Album

First time on CD for Scots showman's final album

Fourth album in 20 years from Giant Sand's twisted country cousin

Emotionally resonant ambient electro from Rothko mainman and pen pal

Dedicated techno head delves into death disco on his second LP

Overlooked Ohio five-piece deliver ravaged second album

Belated but brilliant follow-up to Choochtown from one-man Angry Brigade and Uncut columnist

Re-emergence of jazz-folk classic from Chicago tunesmith

The gothic country of Frazer's '90s band Tarnation shared much with 16 Horsepower and The Handsome Family—a Georgia-raised pastor's daughter, the South inspired Frazer's poetry. While we await the follow-up to 2001's Indoor Universe, these four-track rarities provide ample nourishment. Some of these songs appeared on Gentle Creatures ('95) and Mirador ('97), but not this nakedly beautiful. Frazer's voice has a metallic-folk edge which, allied to mariachi guitar, floods "An Awful Shade Of Blue" and "The Hand" with harsh desert light.

The movie/musical of Hedwig And The Angry Inch was an East Coast cause célèbre a couple of years back; we could (and probably did) lazily describe it as the Rocky Horror of the new millennium. Its impact on middling-to-big rock people was greater than it ever was on the British public—for now, as a charity album for the Hetrick-Martin Institute, home to the Harvey Milk School for gay youth, there arrives a twinkling set of Hedwig homages.

Double album of Boss cover versions