Album

From the all-star fable casting Ole Bob as Jack Fate—"a fallen rock legend well past his prime." They said that, not me. This includes several exotic covers of his songs, from an Italian folk version of "If You See Her, Say Hello" to a Japanese "My Back Pages". "One More Cup Of Coffee" is tackled, amusingly to some of us, by Turkey's recent Eurovision winner, Sertab Erener.

Superb third album by undervalued Northern Irish rockers

Articulate US storyteller looks back on 20-year career

Oft-dismissed post-Let's Get It On team-up with Leon Ware

Euros Childs'perennial square pegs get back into meadow groove

Third and best from Paris-based Swedes

Previously unreleased Zappa album exclusively available in new surround sound format

Featuring the first new material from former My Bloody Valentine fulcrum Kevin Shields in 12 years, this is a bit special. Air's soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's 1999 directorial debut The Virgin Suicides proved to be one of the most durable of recent years (and it's been simultaneously reissued by the same label), and this—for her new film—comfortably matches that for understated, dreamy grandeur.

Fond farewell from first lady of country

In 1980 Diana Ross, Motown and Chic all needed each other. With Rick James' breakthrough still a year away, Motown were forced to hire their biggest competitors to provide Hitsville with some hits. In turn, Diana was the last of the original sequence of classic Chic albums, the real follow-up to Chic's 1979 milestone Risqué. Disc one includes the original "Chic mix" of the album (essentially demos, with slightly gutsier vocals) as well as the familiar one. We are reminded just how skilfully "Upside Down" orbits around its absent centre.