Rock/Pop

Paul Simon: Greatest Hits - Shining Like A National Guitar (Warner Bros)

The smaller half of Simon & Garfunkel has had an illustrious solo career, from the intelligent folk-rock of There Goes Rhymin' Simon to the intellectual world music of Rhythm Of The Saints. OK, there was also the farrago of The Capeman, but apart from that, Simon has trod a solid, reliable trail through the heart and soul of Middle America. This compilation traces Simon's tracks from such early 1970s hits as Mother And Child Reunion, Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard and Take Me To The Mardi Gras, to such late 1980s excursions as Graceland and You Can Call Me Al. In between are such standards as 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, Slip Slidin' Away, Still Crazy After All These Years, and the wonderfully-titled Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War. Small bloke - big, impressive body of work.

Grandaddy: The Sophtware Slump (V2/Will Records)

Yes, those bearded weirdos from Modesto, California are back with their second long-player, the official follow-up to the most excellent Under The Western Freeway. And boy, do they ever come back with a crash, bang and wallop. Opening track, He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot, is a whacked-out lament for the computer age, a Paranoid Android for Y2K conspiracy theorists. It's the sound of tripped-out technophobes dancing on the graveyard of Silicon Valley, and having a right old hoedown in the process. Songs such as Hewlett's Daughter, Jed The Humanoid and Broken Household Appliance National Forest are twisted, post-techno anthems, mixing clinical synth bleeps with dirty guitar riffs, and grinning maniacally at the madness of the modern world.