More so than on predecessor The Spell, the Procession's ominous, gothic-baroque sound now suggest angular German Expressionist cinema and the raven wing atmospheres of Edgar Allan Poe as readily as The Bad Seeds. [Dec 2009, p. 94]

Cameos by Vampire Wekend's Ezra Keonig and Tamil rapper M.I.A. add to a joyous but knowing smorgasbord that will play equally well in a Lilongwe disco or Shoreditch/Brooklyn trend hole. [Oct 2009, p.107]

Unlike her previous solo release, it's all music, no spoken word (her other job is poet), though the lyrics are often good enough to make you sit up. [Dec 2009, p. 101]

With songs of fake rock 'n' roll, magical dogs, lost minds and love, this is pop with wobbly wheels and new found joy and optimism. [Dec 2009, p. 95]

Quietly dazzling. [Nov 2009, p.100]

The forensic approach to recreating the airbrushed sounds of '70s AM pop ahs paid off--there's not a single weak track on this addictive, exceptionally polished LP. [Apr 2010, p.98]

Lyrically her songs are as politically charged as ever, musically they're laboured experiments in style. [June 2010, p. 94]

Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons have knuckled down alongside relative newbies Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer to make a half-decent rock'n'roll record. [Nov 2009, p.90]

Still totally themselves, Madness have made the album of their career. [Jun 2009, p.100]

Things dip slightly in the middle when Jackson's reedy vocals are exposed against a mid-tempo backing, but it's a minor quibble. [Jul 2009, p.98]

Quality control dips during the last quarter, but this is a reassuring step forward. [Nov 2009, p.94]

In truth, despite Diana Krall as producre and accompanist, this is hardly jazz. Instead, it's another nigh faultless array of ballads, immaculately dressed by arranger Johnny Mandel (a deluxe edition has backings by Krall's quartet.0 [Dec 2009, p. 92]

A decent return, Alice mostly impresses despite the limiting permutations of their angst. [Nov 2009, p.94]

The honesty of these performances infinitely more important than any finessing. [Oc 2009, p.108]

Too much of the rest meanders through trickling streams of acoustic guitar and somnambulant vocals without ever detaining you for long. [Nov 2009, p.97]

Leader Joseph D'Agostino drops vowels with a schizoid, Malkmus-esque charm (somewhere between a meltdown and a bong pipe), while the band see-saw between going for the jugular and a surprisingly touching melodic tinkering. [Dec 2009, p. 90]

Recorded in analogue, Echo Kid is his love letter to '70s AM rock radio. [Jan 2010, p. 93]

Charitable largesse aside, it's a must-have for fans of anyone involved. [Sep 2009, p.98]

Lyricwise everything is simple, ready for sing-along consumption and sometimes you can almost visualise that bouncing ball heading a long the bottom of some YouTube screen. [Feb 2010, p. 95]

With little in the way of banjo now, nearly every song comes steeped in acoustic piano, while the vocals are pitched to eke out every last chunk of substance from well-honed lyrics. [May 2010, p.93]

His exhilarating meld of hip hop beats and mesmeric grooves proves that should he reform his old band, it's not because he needs to. [Nov 2009, p.95]

It is the sound of an introverted man reaching out to the workd and speaking uits language. [Oct 2009, p.102]

Her voice is a capable blend of vibrato and latterday R&B melisma, but also suggests a diffusion-range Amy Winehouse - something exacerbated as processed show-tune verses often leap into artless pop choruses. [Dec 2009, p. 96]

Illuminated, with its wistful wordless vocals, keening melody and swooping strings, is arguably a career peak. [Sep 2009, p.102]

It's all tawdrily familiar. [Oct 2009, p.102]

Kelis' involvement in the brooding title track can't save it from its fundamental dullness, warped, tetchy ska of 'Saga' fails to get under your skin, They're better on the camp, ecstatic single 'Raindrops,' and the hollering soul jive of 'She's No good.' [Oct 2009, p.98]

This record is way better than we had any right to expect. [Oct 2009, p.99]

Realised with friend Chet JR White in San Francisco on reel-to-reel tapes, the songs grab from Phil Spector, Beatles, Beach Boys, JAMC and Spiritualized, and are all the more enticing for it. [Jan 2010, p. 103]

Between My Head And The Sky is an intriuing record, crackling with an excitement that most new artists would struggle to generate. [Oct 2009, p.97]

Unmap transcends such mood geometrics thanks to Vernon's mostly wordless incantations. [Oct 2009, p.99]

The alien instrumentation here is systematic rather than fundamental--atmospheric colour that shows Hawley's current mindset rather than confirming some fundamental musical shift. [Oct 2009, p.94]

Geographic's signature--naive oreintal pop meets introverted occidental indie--is bewitchingly realised here in 12 gossamer songs. [Nov 2009, p.101]

The songs barely disturb the dust in the room as they gently tip-toe about, Millan's lazy drawl far less deliberate than the clipped enunciation she often exercises on Stars' chamber pop. [Feb 2010, p. 102]

But those with the gumption to take this record on will certainly come out of it knowing they've listened to something, and you can't fault Malone for putting himself out there. [Dec 2009, p. 94]

A bleak and occasionally beautiful debut. [Oct 2009,p.102]

The trio have delivered thier most tuneful collection yet. [Oct 2009, p.106]

A more effective synergy arrives as the musicians rein in the melodrama, proffering a subtler, shimmering folk rock canvas for Chesnutt's emotional daubings. [Nov 2009, p.91]

A darker set altogether, through more direct than its predecessor, Forget The Night Ahead manages to marry both crushing noise and sparse elegance. [Nov 2009, p.100]

The two CDs move forward with an eerie dread and romantic wonder; violin, piano, bass, celeste, cello creating an alternate wordless narrative to normal Cave blather. [Oct 2009, p.115]

The highlights: beautiful 'Hemingway's Whiskey;' spooky 'The Guitar;' and his moving, midtempo, backporchy cover of best friend Townes' 'If I Needed You.'

Where Dizzee Rascal's deliberately diverse third album "Maths & English" found him flirting with more mainstream pop styles, this leaner, punchier fourth record comsummates that union to entirely gratisfying effect. [Oct 2009, p.96]

'Just Breathe,' 'Amongst The Waves' and 'The End' make this one of Pearl jam's most satisfying albums. [Oct 2009, p.96]

Richey Edwards has his words set to the best music his bandmates have made since their last album together. [Jun 2009, p.97]

Simple, repetitive, often unsettling, Sort Of Revolution refuses to succumb to the obvious. [Jul 2009, p.93]

Overall it's pleasurable, audacious even, but hardly world changing. [Sep 2009, p.102]

The Afro-ising influence of Vampire Weekend on Precisely The Dodos' musical sector leaves them sounding emblematic only of early-Noughties blowsiness--as passe as their name suggests. [Oct 2009, p.108]

There's an absence of audible heat, no palpable anguish or tantrums. [Oct 2009. p.108]

Even introspection is realised on a gargantuan scale, with the climatic rock symphony Exogenesis. Over the top? For Matt Bellamy and Muse it's the only way to go. [Oct 2009]

What's so impressive about Man on the Moon, however, is that it's a complete vision, designed to be listened to as a whole. [Dec 2009, p. 92]

This 4-CD box is the monument to both the cult and the art. And it's great. [Oct 2009, p.117]

Braxton ventures far from the strictures of traditional rock. Indeed, he's cleared passport control and stepped into the realms of modern classical music. [Oct 2009, p.103]

With these less-then-cutting-edge elements Wilson manages to conjure that's diverse and full of drama. [Oct 2009, p.97]

Initially baffling, Manafon richly replays further decktime. [Oct 2009, p.96]

Esteemed guests such as flautist Michael McGoldrick, accordionist Phil Cunningham and fiddler John McCusker ornament the arrangements exquistely, while the Knopf's ever-tactile guitar continues to say more with three notes than most do with 20. [Oct 2009103]

Slaraffenland are a complete surprise. Unfettered yet poptuneful, they harmonize constantly--with a melodic cool, more churchy than surfy--but plough those vocal lines into dense, dynamic texture with fierce drums marching as to war. [Jun 2010, p.103]

Russell sings with heartfelt authority, while Calexico's cool elegance balances the emotional ticket. [Oct 2009, p.106]

But judicious daubs of strings, piano, female backing vocals and even a band (on Roll On, a surprise boisterous finale) reach out and the lyrics follow suit - venturing out into snow is a metaphor for change. [Jan 2010, p. 104]

No boundaries are being broken this around, but Living Colour still hold their own. [Jan 2010, p. 102]

At the risk of sounding trite, I couldn't wait to Turn It Off. [Oct 2009, p.97]

Every song on Two Dancers reflects the meticulous intelligence of master stylists. [Sep 2009, p.90]

It's surely their most eclectic. [Oct 2009, p.103]

The sixth Dublin-based Mexican metalheads is an awesome thing in which every trick in the jard-rock manual is applied to the duo's Latin rhythms and acoustic wizardry. [Oct 2009, p.107]

Gloriously nonsensical and beautifully out there, this is a joyful triumph. [Oct 2009, p.107]

Young, smart, pissed-off, ultra-basic, but also competent and powerful, these youngsters fire off brisk, bubblegum tunes in proud thrall to Da Brudders, and, by extension, girl-groups of the '60s. [Dec 2009, p.96]

It's only the too-glib wordplay that thwarts a more whole hearted endorsement. [Nov 2009, p.94]

Blk Jks's own voicee is utterly compelling. [Oct 2009, p.107]

Mister Pop is at once an old friend and a stotal stranger. [Nov 2009, p.100]

Indelible, compulsive, flecked with genuine brillance throughout, it's as good as any of the acknowledged clasics from the Clan's '93-96 peak. [Nov 2009, p.95]

The pop-soul of Hawthorne's A Strange Arrabgement sounds and feels genuinely convincing. [Oct 2009, p.100]

Akin to career suicide, it's admirably bonkers but overlong. [Oct 2009, p.108]

Noble concept, but possibly the dumbest clever-clogs album ever made. [Jun 2010, p.98]

The Visitor is curiously passionless and on occassion, too closely tied to its background music references to get excited about. [Nov 2009, p.102]

Though the sound remains dreamy, it's expansive; the melodic songs have a feeling of joy. [Oct 2009, p.101]

Two fine records without a duff track between them. [Oct 2009, p.98]

The songs range from good to essential. [Oct 2009, p.101]

The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again - the sequel to his 1973 solo debut - repeats the formula, its 12 covers of country standards and downhome favourites creating a warm, hearthside companion to its predecessor. [Dec 2009, p. 91]

Juliette Lewis's third shot at crossing over from award-winning actress to respected songwriter appears to br gatherng pace. [Oct 2009, p.98]

Houston has delivered an album that, despite a few middling tracks, is genuinely moving. [Nov 2009, p.95]

The duo's songs may employ no chords and few notes to sing against, but they are brillantly structured via Andreas Werliin's melodic drum patterns, with Mariam Wallentin's flamboyant, unfettered voice a huge presence. [May 2009, p109]

Beyond the dirty talk, this is a beautifully balanced record. [Sep 2009, p.94]

American Classic really shines when the velveteen smoothness takes a backseat to that voice. [Sep 2009, p.90]

Surely the key to echoing some of rock's key ancestral voices is having songs strong enough to stand on their own. Shaka Rock simply doesn't have them. [Oct 2009, p.106]

It's clear Maal is still boxing clever. [Jul 2009]

The songs, six previously unreleased, range from good to outstanding, the sound quality as clear and natural as if he were singing in the next room. [Oct 2009, p.115]

Her music mostly comprises ordinary, though precisely crafted, acoustic arrangements and plaintive-lite laments regarding absent lover. [Dec 2009, p. 92]

More stirring are te rougher dancehall textures of Smash Lies and Darkness Into Light's crunching guitars and soaring rock chorus. The latter produces the unsettling, but not unwelcome, result of resembling Soundgarden after a course of toasting lessons. [Jul 200, p.103]

S, no watersports this time, but a wee triumph nonetheless. [Dec 2009, p. 100]

The makeover has done him proud. [Aug 2009, p.108]

As an album it's uneven, but tantalisingly the harmony-driven 'Hang Them All' sounds like "Tim"-era Replacements and hints at even bigger things to come. [Sep 2009, p.92]

His fourth album isn't quite as rich a powerpop confection as 2002's "Lapalco" but it still shows off songs as sweet and sharp as peanut brittle. [Sep 2009, p.104]

They're more likely to be judged on face value, but that shouldn't do them any harm. [Sep 2009, p.95]

This soaring album defines emotional shoegazing. [Dec 2009, p. 101]

Swinging, hollar-along opener 'False Jesii Part 2' and the hilariously literal 'Request For Masseuse' are sardonic odes to indolence and pain relief respectively, while deadpan monologues 'Spent' and 'Goodbye (Hair)' reflect on time's inexorable passage with amp-crushing poignancy. [Sep 2009, p.95]

Luminous Night reflects the yin-yang duality of a player whose axework has feulled Both Comets On Fire's freakout euphoria and the post-apocaltptic spok of Current 93. [Oct 2009, p.101]

Led by spectral-voiced dreamer Jannis Makrigiannis, they have made a desolately pretty debut, its tangible, space and reverb-worn expansiveness conjuring vast Nordic skies. [Dec 2009, p. 92]

Broken repeats the team-up, but in wider-screen yet, fully evocative of its genesis in the sprawl of Los Angeles. [Sep 2009, p.95]

The thick strings lead to fumbles, as imagination is constrained by technique. [Sep 2009, p.104]