Robbie Williams: Sing When You're Winning (EMI)

With the help of his co-writer Guy Chambers, pop's one-man Man Utd has once again outclassed Ronan Keating and completely out-rocked Oasis, cleverly capturing the flavour of modern England in the process. Not that the songs are all that great: Supreme is merely a pastiche of Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive, while the recent Number One single, Rock DJ, is - like Alan Freeman's nickname - fluff. Better Man sounded much better as Angels, while Kids, a duet with Kylie Minogue, is musical juvenilia. Robbie still comes out with some killer lines like "you won't be dating a teacher/you'd rather shag a Manic Street Preacher" (By All Means Necessary) and reveals the lovesick soul beneath the hooligan (Singing For The Lonely). But we all know that, behind those tears, Robbie will always be Britpop's biggest rock'n'roll clown.

- Kevin Courtney

Underworld: Everything, Everything (JBO)

While we must await the next album to see what direction Underworld take following the departure of Darren Emerson, this live album is a chance, meantime, for everyone's favourite prog-techno outfit to show off. Live albums may be notoriously difficult beasts for rock acts, but they are something of an enigma wrapped inside a riddle wrapped inside a mystery for dance acts. Underworld, though, have added considerable panache and dash to what a live dance act can do; and Everything, Everything is very much on the money. Thrilling takes on favourites like Rez, Cowgirl and Born Slippy, futuristic treatments of King Of Snake and Cups, crafted waves of melodies driving the likes of Cups onwards and upwards; who said that dance acts couldn't cut the mustard live?

- Jim Carroll