While T.I.'s measured, discursive rap style is heard at its best on scourging confessional duets with Eminem and, of all people, Christina Aguilera on the genuinely touching Castle Walls, Further promising collaborations with Kanye West, Pharrell and Drake end up having a rather more formulaic ring to them. [Apr 2011, p.97]

On Blessed she finds the perfect balance between the sweet and the sour. [Apr 2011, p.98]

It's a near-total reinvention, and a triumph. [Apr 2011, p.98]

It's a pity that the set plays out with a hat trick of dreadlock holiday stinkers. [Apr 2011, p.98]

Cornershop's Midlands-Asian mainspring, looks back to the homeland with an album joyously sung all in Punjabi. [Apr 2011, p.100]

Musically, this album is well assembled, with stabs of Memphis-style horns, slide guitar and luscious strings--but the lyrics lack deep resonance. [Apr 2011, p.100]

Nothing here feels contrived. Instead we witness a rare thing: an inherently youthful band gracefully making good into their thirties. [Apr 2011, p.106]

There's not a note put out of place as they invite us to enjoy the good natured be-in. [Apr 2011, p.104]

Like island life itself, it's quietly focused and won't be rushed. [Apr 2011, p.104]

The tonal similarities of these tracks blend into one another, holding only half of your attention like the soundtrack of an imagined film. [Apr 2011, p.105]

She now finds plenty to lampoon in 2011 on this droll, provocative comeback. [Apr 2011, p.105]

The hi-gloss but uneven Credo only partially convinces. [Feb 2011, p.100]

Gentleman Jack White does his Loretta Lynn production thing for another grand old lady. [Feb. 2011, p. 108]

The southern legend's first solo outing in 14 years. [Feb. 2011, p. 108]

Their 21st studio album. Not so dissimilar to the other 20. [Feb. 2011, p. 108]

The Brit School girl undergoes a successful soul-pop makeover. [Feb. 2011, p. 108]

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is genuinely a great record. [Feb. 2011, p. 108]

Brooklyn collective with ex-Le Tigre members party like its 2003. [Feb. 2011, p. 107]

Fourth outing for the hirsute folk/pop alchemist. [Feb. 2011, p. 107]

Homme has gone on to make sexier records, but for sheer creepy sensuality QOTSA is the definitive article. [Apr 2011, p.112]

Fifth album from former Afghan Whigs mainman's collective. [Apr. 2011, p. 94]

Fifth, and best, album from Montreal's big dreamers. [Apr. 2011, p. 94]

US gypsy folkies ramble aroudn the musical map. [Apr. 2011, p. 94]

As with earlier records, Build A Rocket Boys! is touched by ambitious, intuitive invention. [Apr. 2011, p. 92]

Mike Ness and his men still have those rock 'n roll blues. [Feb. 2011, p. 106]

First album in 16 years for the post-punk maestros. Riveting and robotic. [Feb. 2011, p. 106]

Pugnacious indie squares up to all-comers. [Feb. 2011, p. 106]

Portland's college-rock heirs downsize with Peter Buck-featuring sixth album. [Feb. 2011, p. 106]

Jamaica Queen;s potty-mouth hits rap home run on brutally enjoyable debut. [Feb. 2011, p. 105]

Brighton trio take a walk on the dark side. [Feb. 2011, p. 104]

Trio from Whittier, south-east Los Angeles, make debut on Britney's label. [Feb. 2011, p. 101]

The hardest working man in indie rock today shows no sign of taking a break. [Feb. 2011, p. 100]

San Francisco art-rockers deliver the perfect prog-pop hit. [Feb. 2011, p. 100]

Former soul-punks return with rough edges removed and hearts on sleeves. [Feb. 2011, p. 99]

Red Barked Tree compares favorably with the very best of the definitive Wire. [Feb. 2011, p. 98]

It's a voice that dictates the tone and timber of every other element: the clipped, bass-driven, soulful blues dances delicately around those molasses tones and,at times, you can almost feel his breath in your ear. [Apr 2011, p.98]

This lot, however, aim for anthems, armed with zero melody. [Apr 2011, p.100]

Michael Collins' garage rockers do Detroit techno. [March 2011, p. 97]

Guest vocalists save giddy, sampling sextet from "more of the same old" charges. [Feb. 2011, p. 97]

Italian-blooded debutante rocks passionately. [March 2011, p. 96]

Krautrock surrogates get expansive on fourth album. [March 2011, p. 96]

Of all her many guises [...] this may be her most powerful. [Feb. 2011, p. 94]

On Bella, Thompson is once again in the crossfire of a stop-start relationship. [March 2011, p. 109]

Album seven hits a sweet spot between prog and power-chords. [March 2011, p. 108]

Strip away the noise and you'll realize that the charm of Yuck is rooted in fundamentals of great songwriting. [March 2011, p. 108]

Hip-hop originator meets Mercury-winning button-pusher du jour. [MArch 2011, p. 108]

So much more than the original boy band. [March 2011, p. 106]

The Scots post-rockers who will outlast them all. [March 2011, p. 100]

Psych-pop and trip-hop revivalism collide with a pleasing consequence. [March 2011, p. 99]

Third, and finest, brew of Seattle trio's fever-folk moonshine. [March 2011, p. 99]

Super Furry frontman's third solo venture, its title inspired by hair product freebies. [March 2011, p. 98]

Texas troubadour's latest tales are his most potent. [March 2011, p. 97]

Slowing down, but in no need of the hard shoulder. [March 2011, p. 97]

London singer-songwriter attempts to annex the middle ground between Benga and Anthony Hegarty. [March 2011, p. 96]

Swedish chanteuse returns with guns blazing. [March 2011, p. 96]

For all its romance, this is a record at the sharp end of mortality. [March 2011, p. 96]

Chillwave premier goes in search of the funk. [March 2011, p. 95]

Cherished Canuck crooner recruits Metallica's producer. [March 2011, p. 95]

Can a band that has been as good as defunct since the 1980s truly recapture their spark? The answer appears to be yes. [Apr 2011, p.98]

The stated modus operandi--everybody is leading and following--results in some fascinating new angles and delicious surprises on familiar material. [Apr 2011, p.107]

Tell Me is a pure and earnest amble through heartbreak, Bluegrass-tinged, with Seldom nods to anything approaching modern. [Apr 2011, p.106]

Only on the title track's cavernous '80s-era bass synths does Jaar come close to being conventional. [Apr 2011, p.105]

They write about what they know. Once that was dashed hopes and broken hearts, now its families and what sounds like pages from a diary. [Apr 2011, p.104]

Uneasy listening at its ghost-in-the-machine best. [Apr 2011, p.104]

Its mood affecting. its melodies haunting, Fading Parade is spellbinding. [Apr 2011, p.101]

While White Wilderness lacks the edge of Emerald City it's an inspired set of songs decorated by Minna Choi's imaginative orchestrations. [Apr 2011, p.101]

Ben Chasny's annual solo folk extravaganza. [March 2011, p. 95]

A band featuring such like-minded oddballs as Sufjan Stevens lend nice textures to the psychedelic swirls of Olympic Portions and Hovering Above That Hill, but simpler fare is more memorable. [Apr 2011, p.101]

Expanding on the rolling grooves of 2009'a Song Of The Pearl, The Gathering is a sonic monster. [Apr 2011, p.101]

This long-rumoured debut is a thing of stark intimacy, rendered by just Pearson's rustic voice and roughly picked guitar, with an occasional smear of wintry violin or doleful piano. [Apr 2011, p.100]

Very sad and very beautiful. [Apr 2011, p.100]

The vocals of core dynamic duo Alisa Xayalith and Thom Powers instantly proffer more light and shade, while the punchy garage of Kraut Of All Of This, distorted, gliding My Bloody Valentine-lite of Frayed And Spank, or thundering Chemical Brothers detonations at the heart of A Wolf In Geek's Clothing all point to far more than just obscure psych records in their collection. [Apr 2011, p.100]

What Did You Expect is a breathlessly exciting debut, it's giddy raunch'n'revisionism hard to resist. [Apr 2011, p.100]

The overall effect is like being trapped in a lift with McFly on a sugar-rush. [Apr 2011, p.98]

This album more than does him [Vic Chesnutt] justice. [Apr 2011, p.98]

The sequel to 2006's Gamelan Into The Mink Supernatural lays needling waves of in-the-red euphoria and cymbal-saturated pummeling, with the occasional scenic feedback plateau to catch one's breath. [Apr 2011, p.97]

Though there are also moments when TDD's seemingly random amalgam of influences and styles doesn't quite work, Fuckarias rocks like a bastard and frontwoman Linnea Jonsson has all the poise and tone required of a top-notch pop singer. [Apr 2011, p.97]

It's rocky Americana: swaggering and infuriatingly satisfying. [Apr 2011, p.97]

Parts & Labor have made their best album yet. [Apr 2011, p.95]

Drawing elements from both [previous albums], Horses And High Heels is a similarly accomplished if more playful affair. [Apr 2011, p.94]

Conor Oberst regroups with the band that made him. [March 2011, p. 94]

Whether Liam Gallagher's band is the start of a new story or a diverting subplot to an on-going saga remains to be seen -- and you can imagine where the smart money lies. [Mar. 2011, p. 92]

Standouts include Burn Through, a Springsteenesque tale of blue-collar grit, and the haunting Corner Girl, where a lonely kid opens up her world like a plant unfurling. [Feb 2011, p.109]

While there's an invigorating charm to Blue Songs, you're left concluding that it lacks its predecessor's USP. [Feb 2011, p.108]

These carefully manicured, self-serving triffles nearly all fall flat, despite the nonstop roll-out of A-listers. [Feb 2011, p.108]

Alongside The Miracle 3's rich, roughneck guitar grind, Wynn's odd perspective gathers strength on two songs that involve gatecrashing private homes or events. [Feb 2011, p.107]

It's far from a one-dimensional experience though, thanks to Mehldau's jaw-dropping virtuosity. [Feb 2011, p.107]

It's early days, but given everything is self-played, and the guitars are as deftly layered as they are swiftly shedding, Baldi might rise to something magnificent once the hormones have been expunged. [Feb 2011, p.107

The album delivers on the promise. {Feb 2011, p.104]

Ultimately, you suspect that their natural habitat are shoegazey guitarscapes like Everyone I Ever Met and Forever The Bridge, which marry controlled noise, atmospheric arrangements and subtly insidious melodies. Either way, it works. [Feb 2011, p.104]

A pea souper of an album, beneath which there is some gold. [Feb 2011, p.104]

The grammatically doubtful One Less Heartless To Fear finds the quartet in more punishing mode. [Feb 2011, p.101]

Face Tat is less free-form than Astrological Straits, 2008's exhilarating, exhausting debut, but it's still a full 15 rounds of aural boxing. [Feb 2011, p.100]

This is a richly textured debut that creates a very agreeable collision between the organic and the electronic. [Feb 2011, p.100]

Some of the lyrics, translated from the Dutch, are a touch clunky, but all in all a lively set and not, I suspect, Bishop Burke's final memorial. [Feb 2011, p.100]

The Detroit budget-punks follow last year's eponymous art-scuzz by zinging through 12 anthemic amp-melters in 26 minutes. [Feb 2011, p.989]

The San Francisco pair Sic Alps present 22 concise numbers and commendably few lo-fi cliches. [Feb 2011, p.99]

Hellswinter refrains from overdosing on distortion before the title track's 20 minutes of funereal beauty. [Mar 2011, p.99]