Album

Stopgap from young singer-songwriter

Five-disc box set suggests King Of Pop is Sovereign Of Soul

Second LP from heavyweight hip hop producers' eccentric joint venture

After last year's disappointing Never Go Home, Brian Krumm's Illinois quartet seem to have rediscovered the last-gang-in-town swagger that made 2000's Damaged Goods such a riot. Guitars cranked up to 11, it's bulging roadhouse rock, with the added croak of Krumm's phlegmy Tom Waits-isms. But there's a leanness about these loser-through-a-shot-glass songs that suggests they've matured too, not least on the latter-day gunslinger ballad "November" and in the neon-splashed moodiness of "St Christopher Street".

Properly slack garage gear

Shane MacGowan's old running boyos in serious shindig

Frank Black Francis: the beginning and the end. One could treat these two dramatically different discs as bookends to Pixies history if the band hadn't just completed a triumphant reunion tour, while talk of a new album continues.

Double-disc expanded edition of his best '70s solo album

Hip record company attempts to thrust stardom upon unwilling recipient

51-track double-disc comp gathering together hits and rarities