Uncut

Debut from Norah Jones' former band, with obligatory guest appearance

Mini album of Canadian radio sessions from the gay gospel Belle & Sebastian. Sort of

Bowie guitar god blossoms with help from famous buddies

Estimable beat farm's greatest hits

Outstanding neo-classicism from German composer/pianist

Tenth solo LP from former Police guitarist

In Francis Ford Coppola's liner notes to this extended, remastered release of the soundtrack to his 1982 classic, he confesses he told Tom Waits and producer Bones Howe, "What I really want you guys to do is make an album called One From The Heart and then I'll make a movie that goes with it." In the event, both were deliciously melancholy works of art. The film was panned. The music, however, was universally loved from the get-go. It's the best thing Waits has ever done. The horror is that it could so nearly have been Bette Midler, not Crystal Gayle, duetting with Tom.

Danny Elfman looks like winning big awards for Big Fish, his sumptuous score for Tim Burton's best film. His track record—Men In Black, Good Will Hunting, Spider-Man—suggests they might even decide it's his turn for an Oscar. Supporting his work here is a stream of era-evoking pop songs from Elvis ("All Shook Up"), Buddy Holly ("Everyday"), Bing Crosby, The Allman Brothers and Canned Heat. And—perhaps incongruously—a new Pearl Jam track, "Man Of The Hour".

Recorded at shows in Verona, Naples and Rome, this is as close to a Morricone live album as we'll get (given he's in his late seventies). The maestro conducts a 90-piece orchestra and 100 vocalists through a dozen selections from his (over) 400 scores. It's as gorgeous as you'd expect. Beginning with, to this reviewer's ears, his finest work—Once Upon A Time In America—it lopes, veers and swoops through themes and purple passages from, among others, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, Cinema Paradiso and Once Upon A Time In The West.

Late visionary's final recordings belatedly released