Neil Finn: Try Whistling This (Parlophone) The erstwhile Crowded House/Split Enz singer-songwriter could, as the clich goes, sing the phone book and sound good. His eternally yearning tones set him apart from other melodic late- thirtysomethings – though he also happens to write lovely, inexplicably underrated songs. His first solo effort brims with the usual finely etched, guitar-based tunes, of which the title track is perhaps the most immediate, but he’s also taken the opportunity to mess around with un- Finnly effects like treated drums, loops, and what have you. All these, however, are mere accents, always subordinate to the main thing, the song. – Caroline Sullivan
Various: 3-30 Point Blank Clubbing (Sheer Dance) Named for a Durban club and mixed by DJ Martin McHale, this compilation features a range of thumping dance tracks, by the likes of Rob Searle, Malcolm McLaren, Paul van Dyk and Groove Gangsters. I know nothing from house music, but I tried this CD out at a party recently and it went down very well indeed. Well, not with the neighbours. – Shaun de Waal
% Arvo Prt: Kanon Pokajanen (ECM) Kanon Pokajanen is the Canon of Repentance in the Russian Orthodox Church, a lengthy verse text in Church Slavonic consisting of nine odes. It’s a source that Arvo Prt has approached before in two earlier works, but here in this 80-minute unaccompanied choral setting he gets to grips with all its resonances. The writing is monumental, slow-moving and hieratic, so that the effect of the smallest shift of texture or harmony takes on an extra significance. – Andrew Clements
% Walton: Belshazzar’s Feast; Symphony No 1 (EMI) Nearing the end of his last season as music director in Birmingham, Sir Simon Rattle in this celebratory disc offers an ideal Walton coupling, bringing together two masterpieces of the 1930s. Belshazzar’s Feast, from 1931, has never been given quite so spectacular a recording. It is spacious and full, yet meticulously detailed, with the widest dynamic range. Rattle adopts similar speeds to Walton’s, and the extra bite and urgency are thrilling. Thomas Hampson, as the resonant baritone soloist, is firm and dramatic. – Edward Greenfield
Carpenters: Love Songs (A&M) Twenty of Karen’s most tender moments, to remind you of those matric dance fiascos that left you yearning for much, much more. Including Close to You and – for the truly desperate – Solitaire. – Matthew Krouse