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Raising Helen – Hollywood

Latest soppy Kate Hudson vehicle— you have to wonder what her Black Crowes hubby makes of it all— features an eclectic pop selection, with a few little smashers more by accident than design. Devo's "Whip It" and Liz Phair's "Extraordinary" are about as daring as it gets, while there are decent if overtly radio-friendly offerings from John Hiatt and Joan Osborne, plus the resurrected Simon & Garfunkel's too-cute-to-shoot "At The Zoo".

Nip – Tuck

As clinical as plastic surgery in Florida. Gabriel & Dresden are DJs who've remixed Madonna and Britney and had a hit as Motorcycle. Presumably the producers of the already notorious Nip/Tuck required a musical sheen as deceptively pristine and callously effective as its anti-hero sex-addict surgeon, and they've got it. This rush of modern techno-chill drives through The Engine Room, Poloroid and Wax Poetic (featuring Norah Jones) before getting fleshy and flirty with Client, Kinky and then Bebel Gilberto working with Thievery Corporation. What must America think of us Europeans?

This Month In Soundtracks

Jim jarmusch's imminent set of dryly comic vignettes, filmed over the course of a decade, will pitch him to a new generation, as it features Jack and Meg White, Wu-Tang Clan (RZA scored Jarmusch's last film, Ghost Dog) and Steve Coogan among its cast. One of the better sequences sees Tom Waits and Iggy Pop mock-bickering over who's more famous, and both contribute to this studiously cool soundtrack.

Flotation Toy Warning – The Bluffers Guide To The Flight Deck

Psychedelic pomp from east London quintet

The High Water Marks – Songs About The Ocean

Clock-stopping, pulse-raising mega-pop

The Beauty Shop – Crisis Helpline

Second album of dark Americana from Illinois trio

Ruling Class

Ten years in, Colorado five-piece deliver career-defining album

Donovan – Beat Café

Return after eight years' silence from '60s legend

Goldie Lookin Chain – Greatest Hits

Welsh shellsuit devotees marry scatological humour to hip hop

Sékou “Bembeya” Diabaté – Guitar Fo

West African guitar legend delivers laid-back, melodic gem
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