Ten years after

After the early patronage of Howe Gelb, Oregon's Matt Ward dished up 2001's End Of Amnesia, one of the most breathtaking albums of recent years. Transfiguration...is another masterclass in deft guitar picking, smudged with piano, harmonica and a voice like honey drizzled onto a dry creekbed. The behind-a-screen-door quality of production adds to the strangeness, while the likes of "Undertaker" often stop, start, scuff around then veer off at a tangent. Somewhere between a Gelb bothering to finish off songs and The Band at their most bucolic.

Best album in years from British eccentric

In most cultures, seven is a magic number. Not in rock'n'roll, where to sustain any degree of originality beyond album three or four is about as rare as a sober Shane MacGowan.

Prefab Sprout mainman releases extraordinary "talking book" opus

Quality return from icon of rock-chick chic

Cult Britpunk director's brief Hollywood foray in full

The reunited US college rockers get startling heavy at what may be their final UK appearance

Possible final flurry from goth-punk legends

Fourth album proves crowning glory of Detroit duo's meteoric career to date

Veteran Louisiana-born country-soulster runs the gamut of musical styles and moods on her daring and dazzling follow-up to 2001's critically lauded Essence