Album

David Byrne is best known for his work with Talking Heads, Eno, a smash hit last year with X-Press 2, and his label, Luaka Bop. It's less well-known that he co-wrote the score for The Last Emperor (despite the fact it won him an Oscar) and has worked with theatre experimentalist Robert Wilson.

Early recordings of recent Grammy-winner

Born in Miami but weaned on the mid-'60's coffee house scene around Boston, Smither remains a strangely undiscovered talent. The 11th album of his 33-year recording career is a masterclass in deftly-picked country blues guitar, drawing on Lightnin' Hopkins and Mississippi John Hurt (a sunny-side-up cover of "Candy Man") alongside the more lugubrious Fred Neil. Smither's weathered old pipes are a joy as he tramples over melting chords like a bear with a migraine.

It's been a long crawl back to credibility for prog titans Yes, but things seem to be shifting in their favour of late. There's a new wave of young bands emerging, unafraid to wear their prog influences on their sleeves (The Mars Volta, Cave In, Beecher) and the old sods themselves are attracting 'celebrity' plaudits (The Flaming Lips, PiL's Keith Levene, Vincent Gallo). This is as it should be—contrary to post-punk dogma, Yes were never a joyless listen.

Best-of for Liverpool post-punks

Ninth album from much-admired and well-connected former country-rocker

Ageless rock'n'roll motherlode reconvenes Stooges, toys with Green Day and hooks up with art-rapper Peaches

Sixth album from Mr and Mrs Sparks of New Mexico

The alter-ego of Jon DeRosa (whose day job is with electro outfit Aarktica), Pale Horse And Rider first surfaced as a steel-stringed side project on last year's Alcohol/EPs. For his first LP, Brooklyn-based DeRosa opted for the cloistered acoustics of Duluth, Minnesota's Sacred Heart Church, with Low's Alan Sparhawk recording. At times minimal to the point of disappearing, this is a spare exercise in frayed-at-the-seam country, spooked by banjo, harmonium and piano notes that hang in the air.

Patchy selection from the man Quentin Tarantino called "a musical journalist, a chronicler of his time"