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Review: The Cowboy Bebop was an anime series that was much loved for its soundtrack albums by Japanese composer and instrumentalist Yoko Kanno and his band the Seatbelts. The sounds were weird and wonderful affairs that made odd connections between seemingly disparate worlds - jazz, rock, J-pop and electronic, often with a curious aesthetic. Just this year, Kanno has returned to soundtracking the series on Netflix so this reissue is sure to connect with fans old and new. It is largely instrumental, with big band pieces next to more ambient passages and extensive alto sax deployment. As far as cult records go, this one is right up there.

Review: As long as there is hip-hop, debate will rage as to which album by A Tribe Called Quest is their finest. Of course, they're all superb, but 1993's "Midnight Marauders" - their third full-length - may well be the best of all. That's a big call, but we'd ask any doubters to give it another listen. The New York crew is in particularly fine form on the mic throughout, while the backing tracks, which make great use of crunchy, head-nodding beats and hundreds of superb, hand-picked samples, are amongst the most intricately produced, groovy and deep ever committed to wax. It's one of those hip-hop sets that should be in the collection of any committed music head, and not just rap fans.

Review: Like owning a little piece of history with a bonus memoir, The Clash's Combat Rock was - is - the band's best selling album of all time and highest charting in both the US and UK. This was also the last time Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon would record together before the lineup changed, and the track list contains at least two of the outfit's most recognised songs - namely 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' and 'Rock the Casbah'.

The original version of the LP was less expansive than this special edition released to mark 40 years since the long-player went on sale. The addition of The People's Hall offers fans a chance to relish in no less than 12 extra tracks, including collaborations with the legendary Ranking Roger - 'Rock the Casbah' and 'Red Angel Dragnet' - the iconic late-frontman of The Beat more than ideally suited to the crew's sound.

Review: An intense exercise in duality, 'Know Your Enemy' was actually born as a mission by Manic Street Preachers to record two albums in quick succession. 'Solidarity' and 'Door To The River' were simultaneous early-noughties left and right brains, channelling completely different ideas in some ways, and the same ideas in others. Now, the compiled album gets a full restoration, and includes two previously unreleased tracks 'Rosebud' and 'Studies In Paralysis'.

Review: Album number five from legendary British post-punk and New Wavers The Clash was first unveiled on 14th May 1982. 40 years on it finds itself the centre of attention once more, re-released both in this original version and an extended edition with bonus record The People's Hall. Sticking to this outing, fans will likely already know that the record as it was first intended remains the band's most successful of all time, outselling all that came before or after and charting higher than any other in the US and UK alike.

Respectively hitting number seven and number two in the charts of the day, and spending 23 weeks in the top 40 albums in Britain and a mammoth 61 weeks in the LP league tables Stateside, today it's a double-platinum testament to just how potent the combination of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon was. The last record to feature that iteration of the outfit, tracks like 'Rock the Casbah' and 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' remain utterly timeless.

Review: RECOMMENDED
It almost (almost) pains us to recommend this one - The White Stripes aren't really a band that should be releasing Greatest Hits albums. We'd much rather them give us a surprise record of typically groundbreaking, brand new theatric and infectious blues-tinged rock 'n' roll. But we are where we are, and after more than a decade without much activity from the siblings beggars can't be choosers.

One of our objections is exactly how you choose what to include on an LP like this. What defines a 'hit' from an outfit that are renowned for packing albums with nothing but stone cold gems, even if they failed to make it onto radio playlists or single format. In this case, though, the challenge has been met - with chart topping fare like Seven Nation Army notably absent, while more wildcard tracks such as 'I Think I Smell A Rat' and 'Dead Leaves On the Dirty Ground' given their deserving dues.

Review: Koffee is the next generation of Jamaican reggae artist who is reinvigorating the reagge-pop world. She is still only 22 but already had a global following and an influence almost as big. Her 2018 tune 'Toast' was a huge smash that found its way onto Barrack Obama's coveted playlist and then the year later she followed it up with a Grammy win for Best Reggae Album. Until recently she has managed all this success with only a relatively small number of tunes available for streaming. This new album is sure to take things to the next level though with its mix of trad reggae and modern pop flourishes.

Review: RECOMMENDED
Let's face it, White Blood Cells is the moment when The White Stripes really broke the mould. It's a continuation of Jack and Meg's garage rock aesthetic as fine-tuned over two previous albums, and wholeheartedly a straight up rock 'n' roll album. But the elements are so perfectly primed it's impossible not to rank this as one of the greatest long form outings of this century, so far. And we're not alone - Rolling Stone even reckons it's among the best LPs of all time. Pity the fool who disagrees.

From the racing 'Fell in Love With A Girl', to the beguiling mystery of 'The Union Forever', 'I Think I Smell A Rat''s meld of mariachi riffs and mosh stomp and the emotional piano closer 'This Protector', to the innocent acoustic joy of 'We're Going To Be Friends', this is a masterclass of songwriting and arrangement, tracks that evolve, perplex, surprise, and - most importantly - entertain.

Review: Six years is ages for a band to go without releasing an album or doing very much. But for AC/DC, whose work rate has always been ridiculously high, it's a very, very long time. Between then and now, the band lost their lead singer, Brian Johnson, to hearing difficulties in the middle of their last tour, and saw drummer Paul Rudd arrested in New Zealand for 'attempting to procure a murder'. Talk about impetus to finally call time.

But then these are the guys responsible for one of history's greatest heavy rock triumphs, 1980s's Back In Black, released just months after formative frontman Bon Scott tragically passed. So it's no surprise Power Up, another post-traumatic release albeit an act of reunification with now (relatively) healthy Johnson and innocent Rudd returning, is among their best in the 40 years since. A comeback record that sounds exactly like AC/DC should - ballsy, bluesy, boozy riffs.

Review: In 1991 the UK is in a very different place to the one it occupies today. One thing that hasn't changed in the 30 years between then and now, though, is how incredibly, unbelievably good Primal Scream's Screamadelica was. And still is.

It might have been the studio mastery brought to the mix by the late, great Andrew Weatherall. Perhaps it hit the nail on the head of a year when the country's rock and dance scenes finally met somewhere on the outskirts of Blackburn, or along the M25. Maybe, just maybe, it's because the tracks themselves are just great. Whatever your personal take, this album should be on everyone's shelves. From the hedonism of 'Loaded' to the pseudo-rave euphoria of 'Come Together', and the self love of 'Movin' On Up' always inspires, the record is of its time but resonates through the ages.

Review: This cutely entitled Demodelica double album brings together a load of different versions of classic cuts from Primal Schemas Screamadelica album, which itself has been the subject of a big anniversary reissue this year. All of the 16 tracks here are previously unreleased demo versions that offer a real insight into how the final album came together. The works in progress versions are just as interesting and the whole thing comes with some new notes from Jon Savage. Whether it's the rawness of 'I'm Comin' Down' (Isle Of Dogs Home Studio) or the intensity of 'Movin' On Up' (Hackney Studio demo), fans will be keen to hear this one.

Review: This sixth studio album by Arcade Fire is as anticipated as any in the seminal indie band's long career. It was produced by esteemed Radiohead associate Nigel Godrich in many different locations around the world from El Paso to New Orleans. The band say it was the longest they have ever spent writing together and is focused on the forces that threaten to pull the world apart and how we must resist. WE has a big narrative arc that makes for a real rollercoaster of seven tunes that go from light to dark and back and with plenty of joy expressed amongst the tensions.