Stiff Little Fingers: "And Best Of All . . . Hope Street" (EMI)

Fair f***s to Jake Burns for keeping the SLF flame burning through the past two decades, even though the incendiary message of Suspect Device and Alternative Ulster may have been dampened by time. This double CD combines a new album, Hope Street, with a Best Of set featuring the aforementioned punk classics, plus razor-edge guitar anthems such as Barbed Wire Love and Fly The Flag. While The Undertones eschewed politics in favour of manic pop thrills, SLF's music was pumped full of polemic, but it wasn't long before the spit dried up and SLF became just another bunch of shouty old punks. The new album sounds desperately dated despite the crackling guitars of Tantalise and Last Train From The Wasteland - Burns may be trying hard to remain relevant in the new Northern Ireland, but he seems firmly stuck on Old Guard duty. Kevin Courtney

The Best Country Ballads in the World . . . Ever! (EMI)

This just may be the silliest "country" compilation ever released, partly because its legitimate links to country music are so tenuous at times that EMI should be charged with violation of the Trade Descriptions Act. Jimmy Nail's Crocodile Shoes, country? Dr Hook's A Little Bit More? That said, it works. Those titles may seem totally anomalous, but play the 40-track double CD and it all seems to fall into place; beautifully so. It doesn't really matter that contemporary country tunes like The Mavericks' Dance The Night Away, or Leann Rimes's How Do I Live?, could as easily be called "pop". But the real delights are the timeless hits like Ode To Billie Joe, Funny How Time Slips Away, Games People Play, Jolene and Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue? It may not be country, they may not all be ballads, by a long shot, but this is one hell of a collection of classics. Joe Jackson

Sarah Brightman: "Eden" (Warner)

Were there pixies in the Garden of Eden? If so, imagine a pixie singing. Now give that pixie opium and you have the sound Sarah Brightman makes when she sings. It's not so much that her voice is small, it's just that she applies it to music that is much larger than she could ever hope to tackle successfully. That, in itself, is a commendable tendency; but not when the composers involved are classical greats such as Puccini and Albinoni. Her adaptation of Albinoni, Anytime, Anywhere, does find her breathing a little easier than when she tries to tackle Nessun Dorma, and fails. Even so, Brightman and Ennio Morricone are a delightful mix in Nella Fantasia, and her duet with Francis Lai has a lyrical lightness. Scene D'Amour is stunningly beautiful. For pixie parties only. Joe Jackson