Reviews

The Hillside Strangler

Amoral biopic of '70s serial killers

Placebo – Once More With Feeling: Singles 1996-2004

Bowie-obsessed Brian Molko and co put plenty of low-rent sex and sleazy glam into videos such as "Nancy Boy" and "Bruise Pristine" while the Thin White Duke himself appears in "Without You I'm Nothing". But by the time Molko gets fed to the sharks in "You Don't Care About Us", his foetal whine has become so irritating you don't feel much sympathy. NIGEL WILLIAMSON

Wigan Peerless

All of Ashcroft and co's plus two Urban Hymns outtakes

Flower Of Youth

Lennon's troubled homage to the music he grew up with

Miles Davis – Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings Of Miles Davis 1963-64

Seven-disc addition to Miles Davis box set series

Niceland – Accidental

Mugison's follow-up to last year's acclaimed Lonely Mountain debut is the score to a Fridrik Thor Fridriksson film, recorded in a church and in his girlfriend's mum's front room in remote Western Iceland. Fridriksson (whose last, Falcons, boasted a song by Keith Carradine) has also used Sigur Rós and Psychic TV in the past (on Angels Of The Universe), so this isn't (quite) as wilfully obscure as you might assume. It's very rough, broken and sketchy, with minimalist acoustic guitars probing spectres of melodies till they crystallise (or don't).

Cool For Cats

Virginia's insurgent country queen dazzles on first live album

Nanci Griffith – Hearts In Mind

Lashings of syrup from the selfless champion of good causes and queen of the lovesick

Apes – Tapestry Mastery

Guitar-free noise freaks barely dodge prog-rock tag for the third time

Un Chien Andalou/L’Age D’Or

Punk rock began in 1929/30, when Luis Buñuel caused riots with these erotic howls of protest, urging the human race to place love and lust above civic duty. Visually he broke the mould, with a little help from Salvador Dalí. The 17-minute Un Chien is a hymn to desire; the 63-minute L'Age D'Or is shocking and beautifully immortal.
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