They've tried to stay a bit of an enigma, Wu Lyf. The Manchester four-piece declined to be interviewed and just turned up and writhed around in front of curious crowds.

If somebody locks himself in a stranger's spare room for months, is he escaping the world or facing up to it?

The internal lives of a film's characters have seldom been as precisely and enthrallingly reflected in the landscape as in this engrossing Russian feature. It's set and shot quite literally on the edge of the Earth, at Valkarkai Polar Research Station.

This Glasgow quartet have previously delivered folkadelia but right from the ringing guitars of this, their third album, they have moved more firmly into psychedelic rock.

When you have two other sisters to share the burden and jolly you along, there's no need to wallow in the pain of a breakup. Which is why the Sami Sisters' debut album has such a delightful sense of fun, despite the subject being on the gloomy side.

As off-putting as Kanye West's self-important ego is, the guy makes fascinating and often challenging music. So you'd expect a collaboration between himself and hip-hop's other bigwig, Jay-Z, to be something of an innovative triumph.

Just as it did not come as a surprise that McDonald's is bad for one's health, it probably won't come as a surprise that advertising helps pay for many things, like movies.

Thank goodness for the sunny and sexy New York setting and the comedic timing of John Krasinski (The Office, Away We Go); both shining lights that elevate what is otherwise a sluggish rom com based on Emily Giffin's novel of the same name.

As a teenager, Amelia Costello could never understand why her mum, singer Pixie Williams, was only known for her 1949 hit Blue Smoke.

Joyce Carol Oates, a prolific and award-winning writer, has assembled and revised a collection of essays and reviews that originally appeared in places such as the New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement.

Nifty title. Nifty concept. Stories about work - manual work; skilled work; responsible, itinerant, above-board or undercover work. Nifty aim, also: all proceeds go to fund youth literacy programmes across the United States.

This outstanding transcription of extraordinary events carries a telling subtitle: "A Novel of a Life".

Alynda Lee clearly identifies with an inner gypsy. Deciding she wanted to become a musician, she fled her home in the Bronx and jumped across freight trains until she got to New Orleans, or so the story goes.

He's a mysterious little brat, this Zomby chap. Similar to like-minded sinister beats-man Burial, who kept his identity secret at first, Mr Zomby prefers anonymity.

Hollie Smith sure got something out of her system on her second album, Humour and the Misfortune of Others from last year, which scared many with its cathartic songs and tough playing.

This makes two albums in two years for super-producer and ambient master Brian Eno.

Tom Hanks directs and stars in this lacklustre romantic comedy he's co-written with Nia Vardalos, the writer and star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Not the most promising band name in these tougher times, but this multi-lingual German neo-folk outfit don't go the 20-minute guitar solo route, but rather their name reflects their origins in a Berlin squat and their collective mentality.

Had Robert Hughes continued with his original aim of being an artist rather than becoming possibly the best-known art critic in the world it is a safe bet he would not have been a miniaturist.