Given the parlous state of contemporary jazz singing (Diana Krall? Elvis, how could you?), Lea DeLaria, a butch dyke from St Louis with a dirty mouth and a deliciously wicked sense of humour, is all the more remarkable. Growing up with jazz in her veins, she was previously best known as a comic (she's also been a Broadway star), but singing is clearly her vocation.

Stadium punk from ambitious LA quartet

Follow-up to 2000's much-lauded Maroon from Jimmy's offspring

Solo outing from Clannad singer moving into Enya territory

Final set from now sadly disbanded duo

NYC singer-songwriter covered by Ronnie Spector and Laura Cantrell

A valiant and moving last hurrah from the sadly departed Clash hero

Sole creative survivor of Canterbury scene further refines his art on eighth LP

Despite recording together for 14 years (much of that as part of The Black Dog), Ed Handley and Andy Turner still explore the syntax of electronica with awe and excitement. Tracks like "Crumax Rins" or the haunting synth fugue "Cedar City" may hint at the tenebrous dissonance of their earlier incarnation, but generally Spokes is passionate and optimistic.

William Wyler's 1955 suspense classic, later remade by Michael Cimino, finds Humphrey Bogart frowning and sweating as only he can (in a role first played on stage by Paul Newman). Three on-the-run cons hold a family hostage in their home, but after plenty of mind games, the suburbanites outfox them. Humph had done it better in Key Largo, but it still crackles gamely.