Album

After the voracious onslaught of The Jimi Hendrix Experience's debut, Are You Experienced, Hendrix throttled back a little. For the band's second album, Axis: Bold As Love, the sound was lither and more fluid, indicating that there was more to him than the faintly racist caricature of the sex-hungry, gimmick-happy Wild Man Of Rock. Rough glimpses of his burgeoning versatility and easy self-confidence are in evidence on this two-disc collection—though such is the quality of these outtakes that the emphasis is generally on rough.

Those folky solo years of the late Face

Gorgeous fourth album from the subtlest band in Britain

Mesmerising chamber-metal ambience

Underrated Basement Jaxx guest star's fifth album

Solid hits and more from America's blue-collar workers

Four-CD box charting the journey from Treforest to Tinseltown and beyond

Career-spanning best-of for New Jersey's finest offers a generous helping of rarities

Self-styled "desert-surf-redneck" rawk from the other side of the tracks

Inordinately well-connected new rapper