Exiled Scots maverick follows up 2001's Folktronic, now with added glitches

A soothing stroll down Germany's less travelled electro boulevards

Bret Easton Ellis' second novel was very much of the '80s, but one of the many clever things Roger Avary's done with his pulsing movie adaptation is to catch the feel of that decade's music without slavishly nuzzling obvious nostalgia trends. The underlying score, by indie-flick stalwarts tomandandy (sic), is both inventive and unsettling. Around it are layered songs of a chic, shiny kind of darkness, borrowed from various eras: tone and temperature are more important here than timeliness.

Potent jazz piano trio debut

Rapper-turned-actress hams her way through third album

Their extraordinary evolution as heard through John Peel's Top Gear

Utopian popsters' sublime rarities are a head and long neck above the opposition

Credit Atomic Kitten for one thing—their version of "Eternal Flame" is partially responsible for this Valley High reunion. Susanna Hoffs' acting career (with her mum) is a thing of the past, so the chief Bangle has motivated her crew to come up with an assured, if airbrushed, female power pop disc that's loaded with tooth-kind melodies: "Stealing Rosemary" and "Single By Choice" are instant brain worms. Whether demand for the Bangles' cute Cali cool exists today is open to debate. Hurrah for big hair, anyway.

Oregon rockers graduate from grunge to gadgetry

Dark'n'heavy gem from Swedish gloom merchants