You just have to question why Led Zeppelin are doing this.

Some things just aren't sacred anymore. Almost 40 years since their inception . . . and 27 years since the death of drummer John Bonham . . . we are about to be Zeppelinized.

First the mother of all heavy metal bands release their back catalogue for download, then they release this two-disc greatest hits package of songs that most of us already have, and follow that with a one-off gig in London that is now threatening, if Jimmy Page's recent quotes are accurate, to turn into a full scale world tour. And we thought The Police were mercenary. . .

More releases are to follow next year, including vinyl editions of their definitive live album The Song Remains The Same. The problem is the songs do actually remain the same. There is nothing on these two discs to interest existing fans except the nice packaging and essay by David Fricke. Indeed the track listing is almost an exact replica of 1999's Early Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin.

And yet for all the preconceptions and blanket advertising for the Christmas stocking filler market, it is impossible not to be seduced by the 24 songs here. If, like me, the last time you actually sat down and listened to Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham was sometime around the release of Wayne's World and you don't listen to too many classic rock radio stations or you have been living in Borneo since 1968 this compilation will quite simply blow you away. Four tracks from their eponymous debut, three from II, two from III and four from their "untitled fourth album" (as it is referred to in the liner notes) complete the first disc and you can all start quibbling about how 'Misty Mountain Hop' or 'Four Sticks' could possibly have been left out. Disc two rounds out the band's four later albums, prompting similar heckles. The problem is their own making: a band that dedicated itself to the album format with most songs clocking in at at least six minutes never fares too well from the editing process.

But after a few listens you stop expecting to hear the next song from the original album and get a more direct sense of the band's musical progression over the 10 short years that they changed the face of music. The worst that can happen is you will just want to go straight back to the original albums. Neil Dunphy Rock Ryan Adams & The Cardinals Everybody Knows . . .

The world's most prolific singersongwriter continues to work at a feverish pace, but at least Ryan Adams restricts himself to just eight tracks for his second release of the year. This is available on its own or as a free bonus disc with the limited-edition reissue of Easy Tiger. The most interesting tracks are also the most positive: set to a typical Cardinals setting of guitar and piano burnished with pedalsteel highlights, 'Follow the Lights' anticipates a homecoming, while 'My Love For You Is Real' is built around optimistic sunshine chords.

Download: 'My Love For You Is Real', 'Follow the Lights' Andy Gill Alicia Keys As I Am . . .

There are too many moments on As I Am when, for all Alicia Keys's apparent emotional involvement, she seems to be freewheeling through the songs. 'Lesson Learned', her duet with John Mayer, is a main offender, lacking definition and sounding far too businesslike. But it would be churlish to allow such lapses to overshadow the album's good points, which range from the anthemic single 'No One' to the titletrack, which harnesses her romantic piano style to a punchy hip-hop drum programme. Other highlights include her paean to spicy lovemaking 'Wreckless Love'.

Download: 'Wreckless Love', 'Teenage Love Affair', 'No One', 'Go Ahead' AG Wire Read and Burn 03 . . .

This third release in Wire's series of stopgap releases between fulllength albums is a 25-minute EP whose four tracks exhibit most of the band's characteristic qualities.

There's the unshaken faith in minimalist repetition that allows a track like 'Desert Diving' to grow from stealthy beginnings to an almost bombastic conclusion; the fascination with layered guitar sounds that reaches its apogee on 'No Warning Given', where the guitars achieve a chiming intensity against the background bed of fuzzy noise; and the obvious relish for the sounds of words as much as their meaning.

Download: '23 Years Too Late', 'No Warning Given' AG Seal System . . .

Seal's fifth album shares some of the failings of Alicia Keys's As I Am, particularly in the way that songs such as 'Dumb' and 'Rolling' seem to evaporate from one's mind as soon as they're finished. But he clearly takes more care during the writing process, making good use of his gift for alighting upon catchy catchphrases, as with the title to 'If It's In My Mind, It's On My Face' and the hook to 'System' itself. Most arresting of all is 'Loaded'. Canny soul that he is, Seal's come up with a devotional song to a bride, 'Wedding Day', that's doubtless destined to become a matrimonial favourite.

Download: 'If It's In My Mind, It's On My Face', 'System', 'Loaded' AG Jazz Arve Henriksen Strjon Rune Grammofon . . .

Even while he is re-inventing and deconstructing the trumpet and questioning its entire role as a musical instrument, Norwegian visionary Arve Henriken can't help recalling the sound and atmosphere of Miles Davis. Henriksen is one third of ground-breaking Scandinavian musical adventurists Supersilent, and he is joined here by his two accomplices for his third solo effort. Like Davis, Henriksen has the ability to communicate emotion with very little, and even though the backgrounds are abstract and often frankly weird, this works because of the conviction with which Henriksen does it.

Surprise yourself. Cormac Larkin Classical Elin Manahan Thomas Eternal Light Heliodor (60m) . . .

Marketed as a crossover artist and endorsed on the sleeve notes by composer John Rutter, "she takes us to another world, " Elin Manahan Thomas captivates with 16 flawless tracks. Mainly Baroque favourites, each track is self-contained and delivered in a refined and con trolled manner. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment empathi cally accompanies Thomas who delivers purity of music, intonation and diction. However, the total is less than the sum of the individual tracks, as restrained and perfect performance is often at the expense of colour and excitement.

David Agnew (Karen Dervan is away)