The rock/pop CD reviews of the week...

Tom Waits

Anti ***

Last summer's Glitter & Doom tour was greeted by a feverish lust for tickets, so Tom Waits fans who missed out on that will be pleased to hear this compendium of tracks selected from various dates on the tour. The tracklist spans Waits' career, but the emphasis is on his ragged, bar-stomping material - the sinister, slinky hiss of Bone Machine's Dirt in the Groundand the bluesy menace of Real Gone's Make It Rainare particular highlights, beautifully driven by his inimitable guttural yowl. Of course, Waits is as much of a storyteller as he is a musician, so the second disc, made up of his witty between-song ruminations on everything from vultures to punctuation, is a real bonus. In fact, it's probably better value than the gigs themselves were. www.anti.com LAUREN MURPHY

Download tracks: Make It Rain, Dirt in the Ground

The Brothers Movement

The Brothers Movement

Rocket Girl ***

It's amazing what happens to a band when they take off their leather jackets. The Brothers Movement are the Dublin combo formerly known as Mainline, a beleathered bunch of desperados who obviously believed that the world was waiting for a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club tribute act. While their new incarnation is also in thrall to other sounds and scenes (they now probably have records from The Byrds, The Jayhawks, Beachwood Sparks and The Verve by the stereo), the cues are not quite as blatant as before. Instead, it's the strength of the five-piece's songwriting prowess as well as the soft-toned psychedelic punch of their sound that impresses. Tracks like Blindor Sisterare good signposts for where TBM may be heading in time with their likeable blend of indie-rock melancholy, hazy harmonies and reverb-laden guitars and effects. www.myspace.com/thebrothers movement. JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Blind, Sister

Luke Haines

21st Century Man

Fantastic Plastic Records ***

It would be fair to say that for the past 20 or so years, Luke Haines – through his time in The Auteurs and other pop/rock outfits – has been a thorn in the side of so-called Cool Britannia. He has often been described, not without justification, as Britain's most acidic songwriter, and his latest work more or less proves that when it comes to a barbed putdown, Haines is your man. He can't deny what he is: a grumpy, middle-aged man venting his spleen. The downside? Songs such as the title track and in-song spats with the likes of actor Klaus Kinski and deceased UK artist Stanley Spencer ( English Southern Man) lead one to believe that, despite Haines's terrifically clever approach to songwriting, he will always be the wrong side of bitter. www.lukehaines.co.uk TONY CLAYTON-LEA

Download tracks: 21st Century Man, Our Man in Buenos Aires, Love Letter to London

House of Cosy Cushions & Katie Kim

House of Cosy Cushions and Katie Kim

Granny It's Okay to Experiment ****

They don't do recording sessions in purgatory, but if they did it would probably sound something like this magnificently unsettling collaborative album. It was predictable that a conversation between these two under-the-radar Irish acts would be rewarding (both released thoroughly creditable albums in 2008). What's less predictable is that the results would be this special. Richard Bolhuis and Katie Sullivan channel disembodied vocals over a creepily static ambient drone, with the uneasy shades of Dead Can Dance ( Revolving), Godspeed You Black Emperor! ( Pray to the River), Sigur Rós ( Sleepwalker) and Queens of the Stone Age ( Melody) haunting the mix. Post-rock music at its instinctive, risk-taking finest. www.myspace.com/houseofcosycushions; www.myspace.com/dancekatiekimdance DARAGH DOWNES

Download tracks: Cherry Blossom, Sleepwalker

Efterklang & The Danish National Orchestra

Leaf **

Orchestras are usually a win-win option for indie bands. Aside from adding a pinch of gravitas and a dash of grandeur to the tunes, it also means you can pitch yourself as a "serious artist". Not that Efterklang needed much encouragement. The starry-eyed Danish collective never need to be asked twice when it comes to bolstering their big music with extra string, brass and vocalists. Introducing a 50-strong orchestra to play the Paradesalbum (2007) was the obvious next step. Enter the Danish National Chamber Orchestra for a show in Copenhagen last year. However, this supersized musical juggernaut creates more problems than solutions. Songs which were once engrossing become overweight because there is too much going on. Dramatic moments are extended to breaking point to ensure everyone can have their say. A step too far. www.efterklang.net JIM CARROLL

Download track: Mirador

Susan Boyle

I Dreamed a Dream

Sony ****

That now-famous YouTube clip of the Scottish singer auditioning for Britain's Got Talentdid all the global marketing for her. Already a massive seller on pre-sales alone,

I Dreamed a Dreamstarts brilliantly with a beautifully elegiac reading of The Rolling Stones' Wild Horses. Boyle really squeezes the last drops of pathos out of an intensely moving song. A couple of standards ( Cry Me a River, Amazing Grace) are handled with aplomb if not with quite the same éclat. Boyle has a fair old crack at Madonna's You'll See, but seems to misjudge The Monkees' Daydream Believerby stripping the song of its dynamic charge. The real belter here is a version of Patty Griffin's Up to the Mountain, on which Boyle gets in touch with her inner country- soul diva. Sure, everything here is drenched in syrupy strings and lush middle-of- the-road production values but, wow, the lass can really interpret a song. BRIAN BOYD

Download tracks: Wild Horses, Up to the Mountain