Latest CD releases reviewed

IGGY POP
Live at the Avenue B Virgin/EMI ***

Recorded in Brussels in December 1999, this gig starts with spoken word tracks from then just-released album Avenue B (No Shit, Nazi Girlfriend and Español), with Iggy reflective - the calm before the storm. Then it shifts from first and second into third, fourth and fifth gears, and before you know where you are Iggy is up and at 'em - crowd surfing, truculent, sneering, goading, showing off his leathery, rippling, sinewy body in a way that only an arch narcissist can think is appealing. Anyone who has seen an Iggy show will know what to expect: a performance as close to the edge as anyone in rock has managed. The word "visceral" springs to mind; it's certainly a type of feral, primal state that Iggy has perfected over the years, very little of which seems hackneyed. DVD extras? After a performance like this? Don't be silly. Tony Clayton-Lea

JOHNNY CASH
Ridin' the Rails: The Great American Train Story Rhino ****

Johnny Cash begins Daniel Webster's 1974 television documentary Ridin' the Rails with: "There's nothing that stirs my imagination like the sound of a steam locomotive - that lonesome whistle cutting through the night and that column of black smoke and steam throwing shadows across the land." For Cash and Webster that sound is the American dream, and their idiosyncratic documentary - with its re-enactments, stories and songs about the history of the American railroad - is a tender celebration of that dream. Sung and narrated by the charismatic Cash - haunting ballads such as The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Doesn't Anybody Know My Name, and The L&N Don't Stop Here - Ridin' The Rails is a surprisingly personal and affecting documentary, especially with its iconic outtakes of Cash, guitar slung on his back, walking along empty rails into the sunset. www.rhinorecords.com Jocelyn Clarke