Part two of the Berlin trilogy that started with Low and ended with Lodger, Heroes saw Bowie trying to kick his assorted drug addictions while simultaneously attempting to create the music of the future. And so, on the one hand, "Beauty and The Beast"-which spawned the Human League's "Love Action" and not a whole load else, really. And on the other, the title-track-one of mankind's greatest achievements, a song so incredible it's permissible to know a technical fact pertaining to its recording, i. e. , Bowie had eight microphones set up for the vocals, all at staggered distances along a hallway. That's why he sounds like he's bouncing his voice off mountains on the moon. Like Low, Heroes is an album of two halves-the second side being taken up with the brooding instrumentals he and producerBrian Eno cooked up while the engineers were busy wiring up eight microphones in the hallway. It's not your essential Bowie. But it's pre-Tin Machine Bowie, and that's more than enough. -Caitlin Moran.

Maybe it was the fact that the uncle of singer Miles Hunt had played unhinged French horn on the very weird first ELO album and sax with retro rock & roll pranksters Wizzard which so inspired the irreverent humour and common pop touch of the Wonder Stuff. Appearing from nowhere (well, Wolverhampton actually) in 1987 and with girls' hairstyles, The 'Stuffies dutifully stuck a whoopee cushion beneath the raincoat-covered arse of a glum English indie scene with their 1988 debut Eight Legged Groove Machine-a winning mix of brisk, skiffle-light, laddish pop and quite swaggering impertinence. "Unbearable", for example hammed it up with a sawn-off That Petrol Emotion riff and the almost Churchillian barb of "I didn't like you very much when I met you/but now I like you even less" while "It's Yer Money I'm After, Baby" ("It's not your heart/it's your bank I want to break") was something akin to Ray Davies with behavioural problems. "Astley In The Noose" (one of four b-sides added to this repackaged edition) was a call for the hanging of a certain manly voiced 80s pop star for the crime of singing oldies. Probably a jibe too far, considering the Wonder Stuff went on to have a number one single with a rather hairy-chested version of Tommy Roe's mouldy old "Dizzy". -Kevin Maidment.

Few things in life are as reliable as UB40. For more than 20 years the eight Birmingham lads, led by brothers Robin and Ali (the one with the odd voice) Campbell, have been plying their very individual, and very British brand of reggae. And, save for a slight shift from the rootsy Ska of their first top-10 single, "King/Food For Thought", to the more commercial likes of "Homely Girl", little has changed over their 43-single career. Although their own tracks were always laid-back and infectious, it was their reggae-lite makeovers of pop classics like "Red Red Wine", "I Got You Babe" and "I Can't Help Falling In Love", that brought their biggest hits and are the main focus of The Very Best Of. Not as comprehensive as previous compilations, The Best Of UB40 Volume 1 and Volume 2, it still boasts more memorable and happily lilting hits than most bands could lay claim to. Of those, two tracks standout a mile-the William Orbit (he who revamped American Pie for Madonna) styled production of their recent cover of "Light My Fire" is exceptional, but "Rat In Mi Kitchen", thanks to superb lyrics, sparse yet perfectly formed dub horns and a little hindsight, is just as good as Brit-reggae gets. -Dan Gennoe.

Recorded onstage, backstage, in three different hotel rooms and on a Continental Silver Eagle tour bus during a cross-country 1977 tour, Running on Empty is a paean to life on the road. Jackson Browne's sense of camaraderie extended to the road crew, if "The Load Out", a love song to his roadies, is to be believed. Browne is much more blithe here than in his earlier outings. But Empty also represents a fleeting light-hearted moment for the singer-cum-poet whose concerns became more political than personal after its appearance. Beneath its flippant surface, this disc is a look at the lengths Browne and his friends went to avoid facing the demands of the touring life. What with the frequent drug references, misogynistic references to on-the-fly pairings with women, and the sobering line in the title track-"I look around for the friends I used to pull me through / Looking into their eyes, I see them running, too"-one realises that Browne was much more comfortable on the road than off. -Jaan Uhelszki.

Assuming former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl dreads the thought of forever being known as "the guy from Kurt Cobain's band," the last thing he'd want to hear is that the debut album from his new band Foo Fighters sounds much like one from the deceased duke of grunge. Unfortunately, Nirvana comparisons are not only inevitable, they're bound to consume the dialogue surrounding his quartet entirely. Perhaps it was unavoidable osmosis: Grohl, Foo Fighters' lead singer-guitarist, wrote most of these tunes during breaks from beat-keeping for his former band leader. It's natural that Cobain's knack for balancing hard and fast with musical and melodic would wear off on Grohl, as well as on bandmates Pat Smear (who also played with Nirvana), William Goldsmith, and Nate Mendel (both of Seattle's Sunny Day Real Estate). Grohl even unveils vocal cords that tread lightly on Cobain's gorgeous growl. Of course, many Nirvana-wannabees have tried to capture Cobain & Co. 's teen spirit, and all failed; that Foo Fighters succeed in creating a powerful heavy rock album that's neither noisy nor stale is a measured accomplishment in its own right. So bask in the familiar neo-garage punk (a. k. a. [+]

It's a rare trick to uphold the sacred tenets of rock & roll while simultaneously reinventing them. But over the course of their 21 Singles, compiled here, the Jesus and Mary Chain did just that. When the first, "Upside Down", emerged on Creation in 1984, the template was set. The Reid brothers who anchored the band would take the idea of sullen, black-leather-clad rebellion to a darker and more inhospitable place than anyone before them. Even now, the early Mary Chain singles sound astounding, the way pop and the avant-garde are mangled together in them so beautifully. But 21 Singles goes far beyond these, through another 14 years of protean glumness, patchy albums and, fortunately, many excellent singles. It proves, once and for all, that the Mary Chain's forte was the three-minute pop thrill, the precisely calibrated jukebox hit. An uncanny number of them-"Some Candy Talking", "Sidewalking", "Reverence"- remain among the very best of the past 20 years. And the more slack moments still have their uses: to render futile the entire careers of artless impersonators such as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, for a start. The Mary Chain's last two singles, from 1998, "I Hate Rock'n'Roll" and "I Love Rock'n'Roll", neatly close affairs: bitter and celebratory; consumed and confused by music and the impulse to make it, which has driven them for so long. [+]

Those dismissing the self-titled Scissor Sisters as a product of New York's latest fad band are jumping to conclusions. Yes, there's a certain cabaret aspect to what they do, but that's not to dismiss them as frivolous nightclub entertainment. That's only half the story. "Comfortably Numb" may have nodded to gay disco but this eclectic bunch of fashionistas have more interesting reference points tucked up their puff sleeves. If anything, the prevailing mood here is sunny AM rock, the kind of thing you might have tuned into in 70s New Jersey. "Take Your Mamma Out", perhaps the first song about coming out to your mother in a gay club, and sung by Jake Shears like primetime Elton, is a cracker. So too "Tits on the Radio"-slick barroom boogie that takes a venomous swipe at New York's increasing conservatism. Best here, though, is the anthemic "It Can't Come Quickly Enough", a retro carve-up of Nick Kershaw and the Pet Shop Boys that's more powerful than it sounds. Ignore it at your peril. -Paul Tierney.

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. [+]

"Don't call it solo," says Thom Yorke of The Eraser, "It doesn't sound right". Here, then, is the first - hmm, let's say one-man record from the vocalist of Radiohead, an excursion in electronic beats and synthetic textures hailed by many critics as a return to Radiohead's 2000 album, Kid A. Strictly speaking, though, he's right - it's not solo: produced and "arranged" by long-time `Head producer Nigel Godrich, featuring processed sounds taken from full-band sessions, and featuring at least one song originally mooted for appearance on Hail To The Thief, it appears as much an opportunity for Thom to build on the ideas not fully realised on full-band releases. Rock fans may lament Radiohead's shifts away from guitar, bass and drums, but it's hard to deny just how well Thom's voice fits amid the hissy cymbals and spectral synthesiser of `The Eraser' and `Black Swan'. Guitar surfaces on the haunting `The Clock', Thom singing "You throw coins in the wishing well" over warped, droning folk, while album highlight `Harrowdown Hill' strikes a rare explicitly political note for Thom, a track themed around the death of UN Weapons Inspector David Kelly. -Louis Pattison.

Blending the best aspects of pop, punk and grunge, Weezer's eponymous debut came as a much needed bit of relief to the too-serious American indie scene of 1994. Produced (and strongly influenced) by former Cars frontman Ric Ocasek, Weezer blends churning, power-pop guitars with Beach Boys harmonies and the awkward lyrics of singer/songwriter Rivers Cuomo. On standout tracks such as "In The Garage" and "The World Has Turned And Left Me Here", Weezer introduced the wider world to the then-new concept of Geek Rock. However, it was "Buddy Holly"-and its corresponding Spike Jonze-directed video-that propelled this album into the charts. Unfortunately, this song also branded them as nothing more than another novelty act, an unfair fate for an album-and band- that's since had so much influence. -Robert Burrow.

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.

The mightiest of late-'80s Manchester ensembles had the world at its feet before entering the long, dark tunnel of litigation. This tidy compilation begins with a few archival indie singles then strides into the glorious but fleeting period that produced gems like "I Wanna Be Adored," "Waterfall," and "Fools Gold. " -Jeff Bateman.

From son of an internationally renowned physicist, to oddball post-grunge one-hit-wonder, to ongoing alt-rock sideshow curiosity you just can't shut up, to engaging diarist of life at its most interesting, imagined or indeed tormented-Mark Oliver Everett a. k. a. `E' a. k. a. Eels (he is effectively, for all their shape-shifting, the band incarnate) can lay reasonable claim to being one of the most notable American songwriters alive today. And given the already vast, sprawling nature of his 10-year back catalogue it will come as no surprise to discover that a few choice cuts fell between the cracks en-route. And thus, this double collection of Eels rarities, b-sides, session tracks and song re-jigs is about as delightful, if random, as any straight album he's released. He's always had too many sides to be a square, but even so it's surprising to see single songs' split personalities laid bare and equally dominant here. [+]