Album

Electro bruisers retreat into rock

Limited-edition deluxe package of film composer at the old joanna

One-stop round-up of the B-sides to the singles extracted from Hail To The Thief

Sorely overdue reissue of a masterpiece of '60s Brit improv, complete with previously unissued material

That'll be Kristin Hersh, rocking, quite literally, like a mother...

Second album from ubiquitous production unit The Neptunes

Cliche-free avant word-hop from the Bay Area's finest

Lopsided twofer

The East End boy's entire CBS output remastered and reintroduced to a world perhaps now ready for it

You might be expecting this to be a car crash of a second album, an anachronism long since superseded in relevance and sonics by the likes of Dizzee Rascal. But A Grand Don't Come For Free is in fact an extraordinary thing—a concept album, possibly the first garage opera, with a storyline that magnifies the frustration and decay captured so brilliantly on 2002's Original Pirate Material. The story details a particularly ruinous week in Mike Skinner's life; focusing on the loss of his £1000 savings, his broken TV and the collapse of his relationship with his girlfriend.