Album

Captain Trips, Bobby Ace and co ring out the old, ring in the new.

Watching the fabbest of all fours in their first US press conference, puffing away on cigs and deflecting inane enquiries, you feel proud to be a Brit. "Sing something for us!" "No, we need money first." Could Justin Timberlake—or Julian Casablancas, for that matter—be half as sarcastic? Imagine waking from a 40-year coma and coming afresh to these extraordinary scenes: four scouse charmers off the plane with their matching suits and Pan Am shoulder bags.

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.

Fine outing from rapidly maturing white American blueswoman

Debut album on Chris Blackwell's new indie label from Nuyorican global adventurers

Powerful first UK album release from Moog-driven Pittsburgh trio

Lost '60s soulstress' greatest misses

Astonishingly mature debut from Britain's brainiest new singer-songwriter

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".

Gilded, accessible sixth album from avant-rock stalwarts