Album

Formerly linked to the late-'90s big beat movement, Barry Ashworth's Dub Pistols have become one of the UK's leading exponents of political dubtronica. Jamaican Studio One veteran (and sometime Massive Attack collaborator) Horace Andy adds guest vocals to opening track "Sound Clash", eclipsed in the surprise stakes only by the appearance on "Problem" of former Specials frontman Terry Hall, making his first outing over a ska beat for decades. Electro, jazz, dancehall, hip hop—everything's here, mashed up in a smoky dub haze.

Orange County proto-hippie cowboys still plying their ornery trade

Roots-based album of covers from poor man's Springsteen

Lavish two-CD repackaging for Bowie's 1993 return to form

Enjoyable, rarities-stuffed collection. Pass the talc

Since big brother Steve first recruited her to sing backing on 1991's The Hard Way, Stacey Earle's gradual career curve has included two unadorned solo albums (1999's Simple Gearle and 2000's Dancin' With Them That Brung Me) before finally sharing centre stage with 'im indoors, Mark Stuart, on 2001's Must Be Live. This new offering is simply the best thing either have ever done. Stuart's classic country voice meshes with Earle's honeyed purr superbly, but it's the bold instrumentation that truly glows.

Athens, Georgia white-trash rapper's improbably fine return

Enjoyably unhinged debut from club promoters/DJs turned recording artists

No time for rest in Godspeed's Montreal enclave, as the collective's myriad spin-offs continue to fight the capitalist hegemony with sad tunes and very long titles. Mt Zion are ostensibly the pop wing, adding vocals from guitarist Efrim and—new here—a massed choir to the usual thicket of slow guitars and chamber strings. It's debatable how necessary his croak is, since Godspeed's great gift is to disseminate radical politics by musical implication rather than explicit polemic.

Potent shoegazing electronica from Antibes, France