While a new Roxy Music studio album remains a tantalising pipe dream for persons of a certain age, Live--featuring 22 sonically-consummate tracks recorded in 16 plushly-upholstered auditoriums, from Stuttgart to Adelaide via Vancouver--proves to be just the ticket for the luckless majority who missed the band's much-feted 2001 reunion world tour. When the news filtered out from the Strand in London that Roxy (Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera and Paul Thompson but, alas, no Brian Eno) were reconvening, headshaking sceptics anticipated a perfunctory nostalgia trip by superannuated globetrotters looking to increase their off-shore equity holdings. How wrong they were. While Live is consummately professional and exhibits an enviable attention to detail (Lucy Wilkins supplants Eddie Jobson's violin virtuosity on "Out of the Blue" and there are even revving motorbike noises on "Virginia Plain") it is far from clinically sterile. The grand old godfathers of glam still manage to stoke up a fire behind the likes of "Remake Remodel" and Brian Ferry continues to sing with all the sensory shudder of a man either handling a poisonous spider or having his back scratched by some delectable supermodel. Their influence is still palpable--Suede, for example, must have rewritten "Street Life" three times over. Pretty much everything on Live--from the art-rock chic of the early years to the urbane charisma of "Avalon"--sounds as topically fresh as today's edition of the six o'clock news. --Kevin Maidment
£7.47
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Rodgers & Hammerstein wrote the music for this film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The scene in which Andrews crests a hill with her arms spread singing the title track is one of the greatest in American film. Hearing that song forever fills the listener with that image, and remains as fresh and even chilling as it was initially. Unfortunately much of this has been co-opted by television advertisements or whatever, and so could languish because of the clichéd quality of it. Fortunately, conductor Irwin Kostal delivered a wonderful score, and the vocal delivery is as vibrant as any in the storied history of film musicals. --Scott Wilson
£13.47
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So long, tatty Warped Tour T-shirt, goodbye day-glo pedal pushers: Love Angel Music Baby, the debut solo album from No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani, finds this former ska-punk tomboy embracing ‘80s electro-pop, digital R&B, and the glamorous lifestyle of the international jetsetter. Laden with special guests (Andre 3000, Dr Dre, New Order), name-dropping the likes of Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano, and packed with guilt-free references to conspicuous consumption, tracks like "Luxurious"--a cut of velvety G-Funk that sees Gwen cooing "Champagne kisses/ Hold me in your lap of luxury"--may well be an instant turn-off to fans more familiar with Gwen’s punk-rock roots. Luckily, there’s some fine pop crossover moments here that should pretty much appeal across the board: "Hollaback Girl" finds Gwen riding a Neptunes beat that’s as minimal as anything in their oeuvre, spare boom-crash percussion and wisps of acoustic guitar undercut by floor-shaking bass whoomp, while "Rich Girl" featuring Eve, repaying the favour for 2002’s "Let Me Blow Your Mind", raids Fiddler On The Roof and comes out with a great pop hook. As an album, it’s not totally devoid of filler, but Love Angel Music Baby will break Gwen to a whole new fanbase, and deservedly so.--Louis Pattison
£5.30
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