Christina Aguilera goes Back to Basics with her latest album, Lambchop' eighth album finds singer-songwriter Kurt Wagner on melancholy form and jazz diva Etta Jones' has been remastered by slider-deck supremo Rudy Van Gelder...

POP

Christina Aguilera
Back to Basics
***

It's strange, in this iPod age, that artists persist in putting out double albums. It's hard to see anyone sitting through all 22 tracks of Christina Aguilera's fourth long player more than once, before really stripping it back to basics by ditching the dross and keeping a single album's worth of highlights.

Keepers include the louche funk of Still Dirrty, the weepy ballad Oh Mother and the explosive single, Ain't No Other Man.

The world can live without the sickly back-slapping session, Thank You (Dedication to Fans), and the innuendo-smothered jazz of Nasty Naughty Boy. The girl can sing, but does she really need to sing this much?

Lambchop
Damaged
****

While nothing on the unceasingly lovely Damaged will hasten Lambchop's mainstream breakthrough, the hushed magnificence of the Nashville ensemble remains a thing of rare beauty.

Underpinned by a succession of gorgeous string arrangements, their eighth album finds singer-songwriter Kurt Wagner on verbose, melancholy form. He struggles with relationships on A Day Without Glasses; he quietly rants at society on The Decline of Country and Western Civilization, and, best of all, he sifts through bric-a-brac on Paperback Bible.

Wagner's half-singing, half-speaking mumble gives his often wry observations greater gravitas still.

JAZZ

Etta Jones
Don't Go to Strangers
****

Not to be confused with unsubtle blues-belter Etta James, this diva packed some serious soul and sensuality into torch songs such as If I Had You, All the Way and the title track. Issued among a dozen Prestige classics remastered by slider-deck supremo Rudy Van Gelder, this is the album that made her name.

Pianist Richard Wyands, guitarist Skeeter Best, bassist George Duvivier, drummer Roy Haynes and Basie tenorman Frank Wess (doubling on flute) create an ideal after-hours ambience for Etta, so forget the familiar Davis, Coltrane, Rollins and Kenny Dorham albums. Treat yourself to this instead.

CLASSICAL

Wolf
Lieder Ian Bostridge/Pappano
*****

No composer in musical history has been more single-minded in his commitment to the solo song genre than Hugo Wolf.

From his settings of the poetry of Mˆrike, Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano have chosen a group that emphasise a rapt, inner quality, where the tenor's interpretative flexibility yields marvellously expressive results.

Pappano is a consummate partner, matching Bostridge phrase for phrase but bringing an orchestral richness of texture to the piano accompaniments.