So much for formats; what about the content? It all began modestly enough. Pablo Honey, their debut, had some top songs, especially the US mega-hit Creep, but gave little hint of what was to come. The Bends was a great leap forward into the band's fearful, swirly new world of panic and alienation.

1. Vienna Between Christmas And New Year

Then came OK Computer, the globe-bestriding colossus which topped every poll going and would probably have won the British general election if it had been entered as a candidate.Inevitably, given the band's cerebral nature, its success plunged them, and frontman Thom Yorke in particular, into paroxysms of self-doubt; hence the weird, skittering but sporadically compelling Kid A, Amnesiac, and I Might Be Wrong (Live Recordings). Finally, 2003's Hail to the Thief was a sombre album which nevertheless gave a sense that the band were feeling more at one with themselves and with the notion of making approachable music. At last, they remembered: riffs are good, guitars are good, tunes are good. David ChealSimon and GarfunkelThe CollectionSony BMG, £19.99This box set of the complete works of Paul Simon and his angelic-voiced sidekick Art Garfunkel puts most contemporary singer-songwriters in the shade. They are chiefly remembered for the beautiful blend of voices and air of acoustic whimsy but the emotional and philosophical span shown across their entire work is remarkable.Their songs are full of wry humour and dark sentiments, while the arrangements are deceptively rich and complex. A masterclass that makes James sound blunt and David grey. Neil McCormickVarious ArtistsBrazilian Beats BoxsetMr Bongo, 8 CDs, £12.99From spaced-out percussion jams and old-school piano sambas to bossa-flavoured house and heated baile funk, this eight-volume odyssey through Brazil's many styles offers a masterclass in the country's dance culture.

The sultry growl of Seu Jorge and the basso profundo of the veteran Trio Mocoto are among the featured voices, but this is a series that belongs to the street and the dancefloor rather than to individual stars.And while many classic series offer overview compilations, this gives you the whole of Mr Bongo's Brazilian Beats for little more than the price of a single album. Mark HudsonMaxine SullivanIt's WonderfulProperbox, £14.99In many ways, as a singer Maxine Sullivan was the opposite of her contemporary Billie Holiday. Where Lady Day carried her heart on her sleeve, Sullivan was delicate and cool, swinging but subtle. But in one respect, they had a lot in common. Each had an immaculate command of the melodic line, and an ability to endow just about any lyric with conviction.This four-disc selection contains a plethora of marvellous performances from the '30s to the '50s - often in distinguished company, including that of Teddy Wilson, Benny Carter and Ellis Larkins.

Altogether, a welcome reminder of a delightful performer. Martin GayfordREISSUESU2The Joshua Tree (Remastered)Island, £12.99By 1987, U2's reputation was due for an overhaul and this widescreen epic welded the Edge's futuristic guitars to rootsy soul, turning the Irish quartet into a global phenomenon. Twenty years on, remastering gives it a sheen to match the dynamics of contemporary rock, so that you won't have to adjust the volume on your iPod. But the real treat is the CD of extras, including their best B-sides, some illuminating song sketches and the heartbreaking anthem Wave of Sorrow. Neil McCormickRolling StonesRolled GoldUMTV, £14.99A classic 1975 compilation that's all lewd swagger, brazen attitude, raunchy guitars and louche drawled vocals. It follows the Stones over two CDs from the leery wannabe blues of the early '60s through their underrated though self-conscious foray into psychedelia into the teetering hedonistic majesty of Gimme Shelter, Wild Horses et al.For aficionados of the era when they ruled rock music, Rolled Gold is a tasty reminder of the Stones at their peak. For younger devotees of contemporary indie, it will showcase the talents from which newer idols learned most of their tricks.

Thomas H GreenBEST OFSSpice GirlsGreatest HitsEMI, £12.99From Scary's dirty laugh at the beginning, to Posh's corporate mission-statement halfway through ('Easy V doesn't come for free/?she's a real laydee'), Wannabe's opening Spice manifesto has weathered surprisingly well.And although the same cannot be said of all the 14 songs that follow - the current single already feels like a grim landmark, and it's only been out for a few weeks - there's still no arguing with 2 Become 1. The riposte to Take That's Back For Good, this is one Viennese whirl of synthetic tenderness which is just as delicious now as the day it first came out of the packet. Ben ThompsonAretha FranklinRare and Unreleased Recordings from the Golden Reign of the Queen of SoulRhino, £12.99Sometimes you need to hear a familiar voice in an unfamiliar setting to be struck once more by what made it so special in the first place. This collection of demos and unreleased songs from Aretha Franklin is culled not from her patchy later career but from the golden era in the 1960s when she moved to Atlantic records and was undoubtedly at the peak of her powers.Many of the songs are familiar, but in their raw, unproduced demo forms they sound even more pure and powerful. Nobody before or since has moved from fluttering prettiness to utter intensity with such startling ease.

Bernadette McNultyT RexBolan at the BeebPolydor, £16.99It was the late radio DJ John Peel who championed Marc Bolan, from his earliest mid-1960s adventures as a magical folkie, right through to his glam-stomping rock heroism in the early '70s. Bolan thus recorded plenty of live sessions for Peel, and other presenters at the BBC, all of which are gathered here in one place for the first time.Across three discs, that transformation is documented as organic and gradual, but it's when disc two explodes into action with the lick to Ride a White Swan that you begin to hear the effortlessly funky riffage which has influenced artists as diverse as Prince and Devendra Banhart. Andrew PerryFela KutiAnthology 1Wrasse, £12.99Written off as a has-been at the time of his death 10 years ago, Fela Kuti is now universally acknowledged as one of the 20th century's iconic rebels and musical innovators.Blending itchy '70s funk with smouldering high life jazz and endlessly shifting Yoruba polyrhythms, his Afrobeat remains one of the world's most compulsive dance sounds.

Vienna Between Christmas And New Year

This anniversary anthology - the first of three spanning his career - provides an excellent introduction. Mark HudsonCOMPILATIONSVarious ArtistsLove is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets from 1965-70Rhino, 4 CDs, £39.99Various ArtistsReal Life Permanent Dreams: A Cornucopia of British Psychedelia, 1965-70Sanctuary, 4 CDs, £22.99These psychedelic selection boxes both confirm and confound preconceptions about the counter-cultures that inspired them. The San Franciscan one begins and ends with different versions of hippie anthem Let's Get Together, but transcends empty slogans via the splendour of Jefferson Airplane's Mexico and the stirring agit-prop of Country Joe & the Fish. The Brits, meanwhile, address mundane subjects such as eating bacon rind (the Frame) and sniffing menthol (Marc Bolan) with a creative intensity that's anything but parochial. Ben ThompsonVarious ArtistsJamaica FunkSoul Jazz, £11.99In the '60s, young Jamaicans tuned into US R&B stations and created ska, their own twist on its rhythms, and in the '70s reggae musicians continued that fascination with black American music; this collection of reggae versions of funk songs is proof of that fascination. The Studio Band, for instance, added a skanking beat and a ribcage-rattling bassline to Gimme Some More by the JB's, while the origins of Big Youth's Ride On and Augustus Pablo's Lightning Chap lie in classics by Al Green and Bill Withers. A further 15 tracks underline the connection between the two sounds.

Andrew Perry.