In typical Throwing Muses fashion, the American indie pop rock band - formed by step sisters Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donnelly in the early 80s - have put together a two-disc collection made up of songs they like.
Rainer Maria Rilke has always commanded a devoted following among connoisseurs of fine literature but he is also widely read.
The Basement's reputation as a hot-house for new talent is emphatically confirmed by a blast of youthful energy that has teams of young actors, each with their own writer and director, devising three short plays.
With pedal steel, banjo and a melancholy delivery, some songs come close to classic country-influenced songs by Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clarke and Butch Hancock.
And so ends the reign of one of the most fearsome, flamboyant and innovative metal bands ever to walk the earth.
Anna Faris has developed a distinctive ditzy blond routine that can be an acquired taste. Francesca Rudkin reports.
It was tempting to expect that the first truly Samoan feature film might have been a small and precious thing, worth praising more for the promises it made for the future than for its achievement in its own right.
An at-times unusual blend of intense futuristic boxing and schmaltzy, predictable father and son drama, this science fiction adventure is a mixed bag but should find a keen audience these school holidays.
Alongside his Alzheimer's diagnosis and a farewell tour comes this self-announced "final studio album" by the 75-year-old legend Glen Campbell.
The tranquility and rejuvenating quality of Tinariwen's desert blues tunes is remarkable. That might sound a little hippie dippy - far-fetched, even - but the Tuareg Malian band's minimal music really does have that healing power.
The transition of the Twilight stars on to the next stage of their careers will prove interesting over the next few years; in Abduction we get to see Taylor Lautner make his first attempt.
In the opening pages of Michael Ondaatje's new novel, a young boy named Michael sets out for England on a passenger liner. It's the early 1950s.
"Life is hard" is one of the Noble Truths and Yang Pao, as a young boy landing on the streets of Jamaica in the 1930s, learns that lesson quickly.
Playwright Albert Belz has earned considerable acclaim for his treatment of Maori subjects but his re-telling of the Jack the Ripper story seems to be making a statement about the perils of pigeon-holing writers according to their ethnicity.
Wooden Shjips, out of San Francisco, once again serve up their particular brand of astral plane psychedelic drone-rock which sounds filtered through steel wool.
If Wilco followers, especially those who signed on during their celebrated left-turn period of 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and 2004's A Ghost Is Born, might have felt the band's more recent albums were playing it safe, then help is at hand.
The greats of the grunge era are still vying for market share, 20 years on. Scott Kara dives in.
Katy B might have been a no-show but bass heavy dubstep acts Magnetic Man, Diplo and Nero made up for at Vector Arena in Auckland.
Cole Porter's smart-to-be-silly, witty-and-warm songs are so exceptional that they could pull this 1934 hit musical comedy through by themselves.
Posturing rockers Kasabian named their fourth album after a dinosaur, maintaining they are the current dinosaurs of the Brit-rock scene.
While Auckland rapper and poet Tourettes (real name Dominic Hoey) is not so much of a smart aleck on fourth album Tiger Belly, he's just as clever, cutting, and hilarious.
The music of Mastodon is perfect for a spot of hunting. It's pure blood sport music because when it's human against beast, and you're pumped up with scything and powerful tunes like Black Tongue and Spectrelight you will not back down.