Mayfield was just a teenager when a copy of an album she'd recorded in her bedroom fell into the hands of Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys.

Rating: 4.5/5

Rating: 4/5

Rating: 3/5

Rating: 3/5

Rating: 3/5. Verdict: More soul to her cry

Rating: 3.5/5. Verdict: Still dour, but more diverse second offering from London trio

Jeff Bridges' Cogburn retains the Wayne eyepatch and the girth but he's not up for the carbine twirl.

Fela Kuti was a revolutionary and a rogue. And man, could the Nigerian musician and pioneer of Afro-beat sing, dance and play saxophone.

Rating: 4/5. Verdict: Folk fellow finds the funk on his fifth.

With so much of Auckland's attention focused on Monday's Laneway Festival, it was always going to be interesting to see how Les Savy Fav's first New Zealand show was going to go.

The Laneway Festival was loud and proud yesterday and in the process it found its home in the newly revamped Aotea Square.

Paul Auster writes splendidly about disaffected, damaged people, usually alienated from society in some way, often isolated, physically and/or psychologically.

After an interregnum of six years following the "retirement" of Justin Paton (the quotation marks are an intriguing addition by the publisher) in 2004, during which "guest editors" steered the ship, Landfall has a permanent editor again.

You'd be a fool to buy into the argument that Adele Adkins is just another packaged Brit School graduate with a great set of lungs.

The highly charged electro-pop that's pumped out by Fenech-Soler is relatively unknown here, but in the band's British homeland it's a floor-filling festival favourite.

Even though 2011 is still new, I suspect this debut novel from US author Susan Henderson will be one of my standout reads of the year.

Rating: 3.5/5

Rating: 3/5

Rating: 4/5

They come, they perform, and they move on to the next gig. That's what they do.

Rating: 4/5. Verdict: The old gang is back, and conjuring up their very best in a new way

The chief problem with The Hopes and Dreams of Gazza Snell is Gazza. As played by William McInnes, he's meant to be bit of a dag who needs to grow up, despite being a husband and father of two running his own business.

Rating: 3/5. Verdict: Sounding older and wiser, survivor Allman finds meaning in old blues

It's easy to see, while watching her character's descent into madness, why Portman scooped the Best Actress Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination for her role in this psychological thriller.

Rating: 3/5. Verdict: Portland folkies' sixth album is solid, but lacks true grit

A conventional and heartwarming film, this is the true story of the great horse Secretariat, who made history in 1973 as the first horse in 25 years to win America's coveted Triple Crown.