The mine of unreleased Bob Dylan gems really seems to be inexhaustible, as Volume Nine of the Dylan bootleg series goes into the shops. The Witmark Demos, as the title suggests, does not consist of rejected masterpieces and live recordings that are scattered through the other CDs in the series.

This two-CD set gives us 47 songs by Dylan, accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, harmonica and occasionally piano, recorded specifically for his music publisher, M. Witmark, of Leeds Music, between 1962 and 1964. Intimate, often playful but above all brimming with youthful energy, they offer early takes from Dylan’s folk and protest periods, ending with the groundbreaking Mr Tambourine Man — all produced before the great man had turned 24.

But it offers far more than an historically interesting glimpse of masterpieces in the making. Some of the takes, such as Boots of Spanish Leather and Bob Dylan’s Dream, rival the recorded versions, while 15 of the songs, such as the such as Long Ago, Far Away, never found their way on to official Dylan albums. This release coincides with Columbia’s re-release of the original mono recordings of the first eight Dylan albums.

The release of Kings of Leon’s fifth album looks like cementing their position as the world’s biggest rock act. Come Around Sundown became their third consecutive album to debut at number one, claiming the year’s biggest week one sales. The echoing Edge-like guitar work on the opening cut, entitled The End, gives notice that epic grandeur is to be the order of the day. While the album’s raw quality will delight fans, the band does not come close to producing the light and shade of U2’s best work, leaving the Kings open to the charge of playing safe by producing the ultimate stadium rock blueprint. But nobody is going to mind in London next summer when 65,000 will cram into Hyde Park, awaiting a repeat performance of their last epic open-air show in the capital. Come on — who calls out for Kid A material at a Radiohead gig?