Album

Mull Historical Society – This Is Hope

Diminishing returns from Scottish multi-instrumentalist

John Lee Hooker

Respectful, if bitty, retrospective, laying out the boogie man's career by linking archive performances with comments from the likes of Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt and Hooker himself. It could have done with more of the early years, and less of what Nick Cave once called "unfortunate guitar work from Carlos Santana."

The House Of Love – The Fontana Years

Two-CD compilation of '80s coulda-beens

Johnny Cash – Lonesome In Black

Indispensable double-disc compilation of Man In Black's Sun years

The Magnificent Seven – Varese Sarabande

Elmer Bernstein's classic score to the 1960 western, perhaps the last hurrah of traditional, pre-graphic-violence heroism. The film tanked at first in the US before European plaudits prompted re-promotion, and the Oscar-nominated music wasn't officially released until as late as the '90s. The title theme's unmistakable, and the sleevenotes to this package reveal two cute ironies. That theme, licensed out, sold more cigarettes than any other tobacco ad. Second, Bernstein was outside a Barcelona café last year, sitting by one of those mechanical horses that kids ride. It played his tune.

Hope Of The States – The Lost Riots

Overblown epic by post-rock Coldplay

Graham Coxon – Happiness In Magazines

Ex-Blur man rediscovers Britpop roots

Nellie Mckay – Get Away From Me

Startlingly different double-CD debut from precocious teen songsmith

Check Your ED

Six volumes of highlights from the Sunday night US television show that was the MTV of its day

Stan Webb & Chicken Shack – Going Up, Going Down: The Anthology 1968-2001

Double album retrospective from Kidderminster's favourite blues band
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