Beautiful Place by Ryan Adams: Live Bootleg. Here is Ryan in Sweden from around the time of Post Heartbreaker/Pre-Gold. He delivers a great set alternating between guitar and piano. He tells stories and jokes with the crowd showing his personality and he also pokes fun at himself: “Do you want to hear a sad song or a pitifully sad song?” he asks. “Cos this guy don’t write no happy songs,” he concludes. He does write happy songs, it’s just the sad ones are much, much better. A great soundboard recording and a great example of when this man was once on fire, though it is fairly difficult to get hold of. Good luck. TWH: Dear Anne; To Be Young; The Bar Is A Beautiful Place.

Grade: A

Beautiful Freak by Eels: Alt-Rock. Eels’ debut though not E’s. The songs are poppy and also distinctly 90’s American alt-rock. Some classic songs on here and though some fade into the background the quality is always pretty high. The sounds that would become Eels trademarks are all present and correct; poppy melodies; dark lyrics and great guitar tones. Good, though they were going to get better…and darker. TWH: Novocaine For The Soul; Susan’s House; My Beloved Monster

Grade: C

Beatles For Sale by The Beatles: Rock/Pop. This album is the product of the hangover of Beatlemania. Late ’64 and the fabs were starting to get tired of a punishing working schedule and the fact they couldn’t go anywhere without getting mobbed. The songs all have dark undertones; people cheating on you while you stalk them; your girlfriend’s dressed in black because you’re dead (or maybe she is); you’re a loser etc. There is also a slightly country feel to this album, though their previous album had contained only material written by John and Paul, this album had some covers on it again. TWH: I’m A Loser; Baby’s In Black; I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party

Grade: A*

Beast Rest Forth Mouth by Bear In Heaven: Indie/Experimental Rock. The songs are massive but compact. They are guitar driven but there is the use of tom toms throughout with electronic bubbling occasionally popping to the surface. Though it sounds like prog rock the fact that they condensed it into 3 - 4 minute pocket symphonies is a feat in itself. The vocals are the sort of high pitched ones you would expect from this kind of indie music and the guitars are shoegazey. Good stuff. TWH: Bear In Peace; You Do You; Casual Goodbye

Grade: B

Be Seeing You by Dr. Feelgood: Pub Rock. It is certainly of its time. Imagine your dad has formed a pub band and is singing songs based around blues and rock and roll riffs. This is that band. The songs have some great guitar parts and they stomp along with the best of them, though the lyrics leave a little bit to be desired, but that just adds to the charm. TWH: Ninety-Nine and a Half; That’s It I Quit; She’s A Windup

Grade: D

Be Here Now by Oasis: Indie/Rock. Overblown, cocaine infused, ego driven rock? Of course, but what would you expect from the hype that surrounded this album, which is one if the fastest selling EVER! Don’t listen to the critics (including the Gallaghers) this album may have 10 or 20 too many guitar tracks but there is a quality in the songs that shine through, proving the Noel could really be completely off his tits and still write songs millions of people thought ‘Why didn’t I think of that!?’. Love it…mostly. Probably could’ve trimmed a couple of songs. TWH: Stand By Me; I Hope I Think I Know; Don’t Go Away

Grade: A

Battle For Los Angeles by Rage Against The Machine: Metal. On their third album, the closet capitalists do more of the same: preaching screaming vocals, pounding and catchy riffs and not much else. It’s a formula that works for them and their audience. TWH: Sleep Now In The Fire; Testify; Voice of the Voiceless

Grade: B

Bastard by Tyler, The Creator: Alt-Hip Hop. You haven’t heard anything like this. It’s like a mash up between weird Tom Waits and Eminem’s love child. The lyrics are dark, concerning rape, murder and broken hearts. This is not for the easily offended. The beats are stark and match the dark twisted nature of the songs. People were dubbing this new stream of hip hop ‘horror-core’. Don’t do that. It’s exciting to listen to, and it probably had all the old guard of hip hop feeling slightly worried that they weren’t doing anything anywhere as near as exciting as this. TWH: Bastard; French!; Sarah

Grade: A

The Basement Tapes by Bob Dylan & The Band: Americana/Bootleg. Originally recorded during a time of recuperation for Dylan after he had broken his neck in a motorcycle crash, this was recorded at the height of his sixties fame but the songs are very different to anything he had recorded before. They focus on strange characters plucked from that “old, weird America”. The Band are his musicians as they had visited the man in Woodstock during the summer of ’67. These songs had been circulating on bootleg for years but when they were finally released nearly ten years later there were still many omissions. This is a great album though if you want a complete picture of that summer you need to get hold of the bootlegs. TWH: Odds and Ends; You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere; This Wheel’s On Fire.

Grade: A

Baron Von Bullshit Rides Again by Modest Mouse: Alt-Rock/Live Bootleg. Though it started as a bootleg, the quality is good – so good the band briefly issued it. Strictly for hardcore fans as it doesn’t really change much from the actual recordings, apart from maybe being a tad rougher round the edges. There is a little bit of banter concerning ‘Freebird’ but that’s about it. The songs are good and so is the band, though, as said, it’s hardly essential listening. TWH: 3rd Planet; Wild Packs of Family Dogs; Bankrupt On Selling

Grade: D

Barely Legal by The Hives: Garage Rock/Punk. The debut album comes crashing out of the boxes at break neck speed and doesn’t ease up until the final song has finished playing. Though there are no immediate songs that jump out at the listener you cannot fault the energy behind every song. They weren’t going to big however until they managed to write a couple of stand out tunes, but as a piece of lightening captured on plastic, you could do far worse from a genre that can be a little too much the same. Just don’t work out to this album. TWH: A.K.A. Idiot; I’m A Wicked One; Hail Hail Spit n’ Drool

Grade: B

Bang Bang Rock And Roll by Art Brut: Indie Rock. On their debut album Art Brut set their stall out. Eddie Argos’ lyrics were quirky, clever and Morrissey like. The songs still rocked and though Argos promised to never sing about sex and drugs and rock’n’roll you can feel the irony dripping from the words. The songs inside the album deal with obsessing over a girl from when you were fifteen, drunken fights and brewer’s droop. Great songs by a great band. TWH: Formed a Band; Emily Kane; Rusted Guns Of Milan

Grade: A

Bandwagonesque by Teenage Fanclub: Power Pop. This album was overshadowed on its release by two albums you may have heard of (Nevermind and Loveless) though it became famous not only for its perfect Big Star style songs but also for the fact it was voted above Nirvana’s album to get album of the year by Spin magazine. They are perfect guitar pop and anyone wanting a lesson in how to write that style of song should look to this album. TWH: What You Do To Me; Star Sign; Alcoholiday

Grade: B

Band On The Run by Paul McCartney and Wings: Rock/Pop. This was considered a classic when it came out. It is McCartney’s biggest selling and most critically lauded solo album. The songs are big and full of pop hooks. They blast along and there’s even a little reprise at the end to give the album an almost (but not quite) Sgt. Pepper-esque feel. TWH: Band on the Run; Jet; Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five

Grade: A*

Ballad of the Broken Seas by Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: Indie Pop/Alt-Folk. Though this is strictly Campbell’s album Lanegan steals the show. Her voice is often pushed to the background by his Tom Waits style singing, that adds depth to songs that, you get the feeling wouldn’t have any. The songs have a folky/sea shanty feel about them and contain some extremely dark lyrics. The album just moves along nicely. That’s it. TWH: Ramblin’ Man; Honey Child What Can I Do?; The Circus Is Leaving Town

Grade: C

Bakesale by Sebadoh: Indie Rock. The fourth album by the band and the original drummer had left leaving song writing duties to Barlow and Lowenstein and it works. This is their easiest album to listen to. Songs have choruses and hooks and shows what a great band they really were, especially when shining with that slacker guitar. TWH: License to Confuse; Skull; Rebound

Grade: D

Bad Timing by Jim O’Rourke. Acoustic/Instrumental. O’Rourke’s return from forays into electronic music produced this album of acoustic pieces, that still have the odd bit of help in the studio but, what often appear to be acoustic meanderings, turn into beautifully crafted melodies. There are only four tracks on this album all clocking in at around the 10 minute mark. Nice and mellow; perfect for a relaxing summer’s night. TWH: There’s Hell in Hello But More In Goodbye; 94 The Long Way; Happy Trails

Grade: A

Bad Love by Randy Newman: Rock. People now know Newman as the guy who writes songs for the Pixar movies, but they should know he writes some of the most sarcastic, sardonic and satirical songs out there. This was his first album for quite a long time after he came in from the Pixar wilderness. Songs tackle topics such as rock stars not giving up when they really should, old men having flings with young women, the effect the nations of Europe have had on the world and even a couple of more straight forward love songs. High quality though not his best. TWH: Shame; Every Time It Rains; Big Hat No Cattle

Grade: B

Bad As Me by Tom Waits: Blues/Rock. Tom’s most recent effort is short and sweet. In timing that is. He described the swiftness of the songs as “Get in, get out, no fucking around” and he does just that. We know what to expect by this album; the weird instruments, the growling vocal that can change to a plaintive moan; brawlers and bawlers in the song choices. He sounds like he had as much fun making it as we are listening to it. Which is what music should be. TWH: Get Lost, Get Lost; Hell Broke Luce

Grade: B

Back To The Egg by Wings: Rock/Pop. The final album by McCartney’s post-Beatles band. It was slated on release what with punk being around and all but it isn’t as bad as all the critics made out. The songs are rock with some catchy melodies, McCartney even gives us a blue-eyed soul number and also one of his 1920’s pastiches. Not as bad as it sounds. TWH: Getting Closer; Arrow Through Me; To You

Grade: C