Reviews

Six previously unreleased demos from era of Volume Two (1969) and Third (1970)

Son of an Arkansas share-cropper made good

Inferior rival to Peter Mullan's The Magdalene Sisters

Watch Mr Bowie's greatest creation take his curtain call

Nick Broomfield's documentaries are as much farcical as investigative, with the director affecting the role of bumbling, plummy-voiced faux-naif, Kurt & Courtney (1998) was no exception. He looks hilariously out of place trailing around grungey Seattle, politely interrogating a series of eccentrics, conspiracy theorists and whacked-out dopers. He examines the possibility that Courtney murdered her husband, but witnesses prove so unreliable he drops the charge.

Psychiatric patient Prot (Kevin Spacey) seems remarkably sane, except for his assertion that he's really an alien visitor from a distant planet named K-Pax. It's Starman meets One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (in a nicely ironic piece of casting, Jeff Bridges plays the psychiatrist determined to discover Prot's real identity), and works nicely even if it does err on the side of sentimentality.

Now wealthy enough to not fall foul of record company lawyers (unpaid for Nana Mouskouri samples resulted in tracks being pulled from their 2000 debut Programmed To Love), The Everlasting Blink features a series of inspired if somewhat bizarre guest stars.

Tweedy & co prove handy recruits to the R.E.M. spin-off

Magickal creation theory in latest music-backed spoken words from comics king

Double album of new songs plus remixes of old stuff from Sugababes' sugar daddy