CD reviews　

Led Zeppelin
How the West Was Won
Atlantic
It's pretty safe to assume that if Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham had never formed Led Zeppelin and set about interpreting blues music with such ferocity then today's music scene would be a whole lot blander.

Between and 1979 the band released a total of eight groundbreaking studio albums. It wasn't until last month, however, that a truly definitive live album hit record store shelves.

While The Song Remains the Same and 1997's BBC Sessions attempted to bring the majesty of Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham's stage presence to living rooms neither really hit the mark.

How the West Was Won does all that and a whole lot more. Compiled by Page, the triple album contains tunes from two of the band's 1972 concerts in Los Angeles. And it is the first release of live recordings of Led Zep at its zenith.

Page tried to fit nearly all the band's most memorable moments into the three-disc set, which includes a selection of both short and long numbers and of course plenty of solos and interplay between Page and Plant.

Although the 25-minute long Dazed and Confused and the 23-minute long Whole Lotta Love are true wonders of modern rock and demand full volume, the band's real mind-numbing virtuosity is more noticeable on the shorter tunes.

From Immigrant Song to Black Dog and onto Dancing Days the sheer power and unabashed energy of Page's guitar, Bonham's drums, Jones' bass riffs and Plant's vocals go straight for the throat.

Digitally and without any annoying bootleg fuzz it doesn't get much better than Led Zep's How the West Was Won.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Fever to Tell
Polydor
Hitting scene in the wake of the Strokes-led New York garage rock revival, the Big Apple based art-house trio the Yeah Yeah Yeahs released its self-titled debut EP to much localized underground acclaim in 2001.

Successful US-wide tours supporting Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Strokes and the White Stripes followed shortly thereafter.

Within year the trio had conquered the hearts and minds of America's arty garage scene. Thanks to a rise in popularity of US underground music in Europe, the combo successfully crossed the Atlantic last year, where it repeated its earlier success.

Having up a strong following in both the US and Europe the band and its stylishly sexy new wave sound was snapped up by Polydor, on which it recently released its full-length debut, Fever to Tell.

Balancing and melody with a sound reminiscent of late 1970s new wave, Fever to Tell manages to be both raunchy and experimental while refusing to sound pompous.

The underlying theme of the album revolves around some kind of screwed-up sexuality or another. In order to create the mood, Karen O, Nick Zinner and Brian Chase employ rockabilly licks and riffs, basic bar-E, dub and some fashionably off-key noise.

There's something for everyone on Fever to Tell. Tunes such as Date with the Night, Tick and Black Tongue see the band toying with rock, Pin is bouncy pop, and the finest moment, Y Control, is gritty-chic new wave at its off-key finest.

Stereophonics
You Gotta Go There to Come Back
V2
Back the late-1990s, Wales' Stereophonics, comprising Kelly Jones (vocals/guitar), Richard Jones (bass, and Stuart Cable (drums) were considered the greatest thing since sliced bread by the record-buying British public.

The band's early days might have been spent in the shadows of the other Welsh band, Manic Street Preachers, but when the combo's 1997 debut album, Word Gets Around, was released it quickly dispelled any notions that the Stereophonics was just another bunch of Nicky Wire wannabes.

Long purveyors of "meat and potatoes rock," the band's fifth and latest album, You Gotta Go There to Come Back, sees the band in less starchy mood and setting out to prove that South Wales does in fact have a whole lotta' soul.

Blue Man Group
The Complex
Lava
Long the Blue Man Group became international television personalities thanks to a string of popular commercials, Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton, and Chris Wink were fixtures of the New York underground performance art scene.

Formed 1987 the group was a regular in Central Park and some of the better-known East Village art spaces. In 1991, the trio premiered their production of Tubes and won an Obie Award for its originality.

Making audio debut in 1999 with the aptly titled, Audio, the trio spotlighted specific Blue Man-made instruments and made forays into avant-garde pop.

The group's second album, The Complex, is somewhat different from its predecessor. Offering listeners an awesome earful of original rock, dance and pop as well a couple of truly fantastic cover versions.

Providing lyrical content for the blue guys' latest venture are a host of stars including Dave Matthews, Gavin Rossdale, Josh Haden, Peter Moore and Venus Hum to name but a few. The addition of instruments ranging from electric guitar to a Hungarian cimbalom ensure that all the tunes, originals or covers, are more than simply percussive musical-mayhem.

Featuring tunes, the album is a mishmash of vocalized harmonies and instrumentals, the latter of which includes the tunes Above, Time to Start and Piano Smasher, that sees the Blue Man Group in fine percussion-loaded form.

It's the Blue Man's versions of Grace Slick's drug tinged White Rabbit and the Giorgio Moroder/Donna Summer disco classic, I Feel Love, however, that really makes The Complex complete and proves the Blue Man Group is far more than simply a TV advertising executive's wet dream.