Randy Newman began his career as a misanthropic satirist and thwarted romantic. It's this version of Newman who shows up for Songbook Vol 1, despite his now being best known as the curly haired Prince of Pixar (he's written hit songs for a number of animated blockbusters, including Toy Story 2 and A Bug's Life). Songbook Vol 1 revisits 18 of his compositions, most written in the 1960s or 1970s, and all stripped down to just voice and piano. The idea is borrowed from vintage tributes to the masters, the "songbooks" of Jerome Kern or Cole Porter. In Newman's case, it's hard to imagine anyone else singing a slave-trader's smooth sales pitch ("Sail Away"), a deity's bemused take on mankind ("God's Song") or a child-murderer's creepy meditation ("In Germany Before the War"). Stripped of rock backbeats or orchestral sweetening, Newman's songs reveal their stark beauty and classic craftsmanship even more keenly. What may be most remarkable, however, is how prescient some of the songs seem now ("Lonely at the Top" predates the rise of OK magazine and a revolving cast of whining superstars) and how timely some of its humour is. "Political Science" may have been written during the Vietnam War, but its clueless narrator ("No one likes us, I don't know why / We may not be perfect but heaven knows we try") sounds a lot like a Bush Jr cabinet member. Since the early 1980s, Newman has focused the lion's share of his attention on soundtrack scores and sly but cuddly buddy songs. Songbook Vol 1 makes one wish Newman would devote more of his energies to writing new songs as topical, vibrant and biting as his old ones. [+]

Enjoyment of Rock N Roll-Ryan Adams' follow up to his alt-country hit, Gold-is largely dependant on both your approach to it and your knowledge of rock's rich history. There's definitely plenty to enjoy, if you look in the right places and don't focus so much on others. If you know zilch about music, but love gritty, rough and ready rock with big, fat slices of tunes, crunching guitars and attitude, then this will make you growl. If you loved Gold, but secretly hoped something rockier would emerge after Adams's much publicised socialising with the Strokes and tribute-paying to Noel Gallagher, then this may be your record of the year. However, if you know your stuff, then you may feel uneasy. Not disappointed, but a little cheated. Why? Because, internal record-company politics and artistic tantrums aside, this is more Ryan Adams "In the Style of. " than anything else. [+]

Recovering the Satellites may not be quite the tower of song that the Crows' debut August and Everything After was, but it could hardly be called a sophomore slump. Vocalist Adam Duritz and crew mine similar territory on the more densely produced Satellites, couching tales of dreamers, lovers, and losers in music that's part classic rock redux and part heartfelt folk jangle. As able as the band is though, it remains Duritz's show, and his plaintive voice and serpentine lyrics are what drive this record home, particularly on "Daylight Fading", "Miller's Angels" and the aching hit "A Long December. " -Michael Ruby.

Another Oliver Stone film hailed by many as some sort of genius. Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor was brought in to helm the soundtrack. He shows a gift for choosing diverse, if somewhat disparate musicians, running the gamut from Patsy Cline to Lard. It's a nice collection, if a little wanting for a thematic centre. Cowboy Junkies' version of the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane" is simply awesome, and Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, and Leonard Cohen lend superstar firepower, even if the songs are available elsewhere. NIN's own "Something I Can Never Have," previously heard on Pretty Hate Machine, is the most overt attempt at what Reznor was hoping to capture. It's Pulp Fiction for the schizophrenic Gen X'ers. -Scott Wilson.

Few have endured such turmoil as Tina Turner. In 1976, after 20 years toil with husband Ike, she was left with nothing but bruises, 36 cents and a Mobil gas card. Oh, and four children. Yet by 1985, with her big highlighted hair and little leather skirt recognised worldwide, she was a 10-million-seller, and a Hollywood star to boot. Collaborating with Heaven 17, Turner had achieved forward momentum. Now, signed to Capitol, she assembled about her a host of famous writer/producers, including Rupert Hine, Terry Brittan and Mike Chapman. The result was Private Dancer, a smart, mainstream and melody-heavy fusion of rock, pop and R&B making the most of Turner's world-weary persona and roughhouse soul inflections and featured huge singles like "What's Love Got to Do with It?" and the title track (written by Dire Straits's Mark Knopfler, guitar courtesy of Jeff Beck). Maybe rock's greatest comeback. -Dominic Wills.

Zooropa is almost perverse in the way it subverts every expectation we've ever had of U2. The world's most serious rock band releases an album of advertising parodies, Prince imitations, girl group tributes, taunts of rich girls and straightforward love songs. The album opens with the title tune, a vision of a near-future Europe that finds its common culture in advertising slogans and synth programs. As Bob Dylan once did with "Like a Rolling Stone", U2 takes aim on "Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car" at a spoiled rich girl who discovers her life of privilege has sapped all her strength. Bono's vocal has a Dylanesque sneer, but the Edge's guitar and Mullen's percussion create the sounds of a snarled traffic jam and Clayton's in-your-face bass line throbs like a migraine headache. By contrast, "The First Time" is the most genuinely romantic track U2 has ever recorded. The most surprising and most pleasurable tracks on the album, though, are a pair of R&B infatuation numbers, "Babyface" and "Lemon". Nothing better serves overextended rock stars than a return to the music's origins at the sock hop. The results aren't always fully satisfying, but they do reveal an unglimpsed, unexpected side to one of the world's most celebrated, most ambitious pop acts. -Geoffrey Himes.

A liner portrait of the big Mac, then coming off the commercial bonanza of Rumours, shows them looking anxiously at guitarist, singer, songwriter, and de facto auteur Lindsey Buckingham, a moment given weight by the sprawling ambitions behind this 1979 double album. Buckingham's superb sense of pop craft had catapulted the once blues-based rockers into multiplatinum ubiquity, and he responded not with a safe return to form but with an invitation for his songwriting partners to chase their respective muses. Comparisons to the Beatles' White Album abounded and remain apt: Stevie Nicks twirls dreamily through extended variations on her crystal visions, Christine McVie turns in a reliably fine set of sunny pop-rock cruisers and tender ballads, and Mick Fleetwood and John McVie sustain their reputation as one of rock's most powerful yet deft rhythm sections. Buckingham provides the wild cards, in largely self-recorded plunges into his own skittish psyche, culminating in the massive title song, beefed up by the University of Southern California's marching band, but more cannily in dreamy music-box exercises ("That's All for Everyone") and sudden bursts of gonzo, fuzz-toned rock ("That's Enough for Me"). Better than its detractors thought upon release, Tusk was a brave platinum "failure" that actually charts where subsequent Mac and Buckingham projects would go. -Sam Sutherland.

Elastica were accused of many things in the wake of this debut album, not least that many of their songs bear a striking resemblance to stuff from New Wave punks Wire ("Connection" is said to have the same riff as their "Three Girl Rhumba"). But that's all missing the point. Here we have 15 spiky songs crammed into less than 40 minutes, a hit-and-run of an album in which Justine's detached, bored rich-girl vocals complement the addictively energetic "Stutter" and "Waking Up". There's a satisfying smattering of filth throughout, too, as "Car Song" has Justine cooing, "Every shiny bonnet / makes me think of my back on it," and it doesn't take a genius to work out what she's on about on "Vaseline". This stunning debut is bloody good fun. It's frantic, sexy and makes you want to leap about like an idiot, and, really, nothing else matters. -Emma Johnston.

Stereophonics' first official live recording captures them out on the road in the USA-specifically, Dakota, the inspiration for their 2005 UK No. 1 single-knocking out the Everyman anthems that, if the ecstatic crowd reaction here is to be believed, stretches far beyond their genesis in the sleepy Welsh valleys. Stretched over two CDs, Live From Dakota cuts through every strata of Stereophonic' career, from recent album moments like "Superman" and "Doorman"-played here as a bristly one-two opening salvo-to forgotten gems like "Carrot Cake And Wine", a B-side dating all the way back to Word Gets Around. The sound is crisp, belying little of the cavernous arena it's captured in, and crowd noise is generally unobtrusive, aside from when Kelly Jones vacates the microphone towards the close of "Traffic", the audience chorusing the words back with perceptible American twang. Inevitably, affairs end with a breezy run through "Dakota", capping a live set that should satisfy fans and work as a good entry to newcomers before that inevitable Greatest Hits materialises. -Louis Pattison.

Re-working a selection of tracks from both Dummy and the eponymous follow up, PNYC demonstrates how the recorded can translate equally well into the live, given a little inspiration and creativity. Drawing on full string and horn sections and turntablist intervention from Andy Smith, they explore live soundtrack angles, lacing the original versions with measures of Lalo Schifrin, Barry Mancini et al. Although some may be sceptical at the lack of new material, they shouldn't be put off. As the neo-classical sounds of "Glory Box", post rock of "Sour Times", brazen brass jazz of "All Mine" and theremin-led hip hop of "Mysterons" all comfortably cohabit the same place, managing to re-work and re-charm their way into your sub conscious. PNYC is a class delivery from Portishead, from the arrangement and production to the performance and orchestration. -Found Sounds.