Rock/Pop

Bruce Springsteen is back with the E Street Band, Tom Petty is back with the Heartbreakers - all is well with the world of rock'n'roll. This is Petty's first album with the Heartbreakers since 1991's Into The Great Wide Open, and it's exactly what you'd expect from the old prairie dogs. Solid, dust-raisin' rawk songs such as Free Girl Now, Won't Last Long and I Don't Wanna Fight are interspersed with introspective ballads such as Lonesome Sundown and No More, and rattlin' mid-tempo tunes such as Room At The Top and Swingin'. While Petty may have shown some nous in previous albums, Echo is a bit too straight down the line to yield any interesting singles, and the reliable rockiness feels just a little too safe and settled.

Tom Waits: Mule Variations (Anti/Epitaph)

Like 12-year-old whiskey, the music of Tom Waits is an acquired taste, but with 16 tracks and 70 minutes of music on offer here, you may as well pour yourself a stiff one and get ready for a long, dark night of the soul. Lugubrious blues songs such as Lowside Of The Road, Get Behind The Mule and Chocolate Jesus see Waits pull out some vintage-sounding vignettes, while the dirty blues of Big In Japan and Eyeball Kid use clanking, chain-gang sounds to create a grainy 8mm view of Americana. In contrasting colour are Waits's warm, throaty love songs, of which House Where Nobody Lives and Picture In A Frame are two well-defined examples. Waits is a towering, ragged-trousered figure in American rock, and this album sees the old scarecrow still outstanding in his own field.

By Kevin Courtney

The Roots: Things Fall Apart

Three albums in, and the Roots continue to impress like few hip-hop crews can. Admired most for their legendary live shows, Things Fall Apart highlights a crew which can cut and paste fat jams with insightful rhymes about the state of modern America and the modern Afro-American. The sound may be funky and unique, but you're drawn more and more to the rapper Black Thought's verbals on the state of the union. While Without A Doubt is cheery and brimming with life, You Got Me, with guest diva Erykah Badu soaring high, is about the twists and turns of an imperfect romance and The Return To Innocence Lost focuses on black-on-black violence. A powerful, engaging collection.

By Jim Carroll