon Burke soul shouter "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love", and the organ-propelled instrumental, "Grow Your Own", which melds sonic savagery to a Booker T & The MGs groove. Disc two, 1967-69, highlights the band's unique brand of Cockney music-hall psych, best exemplified by proto Brit-pop anthem "Lazy Sunday" and various cuts culled from their brilliantly bonkers concept album Ogden's Nut Gone Flake. This is undoubtedly the ultimate Small Faces collection. -Chris King.

Without doubt, The Eagles are one of the all-time biggest acts in popular music since the dawn of the rock'n'roll era. The band's roots go back to their role as defining artists in the phenomenally popular Southern California rock scene of the 70s, a decade in which they delivered four consecutive No. 1 albums. Their momentous 2004 farewell tour filled stadiums around the world, and this 2-DVD set captures one of the most stellar events from that now-historic global sweep. Track Listings: Disc 1: Long Run New Kid in Town Wasted Time Peaceful Easy Feeling I Can't Tell You Why One of These Nights One Day At A Time (New Track) Lyin' Eyes Boys of Summer In The City Already Gone Tequila Sunrise Love Will Keep Us Alive No More Cloudy Days (New Track) Hole In the World Take It To the Limit Disc 2: You Belong to the City Walk Away Sunset Grill Life's Been Good Dirty Laundry Funk #49 Heartache Tonight Life in the Fast Lane Hotel California Rocky Mountain Way All She Wants To Do Is Dance Take It Easy Desperado.

You might expect the debut album from a woman who has collaborated extensively with Tricky and Orbital to be both wondrous and strange-and you'd be right to. What you might not expect is quite the depth of Alison Goldfrapp's beguiling, distracting 21st-Century noir visions on Felt Mountain. She and her fellow composer Will Gregory can mix in Brechtian cabaret, classical instrumentation, left-of-field electronics, decadent Gainsbourg-style French pop and the odd piece of whistling on just one track ("Felt Mountain"). "Oompa Radar" almost reaches Tom Waits heights of infamy, the way familiar instruments come together in such a simultaneously comforting and alienating style. The baroque "Paper Bag", meanwhile, uncannily recalls Joe Meek's toytown visions of 1960's grandeur. All this, and a seductive vocal to die for. -Everett True.