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Album: Joss Stone, Colour Me Free! (EMI)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Delayed for a year by a label with whom she has fallen into dispute, Colour Me Free! represents a return to the retro-soul style of Joss Stone's debut following the ill-advised attempts to squeeze her into the R&B diva mould.

Album: Martha Wainwright, Martha Wainwright's Piaf Record (Drowned In Sound)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

As with her brother Rufus's tribute to Judy Garland, Martha Wainwright's tribute to Edith Piaf is the kind of album project one can admire, but without ever wanting to hear it again.

Album: Robbie Williams, Reality Killed the Video Star (EMI)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Robbie Williams' albums have increasingly come to focus upon the singer himself, which has consequently made them less and less appealing to those not entirely smitten with his charms.

Album: Brett Anderson, Slow Attack (BA Songs)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Save for "Julian's Eyes", which brings a louche cabaret mood towards the end of the album, Slow Attack finds Brett Anderson in strangely pastoral mode, eschewing the sleazy outsider urban glamour which once obsessed his muse, in favour of brisk, improving constitutionals and reflections upon the changing seasons.

Album: Bon Jovi, The Circle (Mercury)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

With an average of a new studio album every two years so far this century, few bands could challenge Bon Jovi as the most dependably prolific rockers on the planet.

Album: Biffy Clyro, Only Revolutions (14th Floor)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The progress of Ayrshire prog-metal trio Biffy Clyro demonstrates again that, outside of the short-term imperatives of Cowellised talent-show pop, the best way for a proper rock band to develop is through faith and persistence, rather than coaching and consultancy. Together since 1995, they've persevered through years of solo gigs and well-chosen support slots, building up a solid fanbase which finally expanded to chart-bothering proportions in 2007 with their fourth album Puzzle. It's an object lesson in self-determination akin to the success of Muse, with whom they share an affection for pungent riffs and quirky lyrical themes. Biffy Clyro favour the kind of abstruse non sequiturs that leave one scratching one's head. But the drift is clear: Only Revolutions is packed with violent imagery – lots of hits, bruises, shots, burns and blood, and even a track titled "Booooom, Blast & Ruin". Elsewhere, big metaphors – God and Satan, mountains and oceans - abound, decked out in suitably grandiose, constantly gear-changing pomp-metal riffs, fattened in some case with fanfaring horns or underscored with strings. The exception is the oddly-titled "Many Of Horror", an understated love song and obvious single-in-waiting; but the standout track is surely "Bubbles", to which a guesting Josh Homme brings a touch of Queens Of The Stone Age.

The Dead Weather, HMV Forum, London

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

In the school of rock, Jack White would surely be head prefect. His insatiable appetite for extra-curricular activities has seen him collaborating with Alicia Keys for the theme of Quantum of Solace, Electric Six, Loretta Lynn, and Brendan Benson for the Raconteurs. But White's latest outfit, the Dead Weather, sees perhaps his darkest incarnation yet: the Mr Hyde to the Raconteurs' Dr Jekyll – a brooding, foot-stomping, gothic channel for his multifarious talents. Beneath this White Stripe is a darker core.

Doves, The Roundhouse, London

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Doves released their fourth album, Kingdom of Rust, earlier this year, and it has been widely hailed their best yet. Its bittersweet lyrics and sweeping melodies, delivered in epic rock songs, are not far from their first album, Lost Souls, that won them a loyal fan base in 2000. That's not to say their music hasn't developed – it just hasn't flirted with fads.

UB40, The Rainbow Courtyard, Birmingham

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:09:14 GMT

They have had number one singles across the globe and sold millions of albums. But this week, UB40 - a band more used to playing to packed stadia, stepped out onto the stage of a much smaller venue, the 350-capacity Rainbow Courtyard.

Leona Lewis, Hackney Empire, London

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Leona Lewis's first major homecoming gig wasn't going to be anything less than a fanciful affair designed for the modern diva. It's exactly the direction the Hackneyite has been groomed towards, given the past two years she's spent in the company of Simon Cowell and major players to diminish her reality-show ties and establish her credibility – not to mention the mystery that's surrounded her fantastical transformation, which appears to be the subtle theme tonight. Either that, or someone thought it'd be clever to toy with the idea of the good girl turned semi-bad with a show that plops the singer into the edgy arena of sinister interludes and the random accompaniment of six b-boying Shaolin types.

Grizzly Bear, Barbican, London

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Halloween night at the Barbican. Black-clad members of the London Symphony Orchestra take up their positions as dry ice billows over them. Ranged across the front of the stage, in among the waiting guitars, electronic paraphernalia and other instruments, are six T-shaped gantries, from each of which hang six glass jars. The effect is startling, and not a little spooky. But are these 36 jars there to be played? Or are they purely for decoration?

Brett Anderson, Tabernacle, London

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Much has been made of Brett Anderson's apparent happiness in the musical "wilderness". After the hedonism of the 1990s (all that energetic, drug-fuelled positioning of himself away from Britpop), the 42-year-old is now very much a solo artist and seems more content for it.

The xx, Audio, Brighton

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

In an era where stadium-sized rock bands such as Muse create towering symphonies and sing in a register of permanent panic, the south-west London four-piece the xx trade refreshingly in subtlety and understatement.

Sonic Youth, HMV Forum, London

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Near the close of the show, a stool and an acoustic guitar were produced. Stool? Acoustic? This is Sonic Youth, right? I think the seating arrangement was ironic, while the acoustic guitar was used by Thurston Moore for a slow-burning rhythm on "Massage the History", with Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo knocking out squalls on electric guitars. New York's noisemakers haven't gone soft.

Album: Julian Casablancas, Phrazes for the Young, (Rough Trade)

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

At last, the organ-grinder. Or at least, that is how the debut from the Strokes leader will uncharitably be viewed – coming as it does after nearly all of Casablancas' monkeys have dropped at least one solo record.

Album: Stefano Bollani, Stone in the Water, (ECM)

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The Blue Note label used to avoid velvet-touch pianists like the plague; ECM has made them a speciality. Italian star Bollani follows his excellent solo work with this trio featuring Jesper Bodilsen on bass and Morten Lund on drums.

Album: Sting, If on a Winter's Night...(Deutsche Gram)

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

In which our lute-toting born-again curator of Early Music puts the Police comeback to bed and releases an album of broadly winter-themed songs which combine the words of dusty old scribes with the music of equally antediluvian composers.

Album: Joss Stone, Colour Me Free, (Virgin)

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Lambasted for that transitory transatlantic accent and locked in a dispute with her record label that has seen this arrive with little fanfare, at 22 years old, Joss Stone is finally earning the soul chops she so desires.

Album: Various artists, Freedom, Rhythm & Sound, (Soul Jazz)

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

As with previous Gilles Peterson compilations, there's a few tracks here that make you wonder whether he listened all the way through, but once past the dodgy vocals and workaday vamps, this two-CD collection of revolutionary US funky free-jazz contains real goodies.

Album: Rickie Lee Jones, Balm in Gilead, (Fantasy)

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Jones was the most delicately luminous talent produced by the West Coast scene of the 1970s. When she's good she changes the very light; when she's bad she's dull.

Album: Various artists, Ghana Special 1968-81, Soundway Recordings

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

As raw, rocky and funky as its predecessor, Nigeria Special, this is also a companion album to the Ghana Soundz compilations of a few years ago.

Album: Band of Heathens, One Foot in the Ether, (Blue Rose)

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

There are so many parts to the Heathens that their sum is hard to compute – it's easier to make comparison to The Band and Little Feat and leave it at that.

Album: Daniel Johnston, Is and Always Was, (Feraltone)

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The rehabilitation of Brian Wilson was heartwarming, but the rebirth of Daniel Johnston will melt the cockles.

Album: David McAlmont & Michael Nyman, The Glare, (MN Records)

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

David McAlmont is one of British pop's most precious hidden treasures. His voice is a sublime and miraculous thing, able to convey unimaginable reserves of vulnerability and inner strength in one wavering syllable.

Michael Jackson: This Is It, Kenny Ortega, 112 mins, (PG)Fleetwood Mac, MEN Arena, Manchester

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The biggest musical event this week isn't a concert at all, but it's coming to a popcorn pit near you. By the time I'm writing this and you're reading it, Michael Jackson was meant to have performed 27 dates of his This Is It farewell show at the O2 in London, with a further 23 to follow in the spring.