Steve Harris

As one of the most influential bass players in heavy metal, it should come as no surprise that Iron Maiden's Steve Harris' instantly recognizable galloping eighth notes ride high in the mix on his first ever solo outing. British Lion, which was originally the name of the band that Harris and some non-Maiden mates formed in the early '90s to tear through some sword and sorcery-less, dive bar-ready hard rock in the vein of UFO, Deep Purple, and the Scorpions, sounds exactly like its influences would suggest. Toss in a little Rainbow, Whitesnake, Judas Priest, and a tiny smattering of his meal-ticket band and you've got a serviceable slab of unpretentious yet utterly forgettable '80s retro-metal that adheres to every cliché in the book – which is forgivable, as it was brought into this world by one of that book's authors.

Edward the Great collects most of Iron Maiden's hits, including the punishing "Number of the Beast", the super-dramatic "Can I Play with Madness?" and their sole chart-topper "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter". Since their late-1970s rise as prime movers of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Iron Maiden have unleashed a ferocious pack of hit singles and million-selling albums. Their recipe was simple: They took their lyrics from bloody world mythology and classic gothic literature and backed them with a soaring, bulldozing twin-guitar assault driven on by main man Steve Harris' relentless bass. It was an approach that would influence countless rock bands, from Metallica to a string of Scandinavian death-merchants.

The Essential Iron Maiden features some of the greatest heavy metal music ever recorded. Iron Maiden have had huge worldwide impact these past 25 years thanks to all-time classic albums like Iron Maiden, Killers, The Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, Live After Death, Somewhere in Time, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, No Prayer For the Dying, Fear of the Dark, The X Factor, Virtual XI, Brave New World, Dance of Death and other live albums. 2 CD set. Sony. 2005.

Clarinettist Barnaby Robson performs a rich programme of 20th-century and contemporary music for clarinet and piano, including world-premiere recordings. The release opens with Barnaby Robson’s collaboration with BAFTA-winning sound designer Martin Cantwell: a recording of Steve Reich’s intricate New York Counterpoint, which involves eleven pre-recorded clarinet lines. Herbert Howells is celebrated for his choral music but his instrumental works are less famous; with pianist Fiona Harris, Robson performs the 1946 version of Howells’s Clarinet Sonata, never recorded before.

Tribute albums frequently betray their subject, but not this homage to Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears, the country giant’s 1964 salute to Native Americans. A concept album about a discomfiting cause – the US’s treatment of its indigenous people – Tears was a radical statement resisted, to Cash’s fury, by the Nashville establishment. For its 50th anniversary, producer Joe Henry gathers a stellar house band that takes turns to lead. Gillian Welch delivers an entrancing As Long As the Grass Shall Grow; Emmylou does likewise with Apache Tears. Steve Earle drawls: “I ain’t no fan of Custer” and instrumentals evoke North America’s haunted plains. Very fine.