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Review: Pearl Charles presides over the true with Desert Queen, her most refined work yet: a bittersweet set recorded in Joshua Tree with producer Lewis Pesacov and mixed by Michael Rault. Drawing on the velveteen textures of classic Stax sides, the album drapes Charles's crisp songwriting in brass, strings and soft grooves, caught somewhere in the smoky control of Karen Carpenter and the group swagger of Memphis session royalty. This is west coast country-soul at its most elegant, with a light touch and a lingering warmth.

Review: Funk. Soul. Psychedelic. And good old rough and ready rock 'n' roll. There are plenty of ways to interpret and categorise Jeannie Piersol's music. None come close to hitting the nail on the head of this enigma: a woman shrouded in the thick haze of weed smoke and LSD vapour. A key artist in the 1960s San Francisco counterculture, very little is known about her, but she rose to prominence with Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Brother, before exiting via the backdoor as the hippy dream died at the heel of conservatives and capitalists. The Nest brings together all Piersol's 1968 singles for the Chess label, alongside bits by Yellow Brick Road and Hair, studio outtakes, demos, and live recordings from some of her legendary shows of the time. Complete with 16-page booklet and 7,500 word essay by Grammy-nominated producer Alec Palao, this is more time capsule than album really.