Sting

Hailing from the same US stable as The Mendoza Line, the Austin, Texas quartet Shearwater embrace a drowsier strain of melancholy on their second LP—all shuffling shades of piano, picked guitar and stings. Producer Brian (Daniel Johnston) Beattie filters just enough light to ward off any impending claustrophobia, while the contrast between ardent ornithology student Jonathan Meiburg's falsetto and Okkervil River moonlighter Will Robinson Sheff's upbeat crackle adds a subtle duality.

Budget-priced 14-track compilation by Kid 606-style avant-techno types

Three Hollywood favourites starring the silver-tongued man of style

The Jeff Tweedy-Jim O'Rourke love-in continues

Typical set by the '80s Bristol sound system that predated Massive Attack, mixed by original DJ Milo

Polanski's heartfelt hymn to Polish suffering in WWII Warsaw

Underwhelmed as we are by franchise McBlockbusters, this score's by the really rather talented Howard Shore, who was responsible for the coolly sexy sounds which rippled under David Cronenberg's Crash. His soppy strings for the first Baggins movie won him all manner of awards and made the UK Top 10. This one is distinguished by its remarkable guest vocalists: Iceland's Emiliana Torrini and former Cocteau Twin Elizabeth Fraser—from "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" to Gollum and Samwise: it makes a kind of sense, no?

Big-hearted coming-of-age story

Jamaican superstar DJ and his UK peers

Moderately entertaining introductory selection