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If you like St. Étienne, please note: Newcastle's Dubstar are much better and any university venue in Britain can confirm that. Dubstar have become so massive on the U.K. student circuit because they mix everything that's good about the music one tends to like in their 20s: lightly politicized happy-to-be-sad melancholia the way Morrissey does it;
Question: AC/DC, the Ramones, Motörhead, Black Sabbath. What do these bands have in common? Answer: stupidity. That's right, genius music made by people who probably have the IQ of a dishcloth. Included on this greatest-hits package are rare demos of Black Sabbath's first recordings which would have bands like Cathedral running with their tail between their legs. The ultimate treat is a 1988 interview, which shows Ozzy battling burnt-out brain cells to answer the simplest questions. 8/10 (Johnson Cummins) Edwyn Collins I'm Not Following You (Setanta/Epic) If you can call the airplay overkill on "A Girl Like You" justice for the ex-Orange Juicer formerly known as obscure, well, Edwyn Collins got it. Now Eddie's got major clout, able to let loose his skewering take on Motown ("Keep On Burning" = "A Girl Like You"), disco ("Seventies Night") and "Country Rock" on a mollified world. Indeed, "Adidas World" should be the hit this time: now there's a protest singer and a protest song. 6.5/10 (Chris Yurkiw)
Nothing in pop '97 has nabbed me more than Spice's grand debacle of functional stereotyping. I love that Scary is scary because she yells; that Posh is posh because she buys Gucci underwear. I'm smitten with the idiotic la-la-la of first single "Spice Up Your Life," even if the Latin backtrack sounds turdy on radio. Anyway, who cares about the songs? They're only by-products of a gloriously consuming consumer hype. So don't sneer at the long-play Pepsi commercial ("Move Over," Pepsi's "Generation Next" jingle) on this album. It's only means all the cards are on the table. 7/10 (Mireille Silcott)
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Dubstar Goodbye (Polygram)
smart robotic filter-pop like the Pet Shop Boys have perfected (programmer Steve Hillier is a real talent) and pedestrian lyrics about waiting in cinemas; and vocalist Sarah Blackwood's remake of Billy Bragg's "St. Swithin's Day" that goes directly for your goopiest part. You're on a bus, it's raining, you're looking out a window, thinking about your life. This is what you want to be listening to. 9.5/10 (Mireille Silcott)
Ozzy Osbourne The Ozzman Cometh (Epic)
Spice Girls Spiceworld (Virgin)