Baby Huey's only LP The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend is a forgotten great of the psychedelic soul era. The Indiana-born singer's flamboyant style and tremendous size (the result of a glandular disorder) made him a formidable figure on the Chicago scene in the mid-'60s, and he signed with Curtis Mayfield's label in 1969 where he cut his aforementioned debut.

Huey's death at the age of 26 in the same month as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin meant his legend was left sadly untended, but his slim recorded legacy only continues to grow in stature. Drawing lines between Sly Stone's freaky soul, James Brown funk and Otis-like, wounded aggression, ...Living Legend's highlight has to be this hair-raising cover of Curtis' own 'Hard Times', which is both hard as nails and utterly thrilling. Ghostface Killah evidently thought so - he sampled it for a track on his Supreme Clientele, included below.

Baby Huey, 'Hard Times'

Ghostface Killah, 'Buck 50'

GIRLS // Carolina by TheArtOf...

I've wobbled rather tragically on the fence since neurotic surf-poppers Girls released their debut album last year to general applause. Much as tracks like 'Lust For Life' and 'Hellhole Ratrace' were stonking great home runs serving notice of a major songwriting talent in frontman Christopher Owens, other parts of the record felt unfocused and diffuse.

But never mind all that jazz: in 'Broken Dreams Club' the San Fran outfit has a new EP to call its own and the highlight, near eight-minute epic 'Carolina', might just be the best thing they've done. Darker, spacier and a touch more unyielding than before, it's testament to what you can achieve when you quit dragging your ass 'round the beach all day and dare to dream BIG.

If 'Too Much' was a brief rather than a song title, you'd have to consider this mission accomplished. The Age Of Adz is federal state-busting indie doyen Sufjan Stevens' sixth album proper, and it's HUGE. So much so it might have felt like too much dessert at first time of asking, but the 70-minute opus has proved a mightily sustaining body of work in the medium term - a good thing, since pop needs its monotheistic visionary talents like never before. Eye-watering visuals for the track come courtesy of Deborah Johnson, who also works on Sufjan's live show.