Check the volume level of your speakers before pressing play on Symphonic Studies by 20th century English composer Alan Rawsthorne. This work from 1939 begins with a blast of sustained sound from the full orchestra, reminiscent of the melodramatic opening-title tracks from film scores of 1940s and '50s cinema, a few of which Rawsthorne himself composed.

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Written shortly after the first world war, English composer Sir Edward Elgar's four-movement Cello Concerto is an unapologetic missive of innocence lost. The opening movement, unorthodoxly marked "Adagio" ( Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85: I. Adagio - Moderato ), mourns this affliction with particular poignancy. One can almost hear Elgar's heart break as the solo cellist begins the piece alone, declaring a troubled melody punctuated by stormy double stops, in which two notes are bowed savagely at once. Tentatively at first, yet becoming gradually stronger, cellist and orchestra swoon together in a mixture of Continental Romanticism and that mysterious, lambent presence unique to Britain.

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Painting a landscape of endless fields graced by soft winds, Quiet in the Land is a musical celebration of the muse known as nature. American composer Kenneth Fuchs, with the help of the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor JoAnn Falletta, invokes through the medium of sound the experience of walking under big skies over vast plains.

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With illustrative, Broadway-worthy piano ditties and upbeat stories told with a soothing charm by Casey Dienel, Wind-Up Canary is a cleverly constructed and exquisitely fun album. Having taken to the ivory keys at the ripe age of 4 and started writing poetic pop songs by 14, it's no surprise that this young songstress was making waves in the music world at 20 -- when Canary made it out of a friend's farmhouse and into a Hush Records deal.

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Sporting song titles like "Stripper" and "No Regrets" and having performed at Playboy's Moscow Playboy party in August 2006, you'd expect something pretty sexually charged out of the UK bratz Sohodolls. And they deliver.

Each racy track from this co-ed clan of five is a hot rush of adrenaline, reminiscent of the Queen of Pop herself (Madonna) during her flashy peak in the eighties.

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