Ten years after

BUSH HALL, LONDON Monday March 1, 2004 Rouse closes the first of two nights here with a version of Neil Young's "For The Turnstiles" so intense and intimate that when he sings the line "though your confidence may be shattered" we all inwardly go "uh-oh",and when he adds "it doesn't matter" we all go "phew, what a relief". His crowd are rapt throughout, whooping at every intro like he's just won the Superbowl.

Third album from Scottish indie four-piece has roughly accurate title

Cut from classic troubadour cloth, North Carolinan Holcombe has been recording for 20 years, though dogged by bad luck (dropped by Geffen, his previous album, A Hundred Lies, was only released after fans Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams found him a label). His husk of a voice and country-blues finger-picking is reminiscent of Eric Andersen and Tim Hardin, but closest to JJ Cale. The 48-year-old's stream-of-consciousness lyricism is unique, though, bearing the scars of a troubled past.

Her ninth studio album, and first after leaving Arista, her home since 1975

Robert Altman's offbeat '70s transposition of Chandler's noir classic

First album of original material for eight years

Graceful examination of guilt and grief

Watching the fabbest of all fours in their first US press conference, puffing away on cigs and deflecting inane enquiries, you feel proud to be a Brit. "Sing something for us!" "No, we need money first." Could Justin Timberlake—or Julian Casablancas, for that matter—be half as sarcastic? Imagine waking from a 40-year coma and coming afresh to these extraordinary scenes: four scouse charmers off the plane with their matching suits and Pan Am shoulder bags.

America's most unforgiving musical satirist performs many of his classic songs in this solo European show

The rapturous romantics' classic third album makes waves again