In shops tomorrow - 3/10/05

Singles

Labels looking for decent placings for their new signles are pretty much screwed tomorrow as the great Robbie/Rachel/Mariah/Blunty/um, Schnappi fight for number one kicks off. Come on, the Stevens single only proves that her producers are getting even quicker at ripping off Goldfrapp, doesn't it? So good luck to Wichita in finding room for Bloc Party's Two More Years. Anyone got a spare for the tour?

Dig a bit deeper and find perennial UK tourers and MTV2 eaters We Are Scientists' The Great Escape

Albums

We were slow to take up with the Beta Band bandwagon when they were being hailed at the end of the 90s as the future of everything, possibly as much due to how every major British band around then were supposed to be having 'a Beta Band phase', but it's now evident that they never matched the early acid-madrigals. We will now sell five copies of Music - The Best Of The Beta Band.

With the onset of time comes an appreciation of bands like Cream, whose Royal Albert Hall reformation gigs documented here do feature ten minute drum solos but also the kind of ensemble playing people are too scared to do now. Excuse us while we get a Mojo subscription...

Debate still rages about the veracity of the Mark E Smith Classified Check story, although the Fall's official website has it and Steve Lamacq read what he said was a press release from them. We'll have to wait and see, in the company of Fall Heads Roll's maintaining of the full-on charge plus irascible drunk winning formula of recent years.

Actually, You Could Have It So Much Better With Franz Ferdinand is all that - there's a couple of moments where you wonder if this couldn't have been left for a B-side and it's more 'fuck dance, let's art!', but the songwriting and riffing standard is still high and there's actual emotions too. Don't bother with the limited edition DVD, it looks rubbish.

Reissues with extra tracks should be smited as a matter of course, but it's hardly as if everyone has the Go! Team's Thunder Lightning Strike as it is, and the two new tracks fit right in.

With all these sales nowadays you can probably pick up Never Mind The Bollocks and Metal Box for less than John Lydon's Best of British £1 Notes Best Of for much the same effect, but neat enough to have a lot of it in one place. Try and get hold of the limited edition set of the even darker, dubbier PIL 12" mixes on CD for the first time.

How come New Order never turn up in lists of great singles bands? New Order - Singles adds another disc's worth to 1987's Substance, which means the under-rated Republic cuts, Fine Time and, well, World In Motion.

We slagged off Pure Reason Revolution once as part of a general Poptones moan, more generally because their first single was a perfectly good song subjected to self-indulgence beyond its means. We were too hasty, it turns out, mini-album of sorts Cautionary Tales For The Brave showcasing odysses of sound and musical fields of vision, generally the sort of thing you would never have expected from ex-members of Gel and Period Pains.

Deluxe reissue time for Siouxsie & The Banshees' The Scream accidentally inventing post-punk and plenty besides through John Mackay's guitar sounds and Siouxsie'n'Severin's malevolence. An extra CD brings with it alternate versions and Peel sessions.

DVDs

New Order release DVDs at the same rate others buy lottery tickets, the typically gnomically titled Item being one disc of videos, including a couple of new versions for old songs, and one comprehensive documentary with live footage.

The Pixies reunion has gone better than anyone expected, which is to say Frank and Kim haven't had an onstage brawl yet. They sound good too, Pixies Sell Out being the set from France's Eurockeennes festival that turns up every so often very late at night on VH2 plus plenty of other filmed material.