Back catalogue: All genres

Review: If any album comes close to the beauty of Crosby, Stills & Nash in 2025 it's this. It's difficult to imagine anyone else nailing melodic, acoustic guitar-oriented music that treads in gospel, blues and pastoral psychedelia better than this supergroup. Could Bernard Butler be on his way to another Mercury Prize nomination with this? They've got a strong case for it. The band itself is something a little different and formed by popular demand. Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub) Bernard Butler (Suede) and James Grant (Love and Money) originally got together for one occasion, at Saint Luke's in Glasgow in 2022 for Celtic Connections, but the power of them together was so great they've been talked into putting an album out. They've gone about it in quite a pragmatic way, with each member labelling which songs theirs, as opposed to all trying to write the same song at the same time. Makes sense really.

Review: This reissue of Janitor of Lunacy recaptures Nico in a stark, spellbinding 1983 live performance at Manchester's Library Theatre during a period when she called the city home. Spread across 20 tracks on double vinyl, the album distils her haunting presence and singular voice into raw, intimate recordings that draw from four of her solo records as well as Velvet Underground classics like 'Femme Fatale' and 'All Tomorrow's Parties.' The set also includes a brooding take on Bowie's 'Heroes' which is, like the rest of the pieces, minimalist and emotionally charged. This was Nico stripped down to her essence, namely bleak, beautiful and moving.

Review: At the close of 1991, Seatlle grunge gods Nirvana were well on their way to becoming the biggest rock band in the world, but the massive show in Del Mar, California, captured here actually featured them appearing in support of Red Hot Chili Peppers, although Pearl Jam had the prvilege of opening up the show. They'd spent much of the year touring, famously making the first of their two Reading Fesival appearances half way up the bill back in August 1991, and are evidently on peak form here as they wield a setlist dominated by Nevermind album highlights including 'Come As You Are' and 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. Ending on a raging rendition of 'Territorial Pissings', the trio prove not only why they managed to definite the zeitgeist of the age, but also the fact that however finely tuned and honed they were, the all-important feel of impending anarchy was never far from the surface.

Review: Captured at the Hollywood Rock Festival on January 23rd 1993 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this performance has gone down in infamy as one of the Seattle grunge legends' worst yet most insightful. Rumours swirl that the chaotic nature stemmed from a myriad of factors such as Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love's relationship hitting their worst low yet, whilst many have stated cocaine was used as a replacement or combatant for the frontman's severe heroin dependency at this point. It's also commonly believed that the band sought to self-sabotage their largest shows yet, playing for over 100,000 in attendance due to a cigarette brand named "Hollywood" sponsoring the festival, seemingly at odds with Nirvana's entire ethos. Whether a declarative punk statement, genuine artistic implosion, rejection of their uncomfortable success, or a cocktail timebomb of all of the above, this raw, unhinged and purposefully haggard performance is sadly emblematic of who and where the band were at this point in time. Pressed on a lush picture disc, this set eschews the majority of their biggest hits, opting rather for fan favourite deep cuts such as 'Sliver', 'Been A Son', 'On A Plain' and 'Lounge Act'.

Review: What you see before you ranks among the most mythologised live albums (n)ever released. Like the title suggests, it was originally recorded in 1972 at Parisian rock institution Le Bataclan, a legendary venue which would later gain notoriety after a group of armed gunmen opened fire on a crowd in 2015, killing 90 people. But that grisly recent history belies its status as one of the most respected concert halls in the French capital, and this not-quite-Velvet Underground show has contributed to that legacy. Showcasing the stop-you-dead qualities of Nico's staggering (and unique) vocal timbre, the surreal, immersive qualities of the Cale and Reed's legendary art-rock tones, this time capsule had been bootlegged and bootlegged until 2004, when it finally got an official release. Now it's back.