Sinead so Far

The Wall – Live in Berlin was a live concert performance by Roger Waters and numerous guest artists, of the Pink Floyd studio album The Wall, itself largely written by Waters during his time with the band. The show was held in Berlin on 21 July 1990, to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall eight months earlier.

With more and more years between proper studio albums as time goes on, often confrontational Irish pop powerhouse Sinéad O'Connor's decades-spanning career becomes less about her music and more about Sinéad as an institution, political figurehead, worn punch line, or in the worst cases a caricature of herself. With her ninth studio album, How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?, O'Connor smacks the focus back onto her powerful voice and uncanny ability to weave sadly gorgeous narratives into catchy pop songs. That's not to say a generous smattering of all the things that have made O'Connor a controversial character over the years are not touched on over the course of the record.

Who can resist a Power Ballad? Some might dismiss them as naff or cheesy but the majority of us can’t help but sing them out loud with full gusto with no care in the world. Ultimate Power Ballads gathers 100 of the most popular power ballads from some of the biggest artists of all time. The collection combines the greatest classics of the genre plus newer contemporary hits with no less than 45 top ten singles of the purest soaring power ballads. The classic fist-pumping rock ballads are brought to you by Cher, Asia, Rainbow, Kiss, Bonnie Tyler, Rod Stewart, Simple Minds, T’Pau plus many more incredible names.

Rhino's five-disc box set Respect: A Century of Women in Music was surely assembled with the best of intentions, but it doesn't quite work. First of all, any collection that focuses solely on "the female contribution" comes off as a little condescending, no matter how good the intentions are. Still, the concept has enough weight to make for at least an interesting listen. However, any compilation that spans nearly 100 years and every conceivable popular musical genre is bound not only to be incomplete, but too sweeping to be totally effective. The scope is impressive, as are the featured artists – think of any major female musician and they're likely to be here, unless it's Joni Mitchell (Kim Gordon and Kim Deal are also missing, as are several other similarly minded post-punk rockers and various pop and folk singer/songwriters, but no omission is as shocking as Mitchell's) – but the overall effect is somewhat bewildering.

Peter Gabriel admits about his 1992 sixth studio album, Us. “I think it had some of my best songs on it.” No argument here: Us subjects, like the deep funky grooves, are all killer and no filler, from the pleading divorced parent to his regressing child on “Come Talk to Me“, the matter-of-fact demystification of personal therapy in “Digging in the Dirt”, to the Biblical allusions in “Blood of Eden” inspired by Gabriel’s study of capital punishment.