Do It Yourself proved exactly who was responsible for The Stone Roses' comeback album, the poorly received Second Coming. With its reliance on sturdy Led Zep riffs, and its worrying number of protracted guitar workouts, the Roses' swansong showed rather a close correlation to Do It Yourself-the debut, and only album from lead guitar virtuoso John Squire's post-Roses outfit. If this demonstrated anything telling after the acrimonious split of the Roses, it was that Squire liked to keep a firm grip on the reins. Certainly, the Britpop staple of "Love Is The Law" demonstrated that Squire hadn't lost it completely, but it was pleasingly ironic that the ex-busking singer Chris Helme-a musician that Squire drafted in, only to lose patience with after the album's release-composed the best track, the bruised lament of "Blinded By The Sun". Do It Yourself is a treat for air-guitarists, but after the wonder of the Roses, is a sad anticlimax. -Louis Pattison.

An appreciable leap forward in almost every fashion from the group's first trio of albums, The Unforgettable Fire is its first with the production team of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. And while they take a strong hand in wrestling U2's music out of the mainstream and into a more individualistic area, it's the songs themselves that demand a more subtle approach. Moody gems such as "A Sort of Homecoming" and the entrancing "Bad" set the table for more explosive fare such as "Pride", "Wire" and the title track. This is the album that made U2 a career act, showing that their music could grow by leaps and bounds, even at the hand of another, without sacrificing its soul. -Daniel Durchholz.

This 3-disc Deluxe Edition includes a bonus CD featuring demos and alternate versions from the recording of the album, plus a 30-minute short film featuring promo clips and previously unseen home-movie footage. This album has class and it sees Paul Weller once again firmly in control of every aspect: he wrote all the songs bar a cover of Dr. John's "I Walk on Gilded Splinters"; he co-produced it and, apart from his earthy vocals, he plays guitar, piano, organ and percussion. All the tracks are special, but it's the three hits-"Changingman", "Broken Stones" and the truly wonderful "You Do Something To Me"-that really stand out, as does "Porcelain Gods", which has something of the old Style Council about it. Soulful, the style is underlined by Carleen Anderson's rich backing vocals on five of the tracks. Weller is also joined by some of his other musical chums: Noel Gallagher, Steve Craddock and Steve Winwood. On the bonus DVD: "Broke 'n' Stoned: Stanley Road Revisited" reunites the album's original cast to reflect on its making. It also features new interviews with Weller and his band, Peter Blake (who designed the sleeve - seen here in its first original form), Noel Gallagher (who guests on the album) and producer Brendan Lynch. The 30-minute film also includes promo clips and previously unseen 'home movie' footage. -Carina Trimingham.

Whilst the gold lamé suits may have been hung up years ago, The Look of Love: The Very Best of ABC proves that ABC or rather Martin Fry still has the ability to dazzle. As any 80s compilation will validate, hits such as the title track "Look of Love", "Poison Arrow" and "All of My Heart" are nowadays viewed as defining musical moments of the 80s. Despite going through an identity crisis during the mid-1980s, the group still managed to produce consistently excellent tunes ("Vanity Kills", "Be Near Me" and "Ocean Blue"). After Martin's successful fight with Hodgkinson's Disease the band reached a new peak with their suave 1987 album Alphabet City, which offered the slick hits "When Smokey Sings" and "The Night You Murdered Love". Fascinated by the emerging Acid House scene, two years later they released Up which was a more up-tempo, dance-orientated album that incorporated "One Better World" and "The Real Thing". Even though the hits dried up during the 1990s, as new tunes "Peace and Tranquillity" and "Blame" demonstrate, Fry still has the ability to pen sophisticated, soulful compositions. -John Galilee.

Mad for sadness? Then Northern Irish four-piece Snow Patrol could be the band for you. Fully paid-up members of the generation of youthful Brit-rockers-see also JJ72 and Muse-Snow Patrol twin their histrionic-heavy guitar-fuzz to the vulnerable, reed-thin vocals of a teen-angstified frontman. But ignore lead singer Gary Lightbody when he hisses that he's "never gonna fall in love again" on the opening track of the same name; When It's All Over We Still Have To Clear Up is an album about giving your heart away, feeling it break and desperately trying to reassemble it before the next emotional meltdown. Perversely, some of this record's greatest moments find amps turned down and emotions laid desperately bare: the acoustic "Make Love To Me Forever" and the love-laid-to-rest lament of "If I'd Ever Found The Right Words To Say". But that's not to say that the ballsy pop songs-see "Ask Me How I Am", the sound of a harmony-laden Sebadoh playing hip-hop through a detuned radio-don't make the grade. And when it's all over? They may have been casualties in the Wars Of Love, but as Lightbody whispers "we won't get much sleep" on the closing "Firelight", you know that-like you-Snow Patrol are ready to flip the record and live it all again. -Louis Pattison.

Conceivably, laddish London-based pop pin-ups Busted (or Charlie, James and Mattie as our daughters-with-attitude would have it) are what evil, plan-hatching marketing men ought to have in mind if they decided the music world needed to be taken over by a milk-toothed, mind-yer-"p"s-and-"q"s version of Blink 182. However, worrisome mums (or should that be "moms"-after all, car boots are "trunks", arses are "asses" and boyfriends get "dissed" not chucked in Busted's transatlantic teen-world) will find the lack of lyrical references to farting and fornication somewhat moralistically reassuring, although the peeping Tom confessions of hit single "What I Go to School For" and sexual fantasies about Britney ("I'll make you feel good inside") suggest that Busted's under-the-mattress porno stashes have yet to be dispensed with. Looking beyond the half-baked bad-boy image and linguistic schizophrenia, what you have here is three young guys with talent, tunes (they write their own, y'know), a decidedly English cheekiness, angry (well, perhaps slightly more cross than usual) guitars and-when they get it right-a hilariously understated way of conveying the calamity of a teenage social life ("I asked you to dance at the disco. but you said no"). If only they could ditch the soppy ballad stuff and be done with it. -Kevin Maidment.

Following on from their sprawling and excellent Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, the Flaming Lips seem to have lightened up the mood with their new long-player At War With The Mystics. Despite the overtly political `anti-Bush' stance that runs through the album's lyrics, it's the music - upbeat, accessible - that will attract and startle Lip's fans most. Opening track, "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" is a fine example of the bands newly palatable schtick. It's an undeniably inventive song in terms of arrangements and mood but it lacks the band's signature excess, and opens the floodgates for a stream of similarly superficial songs that favour feelgood atmospherics over anything truly transcendental. It's not that the songs are bad; most of them are very, very good. But the Prince-like funk soundtrack that backs "Free Radicals", for example, is a far cry from prior material like "Chrome Plated Suicide" etc. , which made their reputation as a band to be reckoned with. Some may love this new pop-lite direction, but just as many may well find it disappointing. -Paul Sullivan.

When last we saw Courtney Love, she was performing on the silver screen and posing for Versace, a far cry from her formative days stumbling across stages wearing ripped thrift-store clothing. But Love's Hollywood transformation is just the latest in her crusade for adoration, whatever the environment. And Celebrity Skin is just the latest manifestation of that obsession. Instead of screaming in rage over a muscular din of power chords, Love sings in a restrained, melodic alto voice; the band matches the euphony with rhythms and hooks that draw from such mainstream acts as Fleetwood Mac, the Go-Go's, and, of course, Smashing Pumpkins, whose frontman, Billy Corgan, co-wrote five songs. What makes Celebrity Skin more than another good rock album, however, is Love's lyrics, which remain confessional and scathing, addressing such topics as physical abuse ("Hit So Hard"), drugs ("Use Once and Destroy"), the music industry ("Awful", "Boys on the Radio"), and her late husband's suicide ("Reasons to Be Beautiful"). If nothing else, Celebrity Skin is proof to all the skeptics that superstars have feelings, too. -Jon Wiederhorn.

The sound of Phil Collins's distinctive voice set against a pulsing synthesizer and pounding electro/acoustic percussion became one of the most characteristic and ubiquitous sounds of 1980s (and early '90s) rock. And if Collins's solo work during that period seemed occasionally indistinguishable from that of his band, it was only evidence of the remarkable transformation that Genesis had undergone from its late '60s art-school roots. Indeed, the idea of an eventual Greatest Hits package would have been laughable then. But as the original quintet turned quartet (with the departure of vocalist Peter Gabriel) and then trio (when guitarist Steve Hackett left), the spotlight focused with increasing intensity on Collins and his pop and R&B sense. Though it overlooks a few contenders ("No Reply at All" and "Taking It All Too Hard") in service of balance (and the inclusion of late-model Genesis frontman Ray Wilson), this is a good sampler of one of rock's most consistent (if predictable) hit-makers. Gabriel and Hackett also return for one new track, reuniting the original quintet for a richly textured update of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 's "The Carpet Crawlers. " -Jerry McCulley.

Cruelly denied the Number One slot when an administrative cock-up at the UK chart returns office credited thousands of album sales to The Police, 1979's The Raven-now re-issued with bonus tracks-found tuneful toughnuts The Stranglers striding purposefully away from the faltering punk scene with a renewed artistic agenda and a head full of hard drugs. A new direction and an overhauled musical vocabulary (gone was the growly bass and the organ, in came futuristic keyboard sounds, odd time signatures, intricate arrangements and extended instrumental passages) The Raven-as perennially acknowledged by the band's large and dutifully black-garbed cult following-is The Stranglers magnum opus. From the epic title-track-a questing, valorous Norse saga adorned by Dave Greenfield's wuthering Artic synths and sung in breathless fashion by JJ Burnel-to the quirky prog-rock science of "Genetix" (on which former biochemist Hugh Cornwell got to show-off his knowledge of pioneering 19th-century Austrian geneticist Gregor Mendel). The Raven was-and remains-enthrallingly fresh, musically daring and downright ominous. Paranoia abounds-there's the grimly pretty (but rather hypocritical) anti-heroin lament "Don't Bring Harry" and the helium-inhaling vocal freakinessof "Meninblack", a portentous slab of psychedelic lethargy detailing the existence of a black-suited extraterrestrial mafia. But there's pop too-"Duchess" (a Top 20 UK hit later covered by My Life Story) and the doleful "Baroque Bordello", a song almost compassionate and empathic compared to the leerier lyricisations of old but also featuring a keyboard intro which seemed to be cribbed from-of all things-"Inchworm" from the Danny Kaye film Hans Christian Anderson. Blame the drugs? Whatever reason, The Raven is The Stranglers' finest achievement. -Kevin Maidment.