MUSIC / Records

NEW RELEASE

Neil Young: Unplugged (Reprise, LP/CD/tape). Young's amazing resurgence began with 'This Note's for You', a scathing attack on sponsorship and, by association, MTV. But the chance to join in the video station's bid for authenticity was too good to miss. His Unplugged brilliantly sidesteps the rather forced naturalism of predecessors Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart. Almost every phase of Young's long career is represented - from Buffalo Springfield's 'Mr Soul' to three songs from 1992's Harvest Moon - but this feels like an introduction, not a summary, and Young rewrites his own history with daring. 'Like a Hurricane' is rearranged for pump organ, and 'Transformer Man', from his much-hated electro period, is reborn as a poignant country lament. There's the occasional intrusive whoop from the audience, and I'm not sure about the backing singers; the rest is perfect. Ben Thompson

THE IoS PLAYLIST

Dvorak Symphonies 7 & 8: Oslo Phil, Mariss Jansons (EMI, CD only). The freshest, most intense of recent versions. Michael White

Grieg Songs: Anne Sofie

von Otter, Bengt Forsberg (Deutsche Grammophon, CD only). Perfect introduction to a slice of repertory that hardly anyone in Britain sings or even knows, timed for Grieg's 150th anniversary this month. MW

Donald Fagen: Kamakiriad (Reprise, LP/tape/CD). Smooth grooves, nifty playing, varied textures, subtle arrangements: almost as good as the sacred first side of Aja. Richard Williams

Jamiroquai: Emergency on Planet Earth (Sony Soho Sq, LP/CD/tape). Triumphant Brit-funk debut from the sprite in the bearskin. BT

Willie Nelson & Sinead O'Connor: Don't Give Up (Columbia, single). Recorded the day after she was booed by the Dylan-ites, O'Connor's impassioned duet with the delightfully deadpan Nelson is the best thing she's done. BT