Album: Rod Stewart, Sessions 1971-1998, (Rhino)

Four discs of out-takes, alternate versions and "lost" sessions, covering three decades of, some might say, diminishing artistic achievement.

Whatever your view, it's hard to resist the feeling that the first disc, which scuffs up various items from the early-1970s cutting-room floor, is the one you'll want to hear – promiscuous mandolins, a dummy "Maggie May" and all. The subsequent career did have its (faint) moments, but not many of them came in the 1980s. Chief latter-day thrill is the 1992 remake of "In a Broken Dream".