Bjork is back and nuttier than ever, Beverley Knight churns out another soul album and The Manic Street Preachers show a return to form in this week's offerings.

POP
Bjork
Volta (Atlantic)
***
Bjork is back, nuttier than ever, with a spectacularly mixed bag. Backed up by sombre, medieval-sounding horns, The Dull Flame of Desire is an epic duet with Anthony Hegarty. Its structure is more classical than pop, in which the same musical phrase is repeated again and again, varying in intensity each time and creating a crescendo.

Timbaland, who sprinkled his hip-hop dust over Nelly Furtado's work, seems an unusual producer for some tracks but he is a good choice. Insane squelches on tracks such as Innocence show that he can work outside the restrictions of the hit single. Without his order, on tracks such as I See Who You Are, Bjork succumbs to weirdness that can make you feel physically sick. CHRIS ELWELL-SUTTON

Beverley Knight
Music City Soul (Parlaphone)
***
A quiet survivor, Beverley Knight MBE is the nearest Britain has to a genuine soul queen. A mix of covers and sometimes co-written originals, Music City Soul, her fifth album, was recorded in Nashville in a five-day slab last year with a crack team of American sessioneers and, on three tracks, Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, not that you'd notice.

Wisely, Knight eschews dabbling with new-style R&B in favour of a southern-soul approach which showcases her often mighty vocals. She does a terrific job on the unsinkable Ain't That a Lot of Love, while her own No Man's Land is a gospel-tinged howl of anguish. Maybe her time is about to come. JOHN AIZLEWOOD

Manic Street Preachers
Send Away the Tigers (Columbia)
****
A dull seventh album, 2004's Lifeblood, and mediocre solo efforts from both James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire last year seem to have expunged all the Manics' duff songs. This confident comeback is not the return to their punk roots that Wire has claimed, but there's an energy here that has been missing.

Wire's bitter words still sting, as on anti-war song Imperial Bodybags, but the euphoric tunes overpower any lyrical darkness. Bouncy single Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, lifted by The Cardigans' Nina Persson, is fabulous, and the title track and Autumnsong are just as catchy. A new Manics record may not feel so important now, but radio will love it. DAVID SMYTH

JAZZ
Chris Minh Doky
The Nomad Diaries (Blue Note Records)
***
World-class sidemen such as this Danish-Vietnamese double-bass and bass-guitar virtuoso are in constant transit between concert-halls, airport lounges and hotel rooms. And because the creative mind keeps working, they pack a laptop, a midiconnected instrument and an iPod. These tracks are forged from midnight riffs on hotel beds from Paris to Mexico City, followed by studio overdubs in Copenhagen or New York.

Smooth chords and Pastorius-style solos, overlaid with chattering triphop beats, create a frothy vibe. And guest appearances by two of Doky's superstar employers, guitarist Mike Stern and recently departed tenor-sax Mike Brecker, add class. JACK MASSARIK

WORLD
Adjagas
Linhkolas (Ever Records)
***
There's a dreamy, hypnotic quality to the music of this Norwegian duo. Sara Mariele Gaup and Lawra Somby are Sami, the indigenous people living in the far north of Norway and Finland. They take the typical Sami style of singing, the joik, and add some guitar or banjo, electronics and percussion.

On title track Lihkolas (Happiness), it makes a light, transparent setting for a very catchy tune. It's the spare, minimal songs that work best by keeping a mood of intimacy. Others drowned in guitar chords and reverb are less successful. Adjagas are playing at Wychwood and Glastonbury this year and, alongside Mari Boine, are names to watch on the contemporary Sami music scene. SIMON BROUGHTON