Album

The Bad Plus – These Are The Vistas

Potent jazz piano trio debut

Lil’ Kim – La Bella Mafia

Rapper-turned-actress hams her way through third album

Soft Machine – BBC Radio 1967-1971

Their extraordinary evolution as heard through John Peel's Top Gear

Positive Altitude

Utopian popsters' sublime rarities are a head and long neck above the opposition

The Bangles – Doll Revolution

Credit Atomic Kitten for one thing—their version of "Eternal Flame" is partially responsible for this Valley High reunion. Susanna Hoffs' acting career (with her mum) is a thing of the past, so the chief Bangle has motivated her crew to come up with an assured, if airbrushed, female power pop disc that's loaded with tooth-kind melodies: "Stealing Rosemary" and "Single By Choice" are instant brain worms. Whether demand for the Bangles' cute Cali cool exists today is open to debate. Hurrah for big hair, anyway.

The Dandy Warhols – Welcome To The Monkey House

Oregon rockers graduate from grunge to gadgetry

Katatonia – Viva Emptiness

Dark'n'heavy gem from Swedish gloom merchants

Alpha – Stargazing

Bristol duo release third album and prove there's life in the old trip hop dog yet

Randy Newman – Randy Newman’s Faust

Two-disc collection from Newman's hellish '95 musical

The Scruffs – Teenage Gurls

Memphis power pop is such an ever-expanding genre that Big Star's Alex Chilton, the godfather of the scene, must wish he'd taken out copyright. The Scruffs are one of several pre-Replacements acts who tapped into that antsy girls-on-my-mind mood and pursued the blend of melancholia with added rock'n'roll rush to a logical conclusion. Fronted by Stephen Burns, this second Scruffs album (recorded in 1978/9) contains band staples like "Go Faster", "Alice, Please Don't Go" and the post-Flamin' Groovies blood-letting of "Treachery".
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