This month's New Strokes. Disappointing

Follow-up to MTV-friendly Gran Turismo

Bob Mould alter-ego gets heavy on the dancefloor

Powerful debut after a decade's tough luck from hard-bitten New Jersey singer-songwriter

Doom-laden noodling from NYC's latest press darlings

With NYC's bright new hopes (Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) openly worshipping at the altar of scratchy early-'80s UK punk-funk (PiL, Gang Of Four), it now seems doubly outrageous that Department S were denied the release of this like-minded debut at the time—"Whatever Happened To The Blues" alone is 20 years ahead of Radio 4. An even greater shame that singer Vaughan Toulouse (who died of AIDS in 1991) isn't around to savour the overdue recognition this should grant him.

The Big Star flew solo, jumped back to his Southern roots, then went live in London

Tear-streaked wonder from Abba's pop-rock progeny

Raw, rigorous yet transcendent social realism

A cult favourite back when our people were fair and had stars in their hair, this addled 1974 sensory epic follows legendary surfer and cameraman George Greenough's search for the perfect wave. Set to the ping-pongs of Pink Floyd's "Echoes", the final 20 minutes are surf-cinema's equivalent of 2001's Stargate sequence—but it's for boardheads and Floyd completists only. Give us Point Break any day.