The Mojo Collection (Fourth Edition)

Power-punk trio Ash recently announced they were to stop making albums and focus on download-only singles instead. It was seen as another death knell for the old-fashioned album, for decades the vessel of definitive statements from musical artists. But the album won't go without a fight; a certain breed of music buff, one whose very life is mapped out in a mental index of essential CDs and LPs, won't let it. The Mojo Collection is the Bible for that breed. Starting with 1946's The Voice of Frank Sinatra, ending 61 years and over 700 pages later with LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver, this is the heritage rock mag's fairly indispensable guide to the long-playing records which changed the world and a fair few which didn't. Each entry has a page to itself with excellent "making-of" notes, track listing, personnel, further listening, etc. While the usual Sgt Pepper's Pet Nevermind OK Computer Sounds axis is amply represented, a whole host of long-forgotten treasures, particularly from the sixties and seventies, are also unearthed. The one criticism is the increasing conservatism of recent entries (where's Wolf Eyes' Burned Mind? Come on!), but that aside this is the crucial text to sit on the shelf next to any alphabetically logged CD collection. [Euan Andrews]