Album

Twelfth album from Canadian champions of alt.country misery

Appetising mini album from swampy Friends Of Franz

Welcome return to form from Philadelphian roots rockers

Tori has chosen a surprisingly conventional in-concert format for her first-ever DVD. Recorded in Florida last year, it's an intense performance, the songs drawn mostly from her recent Scarlet's Walk album, augmented by old favourites such as "Cornflake Girl" and "Professional Widow".

Testaments to a tragically obscure talent whose genius flared briefly but brightly

Brian Wilson backs his own backing band

Magnus is a collaboration between Tom Barman of superior Belgian noirists dEUS and heavyweight techno DJ/producer CJ Bolland. The dance/rock hybrid is usually an ugly beast, but The Body... represents a meeting of minds rather than a dilution of disparate talents. Live drums augment programmed beats throughout, while sax, Wurlitzer and sampled film dialogue are added to the mix and members of Belgian bands Evil Superstars and Millionaire guest.

Granted he has been off most people's radar for a generation, but surely the creator of Off The Coast Of Me, the man without whom there would be, arguably, no Prince, and, unarguably, no Andre 3000 (imagine "Hey Ya!" as a Kid Creole comeback smash in a parallel world), deserves better than the horrible, cheap, synthetic horns and bargain basement drum machines which dominate and desecrate this new album. Or perhaps not.

Two Texans plus two Mancunians equals the best debut album of 2004

Shot at Brixton Academy at the end of Moloko's 2003 tour, this is a limp wander through the band's hits which even Roisin Murphy can't lift. There's none of the inter-band tension that a year on the road might have generated, and they even manage to mangle "Sing It Back". For devotees only.