Rock/Dance

The Band: Music From Big Pink (Capitol)

Starting out as Bob Dylan's backing group, The Band evolved into a formidable musical unit, and nowhere is their strength better displayed than on their seminal 1968 debut. Music From Big Pink bucked the psychedelic trend which swept the west coast of the US in the late 1960s; there's no hippie-dippy stuff here, just solid, rootsy blues and r&b, performed with restraint, craft and oodles of soul. The line-up of Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel plainly had a clear vision of the sound they wanted to achieve, and they found it in the eponymous pink house in the mountains where the album was conceived. Standout tracks include Tears Of Rage, Caledonia Mission, Dylan's I Shall Be Released, and of course the classic Band track, The Weight.

- Kevin Courtney

Muki: Quiet Riot (Mantra)

Sometimes you don't need to know the who, what, where, why and how to get the full picture. Take Muki, and an album called Quiet Riot which arrived in a brown envelope the other week and has slowly but surely made a convincing case for itself since. A mesmerising mix of soulful murmurs, hip-hop shakes, jazzy iterations, 3 a.m. vocals and deeply embedded grooves, it has 10 original tracks and two covers, one of Al Green's Judy and the other of John Martyn's I Don't Want To Know. Take these covers as possible signposts perhaps, yet don't be misled because the originals are just as bewitching and breathtaking. The album may not be as heavily pushed or touted as other autumnal choices - but it certainly shouldn't be ignored.

- Jim Carroll

Vertical Horizon: Everything You Want (BMG)

The latest Hootie-rockers to hit big in the US, Vertical Horizon have all the usual hallmarks of the nice, inoffensive US guitar band. First, there are songs such as We Are, Best I Ever Had (Grey Morning) and Finding Me, which are executed with generic competence and homogenous passion; then there's the connection with fellow Hootie-rockers The Dave Matthews Band, and the support slots with such Hootie icons as Huey Lewis and Allman Brothers Band. And finally there's the spectacular, Billboard chart-topping success of this album, far out of proportion to its rather dull content. But the most distinctive characteristic of Vertical Horizon is that they sound exactly like the Dublin band Picturehouse. Perhaps Dave Browne and the lads should get over to the States pronto - they might be a big hit with the Hootie fans.

- Kevin Courtney