Lazily accomplished without ever truly igniting, a classy update on a slightly dated hip-hop sound.

The startling musical variety amplifies the fact that no matter how aloof, how diffident, how cartoon Beck might be, he's so extravagantly talented that he's already lapped everyone else on that strength alone.

A mature and, occasionally beautiful album, possibly the finest of their career.

Ultimately, Grinderman is just a way for Cave to release more music.

Despite the quick gestation, it's actually better than the successful debut - a rare enough occurrence - and the direction in which they've pushed things is equally surprising.

Some are already calling it a landmark. This year's 'Deserter's Songs' or 'Soft Bulletin'. In truth it's probably better than both of those records.

At 14 tracks long, The Dodos do push the point a little, but it's really a case of once you've lit the touch-paper you live with the explosions till the last spark.

Hearing him coast is still better than listening to most rappers trying; but the Jay-Z of today sounds like someone for whom making music is an enjoyable hobby, not a burning need.

The results breathe that same rarefied air as Nick Drake or Vashti Bunyan.

Andorra feels free and fresh, comfortable exploring its own sonic identity.

Their dedication to refined, pretty songs means there's a very narrow scope here that didn't afflict Grizzly Bear's "Veckatimest" and which makes proceedings here sound a little wan and wishy-washy after a while.

Nine Types Of Light is an album that manages to blend experimentation with a welcoming accessibility that proves pop music can still be bold this far down the line.

Such is the depth and quality of Turner's songwriting, it plays like a best of.

She's melded the two sides of her history much more seamlessly; four-to-the-floor pop belters mix with touches of electronic and lyrical darkness to make one of the pop albums of the year.

Establishes him not only as a master of the fast and fluid flow, but an insightful, frequently humorous - if somewhat socio- politically naïve - lyricist.

'Poses', his second terrific album, is a collection of 12 songs in search of a musical; arch tales that mingle snapshots of boho life with arch allusions to courtly love.

This is not a 'commercial' release, at least not in the commonly construed meaning of the word. If you had to be picky, you could say that nothing has the impact of that cover of Nine Inch Nail's "Hurt" or Nick Lowe's "The Beast In Me". But that's beside the point.

At 31 minutes, the record is a short and bitter mind-melter.

It is not a terrible album by any means; just an unfocussed and sprawling one.

This is not the work of a band prepared to make a song and dance to keep everyone interested, but one happy to build something good from not a lot and hope you like it.

Most people will deem this album a significant piece of work, and maybe if you haven't heard much Pavement then it is.

Utterly unique and frequently wonderful.

Re-emerging after a mere eight month gestation with their second album (they're referring to it as an extended EP just to be difficult, but whatever), the only natural assumption would be that the whirlwind of inconsistency smashes on unabated. And in some respects it does, but key to this record's fortunes is a sense that first they're running out of ideas and second have chilled their bones to become less rigidly obsessed with quantity and cleverness and proving their self-worth.

At every turn this record astonishes with its accomplishment.

Aside from the incredible sonics though, Phoenix's real triumph here is successfully contorting the songs into ever more elaborate and unconventional arrangements without losing any of their classy pop impact.

Nine fantastically-detailed, delicately-constructed and warm-sounding pieces that are far too slippery to fall into neat genre parameters.

Inevitably, it all starts to grow a little samey.

They muster compelling music that sounds like triumph in the face of adversity, building something beautiful out of the building blocks of sadness and despair.