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Review: There are a few Beastie Boys reissue projects in the works at the moment, but none will be more popular than this 30th anniversary edition of one of the band's best. After their experimental mini-album "Roots Down", "Paul's Boutique" is composed, vocals aside, almost entirely of samples all put together in Matt Dike's apartment and the Record Plant in Los Angeles from 1988 to 1989. It marked the moment they were taken seriously, became hip hop giants and broke free of their one hit wonder tag. Its retro style and gleeful misuse of samples was thrillingly original yet familiar and despite the myriad of sounds, scenes and styles drawn upon, somehow they all added up to make this a cohesive album.

Review: Root Down is an experimental album from 1994 when The Beastie Boys locked themselves in a rehearsal space and went to town on studio experimentation and live jamming. It came between "Paul's Boutique" and "Check Your Head" and resulted in two previously unreleased versions of the title track and snippets of music recorded while on tour in Europe. There is the typical Beastie Boys mix of floor rocking riffs but with funky new flows stitched in and thus charts the period in which the band went from their post punk guitar roots to a more new-groove driven sound.

Review: The Black Crowes put out their immediately classic debut album Shake Your Money Maker back in 1981. On the occasion of its 30th anniversary it gets a special deluxe reissue treatment with audio taken from the original sessions. The new collection features no fewer than five unreleased songs including 'Charming Mess' and some special studio recording covers of Humble Pie's '30 Days In The Hole' and John Lennon's 'Jealous Guy.' Two further, never-before-heard demos also make the cut, all with liner notes by David Fricke.

Review: If you're not a Blink 182 fan the fact the American pop punk rockers put out a Greatest Hits album in 2005 might be quite surprising considering they only rose to international chart repute at the turn of the century. Delve into their story, though, and you realise by the time they put out this compilation - coinciding with their split and, in the label Geffen's words, "indefinite hiatus" - they'd actually already been going for more than a decade.

Nevertheless, it's impossible not to acknowledge that it was the landmark albums Enema of the State and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, respectively landing in 1999 and 2001, that saw them really break into the mainstream conscious. As such, excerpts from that era, for example 'All The Small Things' and 'What's My Age Again?' represent the biggest hitters here, however it's hard to ignore just how infectious every upbeat, angst-laden track is.