Pop from The Automatic and Slipknot and some funktastic guests turn out for SMV's new jazz album.

POP
Loudon Wainwright III
Recovery (Yep Roc)
****
This is a collection of songs first released in the early seventies, when the singer and composer was being touted as the new Bob Dylan. he clearly wasn't then and isn't now, but it was a smart idea to set old songs in new arrangements - just to show how wrong that early verdict was. Wainwright was and is a troubadour, with a way with words, a certain wit and an ear for a simple melody.

As a bonus, on occasion his voice is highly affecting. saw Your Name in the Paper, school Days and The Drinking song all sound better for the addition of guitars and keyboards.

It's pity that his old hit Dead skunk didn't get an outing - it could have replaced Motel Blues, which describes how the 61-year-old Wainwright tried to get a young groupie into bed. PETE CLARK

The Automatic
This Is A Fix (B-Unique)
***
Hefty sales figures are one thing, but you really have an enduring song on your hands when it becomes a football chant, as happened with The Automatic's Monster ("What's that coming over the hill? Is it Nemanja?" sing Man Utd fans about defender Nemanja Vidic).

There's little on this second album to rescue the Welsh band from one-hit-wonder status, though the synth-led rock of Magazines benefits from a lovely tune, while the absence of departed screechy irritant Alex Pennie is a major bonus.

Their well-produced, poppier take on the American emo sound has enough decent moments to convince existing enthusiasts that they haven't lost it, but football fans will have no new anthems. DAVID SMYTH

Slipknot
All Hope Is Gone (Roadrunner)
***
For a novelty act, costumed and masked iowan nine-piece slipknot take themselves hilariously seriously.

For all its flimsy packaging and the limited-edition DVD refusing to work in the two machines I tried, All hope is Gone is spectacularly silly and hugely enjoyable.

Titles such as This Cold Black and Vendetta suggest a comically jaundiced worldview, but that's only half the tale.

Imagine the honey Monster chuntering about the coming apocalypse ("What if God doesn't care?... The apex of my consequence is dying") backed by some surprisingly swaggering guitar riffs, some mighty percussion and, more surprisingly, some sterling choruses, and you have some measure of Slipknot's daft world. JOHN AIZLEWOOD

JAZZ
SMV
Thunder (Dreyfus)
****
Their titular initials - s for stanley (Clarke), M for Marcus (Miller) and V for Victor (Wooten) - do not appear in alphabetical order, but no ego clashes are evident in this good-natured summit meeting of bass-guitar virtuosi.

Aside from their great skill and mutual respect - one number is called Lemme Try Your Bass - the triumvirate also share an interest in electronics.

Sometimes, notably during the overture, Maestros de las frecencias Bajas, it is unclear not only who is playing, but also what.

Mostly, though, their distinctive styles make identification instant. Pianist George Duke, trumpeter Patches stewart and drummers Poogie Bell and Derico Watson head a funktastic guest list. JACK MASSARIK

WORLD
Various Artists
La Paloma, Volume 5 (Trikont)
****
You don't know the spanish song La Paloma (The Dove)? You'll never forget it after this disc.

It could be the most covered song on earth and just out are the fifth and sixth CDs in a series that now totals 144 tracks.

Volume five has some of the most diverse examples: from the town-hall bells in Vitoria, which chime the song in the birthplace of its composer Sebastian de Iradierso, to musicians in Zanzibar, Cuba, Hawaii, Romania and Afghanistan.

Amazingly, the musical styles, instrumentation and artists are so varied it doesn't feel repetitive. A few years back, John Peel played a different track every week on his show for six months. You can explore the world with La Paloma. SIMON BROUGHTON