Erykah Badu; "Live!" (Universal)

Erykah Badu is this year's most significant soul discovery, the woman with a voice which merges the best qualities of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald without abandoning her distinctively individual flavour. With Irish audiences yet to discover Badu's live charms, this album should whet appetites for that event. Recorded in a New York club, it's a sassy and spirited affair, an alluring mix of innovative scatting, pedigree vocalising and powerful songs. Much of the Baduizm debut is featured but it's her choice of covers (from Chaka Khan's Stay to the Mary Jane Girls' All Night Long), the inclusion of two new tracks and some brilliant chat between songs which are most revealing. Tyrone, one of those new songs, is bewitching, a wonderful it's-over note to a loser boyfriend while Ye Yo is a lush and gentle lullaby. If you like Baduizm, you'll love this. Jim Carroll

All Saints: "All Saints" (London)

Pitching All Saints as a new brand of Spice was always going to be a bit of a non-runner. Besides possessing a far deeper musical agenda, you could never picture Shaz, Mel, Nic and Nat shouting empty slogans like "Girl Power!" whenever a microphone was pushed their way. All Saints is a collection of bright-as-a-button modern R&B. Besides the two singles to date, the brash I Know Where It's At and the heavenly Never Ever, there are several gems which suggest a longevity and poise beyond the world of Smash Hits covers. Under The Bridge takes the Red Hot Chilli Peppers' track into unchartered waters, producer Nellee Hooper making a break for TLC's Waterfalls and arriving in style, while Bootie Call is the sexiest thing you'll encounter this month.

By Jim Carroll

Various: "King Of The Beats" (Team)

The official album of the 1997 UK Breakdance Championship, King Of The Beats gives us to the chance to say Yo! to some old friends from the old-school where hip-hop and electro collided behind the bicycle shed. Mantronix, Eric B & Rakim, Sweet Tee, London Posse - they're all here and in full effect. King Of The Beats is a near-perfect look at hip-hop when it was not about ugly East Coast-West Coast flings but about the music, the rhythms and the movements. Nostalgic, perhaps, but if you think hiphop in 1997 is Will Smith and his Men In Black, this double album will prove to be something of an eye-opener. From Cut Le Roc's totally stoopid Hip Hop Bibbedy Bop Bop to Herbie Hancock evergreen Rockit and Eric B & Rakim's slamming I Ain't No Joke, this is nirvana for B-boys and B-girls from the Bronx to Ballybunion.

By Jim Carroll