Take That are back with polite, mature pop, Jay-Z delivers his eighth studio album and a double-disc retrospective marks the 10th anniversary of Ronnie Scott's death...

POP

Take That
Beautiful World (Polydor)
***
They're older, their fans are older, so Take That's first album in a decade is understandably not designed to prompt mass hysteria. This is polite, mature pop, packed with big tunes nicely delivered. Gary Barlow still takes the lion's share of the vocals, showing off a still pure falsetto on Patience, while Mark Owen's thinner tones dominate three tracks, including jolly piano stomp Shine. The folksy Wooden Boat, Jason Orange's first ever lead vocal, is another highlight. Beautiful World never gets the pulse racing, but as a set of melodic, unchallenging guitar pop songs, it has judged the requirements of its audience perfectly.

David Smyth

Jay-Z
Kingdom Come (Roc-A-Fella)
***
Having retired from music making a couple of years ago (after 33 million album sales) to concentrate on running his various companies, rap kingpin Jay-Z has swapped back his business suit for some velour sportswear to deliver his eighth studio album. His way with words is intact as he raps alongside an unprecented variety of guest artists, including Coldplay's Chris Martin, who provides production and dreamy vocals on the bizarre, ethereal closing track, Beach Chair. Jay-Z's other half, Beyoncé, also appears on the booty-bouncer Hollywood. The problem is that Jay-Z, previously so cocksure, seems to be having a mid-life crisis. On the Dr Dre-produced 30 Something he's unsure whether to be a wise elder statesman or to take on today's young thugs at their own game. A good album, but one that does little to enhance this great rapper's proud legacy.

Chris Elwell-Sutton

Faithless
To All New Arrivals (Columbia)
***
Set against Fatboy Slim, Massive Attack, The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy, Faithless were the least assuming of the mid-Nineties dance crop. Yet they have transcended fashion to emerge as the best-selling (shifting a million of their greatest-hits set) and longest lasting of the bunch. To All New Arrivals showcases their strengths: comforting widescreen keyboards courtesy of Ayalah "Sister Bliss" Bentovim (the single Bombs is enormous), set against intimate melodies such as Nate's Tune. As ever, daft lyrics are delivered in stentorian fashion and The Cure's Robert Smith sounds lost on Spiders, Crocodiles and Kryptonite, but after a heartstoppingly beautiful Dido cameo on Last This Day you'll forgive them anything. A little more respect wouldn't go amiss.

John Aizlewood

JAZZ

Ronnie Scott
Birth of a Legend (Giant Steps Records, GSCR-013)
****
This double-disc retrospective of British bebop from the dawn of post-war modernism marks the approaching 10th anniversary of Ronnie Scott's death. Though best-known for his club and the dry wit with which he fronted it, Ronnie was always a seriously good tenor-saxman who won domestic polls regularly. These rare studio and live recordings find him progressing from the Thirties gusto of Illinois Jacquet and Coleman Hawkins to the post-Parkerian wisdom of Hank Mobley, Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane. And the vintage cover photo of him, standing proudly between Lester Young and Flip Phillips, is worth the money alone.

Jack Massarik

WORLD

Rachid Taha
Diwan 2 (Wrasse)
****
French-based Algerian rocker Rachid Taha made a big splash a couple of years back with his Joe Strummer tribute Rock El Casbah. He follows it up by revisiting the North African roots which gave him his earlier hit, Ya Rayah, on his first Diwan album. The opening song Ecoute-moi Camarade is classic early rai with solo trumpet and Cairo strings. This album seamlessly blends old songs which have the seductive Arabesque twists of Ya Rayah, with new songs composed by Taha and his longtime producer Steve Hillage, driven by Arabic flute and rattling hand drums. A smoky gruffness in Taha's voice suits the sound perfectly. The album is the latest in a revival of popular Algerian music that seems to be gathering pace.

Simon Broughton