I passed through the city on the way to see Uncle Bill yesterday, and dropped into Missing Link :

• is a woman, by Lambchop : as others have said, this is a rather quiet album. It'll take a few listens, I'm guessing.

• Axess and Ace, by Songs: Ohia : now that he's toured, one or two shops saw fit to get some stock in. Yay. I'd been after this for a while, but hadn't managed to order from the label yet, 'cause I'm not sure whether to trust PayPal. I haven't listened to this one yet, because it hasn't exactly matched this afternoon's mood of transcribing family history stuff.

• Cubist Blues, by Alan Vega, Alex Chilton and Ben Vaughn : the opening track Fat City is absolutely dripping with mood - the rumbling bass, guitar, and Alan Vega's Elvis-channelling vocals. Fantastic. I'm waiting for the rest to grow on me.

• Words of Wisdom and Hope, by Jad Fair and Teenage Fanclub : probably the most immediately accessible of these four - Jad Fair sings his geek lovesongs over backing music that, for the most part, is easily identifiable as being by our Scottish heroes.

The best, however, was yet to come. I wandered over to Basement Discs where I flipped through new releases and then noticed a very odd sight just above the CD racks. A Lloyd Cole boxed set. I wasn't expecting this, to say the least. I wasn't going to let this out of my sight. It turns out that the box contains the following :

• The most recent album, The Negatives. Needless to say, I own this already.

• Various lost bits and pieces, some from an album that never quite eventuated a few years back, and so forth.

• Miscellaneous instrumental noodling (yes, really).

• An assembly of live tracks. Hearing Brand New Friend after so long had me on the verge of tears. There's also an amusing cover of Kraftwerk's Pocket Calculator - it's almost de rigeur for people to cover Kraftwerk these days, though.