Mylo Xyloto may have an oblique title but it's a triumph because the music is anything but.

For all its deft arrangements and catchy chorus hook lines, Passenger feels unforced, spontaneous and timeless; indeed, such is its unaffected delivery that it might have been recorded 30 years ago or last month

Perfectly serviceable, but this band missed their chance to make a third great album decades ago.

As a whole, Revelation Road is the closest Lynne has got to where she should always have been, even if she mightn't stay here long.

It is the kind of record that might drift by unassumingly lest you lend it a careful ear, but really: the second you do, it rewards unequivocally.

The Mosaic Project offers, simply, some of the best jazz around.

John Cale's new five-track EP conceives and executes more great ideas in 21 minutes than most musicians do in 10 years.

Ultimately, A Dramatic Turn of Events probably isn't too far from what this band would've created even with Portnoy in the ranks. It still sounds like a Dream Theater album, and that's all anyone's ever going to ask for.

The Awakening is lacking the grandstanding moment it needs to elevate it above reserved recommendation--it's a safe, steady affair, but about as revelatory as a Chris de Burgh best-of.

Uncomplicated, subtle but memorable songwriting that might well have been played and recorded in a bedroom studio on Holloway Road.

Thea Gilmore's take on John Wesley Harding is a worthy tribute to that great album--and with a playing time of 42.23, it even gives you an extra four minutes more than the original.

The ballads don't quite work--I'm Not Blue and Russell's Ain't You Even Gonna Cry sound detached and forced, more like excerpts from a musical than songs in their own right. On the more upbeat numbers, though, she's terrific.

Gracious Tide, Take Me Home is a luminous, lilting, lovely debut album, and a perfect mood piece as the nights begin to draw in.

Inside the Ships will assuredly grab hold by the second listen, if not the first.

All told this is a decent effort, but one to approach with caution if you're after something a bit different.

Roll the Dice are processing the work of their predecessors into something recognisably new. And at its best, In Dust sounds neither antique nor cutting edge, but timeless.

Despite this motley bunch, the album's sound hasn't become a random genre gumbo.

Whether for its bounty of warm guitar textures or for its still-rare insight into a distinctly female perspective on young love, Lights Out is surprising, sincere and, above all, a success.

While some consistency may have been sacrificed in favour of a space-filling selection of tracks, this set still represents a heaving, breathing journey through the introspective and the bombastic, the striving and the exhaustive.

This is not music that hangs around in the brain, for reasons that aren't particularly clear.

Monkeytown is the sound of two men working in harmony, perfectly in control of their machines. And it may just be one of the albums of the year.

How Do You Do is another solid step in the right direction for Hawthorne, who shows that soul music is universal and devoid of colour, as we all can relate to difficulties and heartbreak.

To use a fishy term, McCartney well and truly floundered with this one.

This album's a string-driven thing swinging between bravado and bleakness, and always beautiful.

An album of great love and joy, Purpose + Grace confirms that Simpson remains at the top of his game.

It is Coleman's sax, Jonathan Finlayson's trumpet, Tim Albright's trombone and Jen Shyu's voice that make the strongest impact.

There's no getting away from the fact that WTC 9/11 simply doesn't have the structural cohesion or magnitude of Different Trains--a comparison which Reich fans will inevitably draw.

Looping State of Mind barely outstays its welcome, and its beatific state of mind may prove to be a welcome refuge for many more than for the musical vanguard, like Seefeel, that inspired it.