Compilation of the month:
A motley crew try hard to prove that hoisting the nautical flag is the next big thing. Neil Spencer searches for doubloons.

Shooting Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, director Gore Verbinski became gripped by a strange obsession – to make an album that updated antique sailors’ shanties. With producer Hal Willner enlisted as captain, the project was soon ready to set sail with a stellar cast to deliver the work songs and salty ballads thatWillner uncovered.

Hence this two-CD curiosity, whose 43 tracks run from Bono crooning a dying whaler’s lament to a typically austere Martin Carthy version of