Top Music Picks for March 2005

March has been a month of big releases: look out for the latest offering by Jennifer Lopez (Rebirth), 50 Cent (The Massacre), Moby (Hotel) and Daft Punk (Human After All) "" although this last may take a while to hit the stores here in India.

Other than these new releases (which are in any case already looking a bit tired, especially 50 Cent), here are some international picks for this month:

Ray Charles: Genius Loves Company, Ray! "" Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

You saw the film, you saw the Grammys, now buy the CD "" not just the motion picture soundtrack, but also Ray Charles's last album, comprising a dozen duets with singers as diverse as Diana Krall, Van Morrison and Gladys Knight.

The soundtrack of the film is obviously also a great buy, with hits picked for the film by Charles himself, including Georgia on my Mind, What'd I Say and Hallelujah I Love Her So.

Kylie Minogue: Ultimate Kylie

Given the fact that Blue is still one of the highest selling groups at CD stores all over the country, it is clear that we have a soft spot for pop.

Why listen to Blue then, when we have this brilliant (yes, brilliant) sum-up of Kylie Minogue's career, starting with her legendary (yes, legendary) 80s hits (you won't be able to stop yourself singing along, that is, if, like me, you obsessively memorised all the lyrics as a child), Locomotion, Put your Hand on your Heart and Wouldn't Change a Thing to the miniature pop princess's later hits like the oft-played Can't Get you Out of My Head and Love at First Sight.

Alicia Keys: If I Ain't Got You

The single If I Ain't Got You swept the Grammys and, following in the footsteps of The Diary of Alicia Keys and Songs in A Minor, has established Keys as one of the best young singer-songwriters of her generation. Buy the single "" it's a great song.

Joss Stone: Mind, Body and Soul

The teenager from, of all places, Devon, took the world by storm in 2003 with her debut album Soul Sessions, where she proved, with her music and her whisky-soaked husky voice that by rights should have belonged to a thirtysomething African American woman, that we have wronged teenage British girls by assuming they could only produce music in the genre of Atomic Kitten and Girls Aloud.

A hit at the Brit Awards and the Grammys (especially her live rendition of Janis Joplin's Another little Piece of my Heart with Melissa Etheridge) Stone makes a valuable addition to any music collection.