Despite the variety of influences which went into the making of this album, Band of Horses have a characteristic sound which can occasionally become samey and slightly dull, yet for the most part it gives the album a comforting continuity.

It's true that guitar-pop is all this is, but it's still bloody good stuff.

The rock these four men so easily brandish is every bit the equal, if not the better, of that deployed by so-called peers half their age.

If you like Mogwai for the sounds they make, for their instrumental dynamic and ebbing/flowing moodiness, you'll probably like Mr Beast - there's certainly little to object to. But if you love Mogwai... perhaps Mr Beast isn't for you.

Any fears of a dangerous liaison are soon sent packing as opener ‘Deus Ibi Est’ thud-thuds its way to attention.

Brilliantly elegant.

Ashworth earns sympathy aplenty vocally, but his mechanical compositions occasionally jar awkwardly against his heartfelt outpourings.

The formula established in track one is repeated in the combined half hour of the other two tracks here to less devastating effect.

If you ever enjoyed the accessible moments of long-standing US indie-pop acts such as Modest Mouse or Built To Spill, but longed for them to stop with the eight-minute wig-outs, Skeleton is probably the album you’ve been waiting for; from Denmark via America.

Everything’s well executed, but nothing sinks in; it’s all surface, no feeling.

Bypassing traditional melodies and obvious aesthetics, Mystery Jets have arrived at an unusually original pop album of the most exuberant order.

NBA's sole but major problem is that so many of these songs - 'Unsatisfied', 'Shot Down', 'Ironside', the list goes on - lack anything like major soul.

The happy-go-lucky, Casio-plated sheen surrounding their elegantly crafted pop songs disguises what are, by and large, tales of bitterness, regret and longing for things that are impossibly out of reach.

It's feverish, unbalanced, disturbing, and for the most part captivating.

Destroyer's Rubies is an inadvertent Guide To Destroyer - every defining quirk, every 70's pop nod and ill-advised but forgivable falsetto is condensed and framed, only without becoming something fans of Bejar will have all heard before.

In What The Toll Tells we’ve been served up an In The Aeroplane Over The Sea for ’06 – full of misty-eyed dreams and incredible characters.

It sounds like The Zutons trying to record one of their more out-there b-sides having just lost the ability to play music.

It's an exceptionally accomplished piece of work that should place Matchbook Romance at the forefront of the cutting edge, POST-emo scene.

Sounding somehow perfectly modern yet refreshingly and celebratory retro, The Life Pursuit is Belle And Sebastian at their freest, delightfully spilling over with great ideas and perfect pop know-how.

Difficult second album? In a way. In that it's difficult to listen to it without smashing your CD player to make it stop.

It's sweet, comforting music with a nice warmth to it. Not too political, nothing too clever. Not as good as Trailer Park, but her best thing since.

Below The Branches is, maybe, the first perfect summertime album, absolutely brimming with brightness and charm.

Overall the LP falters too often.

A number of songs suggest brilliance before stumbling rather into the bland.

At times they near the hybrid jazz of The Mars Volta or even the plentiful jam bands that can be found on the boulevards of certain Eastern European shores, but Tortoise's effortless ingenuity and Prince Billy's sensuous and aged voice raise it to a much higher plane.

What it lacks in instant appeal it makes up for on repeated listens as the hidden gems shine through, and whilst the different styles it adopts can make From A Compound Eye feel slightly untidy and overstocked on occasion, the ambition and craftsmanship present makes warming to it hard to resist.

While the songs on their third recorded set are confident, compositionally astute and capable of slotting into any indie-disco DJ’s mid-set surge towards an electric peak, they more often than not sound like the sum of parts, rather than the frenzied party jams deployed by the band at their scintillating live shows.

A substandard, second-tier album with some strings thrown in for good measure.