Album

Soledad Brothers – Voice Of Treason

Third album from Detroit blues exponents and White Stripes chums

Bell X1 – Music In Mouth

Dublin-based quartet with Gemma Hayes, Frames and Mundy associations release second disc

The Essential Nino Rota – Silva Screen

Glamour, guts and surrealism. Nino Rota, who died in '79, won Oscars for his haunting Godfather scores, but his greatest collaborations were with his compatriot Fellini. Films such as La Dolce Vita, 8½, Roma, Amarcord and La Strada were among the highlights of their three decades of artistic alliance. Few if any have merged imagery and music to such effect: you could argue that Fellini's idiosyncrasies were such that Rota's job was hardest of all. The Prague Philharmonic here whistle through his warm, sure work.

Clarkesville – The Half Chapter

New kid from Walsall puts fresh leather on troubadour boot

The Zephyrs – A Year To The Day

The Zephyrs' desolate sound describes their war-torn history. First Scottish label Southpaw folded the same week it released their last album. Then a literal-minded rock revival forced their soporific sea shanties off the radar. Now signed to Setanta, things are looking up for the Edinburgh-based quintet who, with this third album, have created an unhurried portrait of emotional disquiet.

Manic Street Preachers – Lipstick Traces: A Secret History Of…

35 B-sides and rarities, with two unreleased tracks, on two CDs

Essential Logic – Fanfare In The Garden: An Essential Logic Collection

Anthologising nearly-lost gems from Lora Logic's arty post-punk outfit

Apollo 440 – Dude Descending A Staircase

Two-CD collection of funk and chill-out

Guided By Voices – Earthquake Glue

Business as usual for Ohio institutions

Hulk – Decca

Free mini poster! More blockbusting belligerence from Kermit's overweight and moody second cousin, or at least from the film with the most laughably dodgy CGI in cinematic history. Has nobody the courage to tell Ang Lee to stick to melodramas where drippy women in bonnets pine for Hugh Grant or Sigourney Weaver plays a '70s swinger? Danny Elfman, colossal hack of multiplex scores, dresses this beast, with Natacha Atlas cameo-ing, while the finale, "Set Me Free", is performed by Scott Weiland, Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner.
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