Basement Jaxx are back to their best, Beyoncé's latest album is surprisingly understated and there are also impressive outings for Dylan Howe and Sir Simon Rattle...

POP

Basement Jaxx
Crazy Itch Radio (XL)
Review: Chris Elwell-Sutton
****
Basement Jaxx's fourth album finds them more creative than ever. This doesn't always make for brilliant music, but it makes things interesting. Strung together by the pointless conceit of a radio show, these 14 tracks count the country-flavoured "banjo house" of Take Me Back to your House among their highlights. Hey You contains a mixture of house and Balkan folk music that's laudable more for its boldness than for its melodic qualities. Continuing their love affair with London's urban scene, the Jaxx team up with MC Lady Marga for Run 4 Cover, on which hilarious rhymes are spat over a carnivalesque backdrop. A secret track provides a restful end to an exhilarating listen.

Beyoncé
B'day (RCA)
Review: David Smyth
***
For a woman with five Grammies and 11 million albums sold, not counting her work in Destiny's Child, Beyoncé Knowles's follow-up to global smash Dangerously in Love is surprisingly understated.
Just 45 minutes long, there's refreshingly little of the histrionic showboating that characterises so much modern R&B. Minimal tracks such as Get Me Bodied and Check on It could be playground skipping rhymes, while Suga Mama and the single Déjà vu have more in common with funky Sixties soul. Coherence is lost by the use of armies of producers and songwriters (Upgrade U was written by nine people) and gloopy ballad Listen almost ruins everything.

CLASSICAL

Berlin PO/Rattle
Holst, The Planets EMI 369, 6902
Review: Barry Millington
*****
For his recording of Holst's Planets, Simon Rattle decided to include the addition Pluto by Colin Matthews and to commission four short works on a related theme from leading composers. Those works - Kaija Saariaho's Asteroid 4179: Toutatis, Matthias Pintscher's Towards Osiris, Mark-Anthony Turnage's Ceres and Brett Dean's Komarov's Fall - appear here on a second disc and all are worthwhile additions to the repertoire. Matthews's Pluto is also a skilful integration of Holst-like sonorities with a style that deserves to retain its place in the canon even though Pluto has been demoted from planetary status. Rattle's reading of The Planets would be worth acquiring even without the extras.

JAZZ

Dylan Howe Quintet
Translation (Motorik, MR-1001)
Review: Jack Massarik
****
Though flourishing everywhere from Italy to Finland, neo-bop remains elusive in London, where every young player seems to be mixing English folk or choral strains into the music instead of creating a good deep groove. Drummer Dylan Howe is the exception. Raised by his rock-star father Steve on a diet of Art Blakey and Philly Joe Jones, he now handles the Blue Note genre with ease. So does his handpicked group, with trumpeter Quentin Collins, pianist Ross Stanley, bassist Aidan O'Donnell and Australian tenorist Brandon Allen. All except O'Donnell contribute originals that suit the quintet's ethos, and their in-performance nightclub vibe is stimulating.

ROCK

The Rapture
Pieces of the People We Love(Vertigo)
Review: John Aizlewood
***
Having accidentally found themselves at the forefront of the post-punk movement around the time of their 2003 debut Echoes, New York's Rapture were the future of rock 'n' roll and then became passé within the space of six months. Wisely, they chose to lick their wounds quietly before returning to sound like Scissor Sisters. Consequentially, Pieces Of The People We Love is a great leap forwards, from the thumping Glitterstomp of the opening Don Gon Do It to the almost funky Down For So Long, the daft-as-its-title Whoo! Alright - Yeah... Uh Huh and the hard-rocking The Sound. Luke Jenner's shrill, vocals give unity to the disparate styles and resurrection may not be completely out of the question.