Uncut

First new work in six years. Todd Rundgren guests

Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth hold a party in their home studio

Gentle, refined French jazz

Her first major album in a decade, featuring Steve Earle, Sheryl Crow and father Johnny

Coldplay join Echo & The Bunnymen singer on first solo outing since 1992

Tasty box of All-Sorts from mainstream monsters of yesteryear

Ex-Factory 'ambient' guitarist returns with best album in years

First Jesse Malin's solo debut, now Concussion—if anything, this is an even finer record than The Fine Art Of Self Destruction. Steve Earle described Ryan as "one of the best songwriters I've seen come to Nashville", and he's no bullshitter.

Ether does it for ex-Cocteau Twin's solo debut

Venus Hum are heralded as the "New Sound of Nashville", but Big Beautiful Sky's first few tracks take you back to early-'80s Basildon. With Annette Strean's crystalline voice trilling over bouncy synths, you imagine Eddi Reader fronting Vince Clarke's Depeche Mode—it's sweet but unpardonably passé. Thankfully, it changes quickly, the music slowing and swelling to a Björk-style naturalistic ambience that suits Strean's wide-eyed conjuring of delicate flora and sweeping vistas.