It's a shame the most interesting Beatles at the time of their 1970 break-up - Lennon and Harrison - are no longer with us, because the post-Beatles legacy is carried into the second decade of the 21st century by these two albums.

For Van Halen's first album in 14 years, and the Pasadena hard rock band's first album in 28 years with singer David Lee Roth, they went back and dug out some demo tapes from the 70s and used it as the starting point for their 12th album.

There's a sense of teetering on an edge in this debut album by 22-year-old Auckland songstress Lydia Cole.

This latest seven-track collection is an aural assault of electronica-dubstep-pop, designed to incite as much jumping, fist-pumping and head-banging as possible.

You wait all year for a star-driven movie that says something about the state of the US of A, and where the leads play hardball with each other and get to butt heads with Philip Seymour Hoffman, and wouldn't ya know it? Two come along at once.

Jonathan Ganley photographed New Order and John Cooper Clarke at their first New Zealand appearance at Mainstreet Cabaret, Auckland on December 3 1982.

On Blues Funeral, his seventh solo album, Mark Lanegan has come up with his finest work yet.

A low brow version of The Hangover and Bridesmaids, this crude comedy is filled with one-dimensional characters, a pretty lame set-up and humour that is only occasionally ridiculous enough to make you laugh rather than cower.

Having a millionaire for a father doesn't make your music good, neither does a controversial back story.

Two films fight with each other and both lose in this attractive and often affecting but ultimately bloodless American indie drama.

A largely improvised script for the award-winning Like Crazy enhanced the intensity of acting out first love for its stars, writes Helen Barlow.