Parisian duo invent "gay biker house" on EP of singles and remixes

Tamla titan revisits his hallowed past

Typically unadorned, quirky new album from cult hero

Acoustic re-recordings from lovelorn Factory Records refugees

Sparse, subdued third solo album from Muses/Belly survivor

Cycling fanatics return after five years with a darker, edgier but no less eccentric sound

Choral pop evangelists return. Lightning doesn't strike twice

LA's 35-year-old singer/songwriter nearly jacked in the solo stuff last year, so Return In Kind, though a covers record, is something of a reaffirmation. Where Casal has sometimes been victim of a too-perfect voice, here (as in recent work with side project Hazy Malaze) he adds grit to the mix.

Grammy-nominated at five (for 1973's "Daddy What If" duèt with famous country dad Bobby Bare), Junior took the Nashville blood and jacked it up with a punk speedball and heaps of seedy Memphis Soul. His second YCSL release is a dark narcotic delight, the beat-up voice straddling the grainbelt between Jeff Tweedy and Ryan Adams, and flipping the bird with all the wry sarcasm of Red Star Belgrade's Bill Curry. And the back-up's top drawer—Will Oldham, plus Lambchoppers Paul Burch, Paul Niehaus and producer Mark Nevers.

Given his gutbucket-of-blues voice, it's a surprise to find the ex-Uncle Tupelo/Son Volt man's first live album arriving 15 years into his career. Backed by Washington DC's Canyon, this is Farrar's 2003 US tour: the sound crisp, tight and fluid. Alongside thrusting newies "Doesn't Have To Be This Way" and "6 String Belief" are covers of Floyd's "Lucifer Sam" (an early Tupelo staple) and Neil Young's "Like A Hurricane". His solo material is typified by the thudding "Damn Shame".