Twenty-five years after their creative peak, it seems as essential a purchase as a book of new jokes from Bobby Darvo. [Nov 2009, p.91]

In this 30-track collection marks Snow Patrol as a band backed with some serious songwriting heft.

But whereas their 2004 debut EP Headgit was intriguing if slightly stiff, they have developed into a propulsive unit with good tunes and a panoramic, near-psychedelic guitar sound. [Jan 2010, p. 90]

Musically slick but unpredictable, Only Revolutions is the stuff of stadia; a more obstreperous Foo Fighters; if you like. [Dec 2009, p. 92]

Julian Casablancas emerges with this engagingly odd collection of songs. [Nov 2009, p.92]

The themes are familiar, yet still captivating, as rock's most misanthropic man sings about a world of emotional retardation and alienation. [Dec 2009, p.111]

Bleach sounds liked a valiant manifesto for something new that succeeded beyond anyone's wildest nightmare. [Dec 2009, p.112]

Their work together hits an irresistible sweet spot between old-school r&b and punky ramalama. [Feb 2010, p. 101]

Its follow-up features a batch of songs Jones has lived with and reworked over 20-plus years, and the material radiates with a well-worn intimacy. [Dec 2009, p.90]

A delicate affair sometimes too wistful for its own good, even with the added colour of Dede Sampaio's bird sounds, Extended Vacation is a complex exercise in delicate melodies, field recordings and repetition. [Jan 2010, p. 100]

This eco-themed, sci-fi clad concept album bristles with electro-pop sounds (Light Years, the OMD-ish title track) yet retains Gab's furrowed-brow lyricism and singular approach as he forges his own space within this changing landscape. [Feb 2010, p. 105]

Their fifth album still features plenty of trademark thrills - Brian Chippendale drumming junglist breakbeats at heart-attack velocity, bassist Brian Gibbon's' riffs sounding like a grindcore group playing gabba - while the bark-spitting tempo-shifts of opener Sound Guardians wouldn't alienate the Metallica set. [Jan 2010, p. 96]

For every throughly relised composition, there is a meandering fragment, great only as far as it goes. [Nov 2009, p.90]

Clearly the thrill of hearing new songs in their embryonic state could never be replicated, but as rendered in such pristine isolation even the cavalier back catalogue selections (rarely played early classic 1,000,000;one-that-got-away Romance) fell flat. [Dec 2009, p. 95]

A dizzying series of minimalist Afro-psych mantras, Ay Ay Ay interlaces eccentric pounding beats, multitrack boom-tsch hiccups, and nervy fragmented vocals, building a groove that crackles with the rhythmic perversity of Arthur Russell's strangest sound experiments but drives on like a reborn TV On The Radio who've learnt to lose it down the disco. [Jan 10, p. 90]

But despite its mining of a bygone age, Cosmic Egg has two clear 21st century counterparts. Far Away and Violence of the Sun are the sort of pristine epics found on Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy., while lysergic piledrivers 10,000 Feet and the title track could easily have appeared on Kasabians' West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. [Dec 2009, p. 96]

The results is mixed, but at times instinctive and powerful. [Apr 2010, p.93]

The album is loaded with plenty of sonic winks and nods for record collector types. [Nov 2009, p.94]

Fits is sublime, sexy, unmisable. [Jul 2009, p.99]

This is a brave, bold, inevitably flawed record from the kind of talent we should be esctastically happy to have around. [Aug 2009, p.92]

He's still a remix away from getting played at Gatecrasher, but full marks for effort all the same. [Nov 2009, p.95]

If "Street Horrsing" was a bit of a lark, then Tarot Sport plays an altogether more serious game. [Nov 2009, p.92]

The bona fide release is a triumph, there's an understated elegance about Logos, which dabbles in Kraut-and math-rock and slacker-styled electronica. [Nov 2009, p.91]

At best, Oye and Boe capture loniness in a saue way and both are wonderfully fluid guitarists. But they can also be overly precious. [Nov 2009, p.92]

Impressive as it all is, a genuine follow-up to Illinois feels overdue. [Dec 2009, p. 92]

Like the second series of their HBO sitcom, from which most of the tracks here are culled,...Freaky feels a little rushed, but there's still plenty to love. [Dec 2009, p. 95]

Here, Scott 'Spiral Stairs' Kannberg's music feels more direct and unguarded than might have been expected given the more crafted, at time arch, music that has hallmarked his two groups. [Dec 2009, p. 90]

Her jazzy instincts and surreal lyrics perfectly offset the music's mosaic minimalism. [Sep 2009, p.92]

It's Converge's energy that impresses first, their brutal, full-blooded fury, the sheer physical assault; listen closer, however, and you'll find a group as inventive and progressive in their riffage as Slayer or Metallica at their early apex, a compulsive complexity to their chaos. [Feb 2010, p. 100]

On Trapped Animal they bring that approach to bear on a wider range of styles--dancehall, digi-dub, roots reggae, lover's rock - although the title track and Reject stand out as the most originally shaped punky pop songs. [Dec 2009, p. 95]

New Clouds is poised between towering psych-noise and ambient beauty, intermittently etched with quicksilver. [Nov 2009, p.101]

With the group of temporary hiatus, Ounsworth spreads his wings here, delivering a solo set that combines his gift for melody with more adventurous instrumentation and stylistic detours, waltzing between deft piano balladry (Holy, Holy, Holy Moses), high-drama orchestral-pop (That Is Not My Home), and lilting, horn-bolstered calypsos (South Philadelphia Drug Days) with grace, confidence and wit. [Jan 2010, p. 90]

Espers III is brilliantly atmospheric, more chilling than chilled but also, frequently, very beautiful. [Dec 2009. p. 94]

It's themes may be familiar, but its fine, dazzlingly outlandish music is fresh and utterly fearless. [Nov 2009, p.88]

Baroness's second full-length somehow tops their powerhouse debut for riffs, songwriting and cohesiveness. [Feb 2010, p. 101]

It's surprising how straight down the line this album is. [Jul 2009, p.94]

The results make for a chilling and captivating experience, with the unexpected musical flourishes in stop-start songs. [Sep 2009, p.104]

"This is a song for anyone with a broken heart," Fink sings on 'Blue Skies' and the break-up album of the year is complete. [Sep 2009, p.98]

An unshamedly fun album. [Sep 2009, p.104]

As ever, it's best to not to take them too seriously. [Nov 2009, p.90]

The album's seven-minute epics, Done and Tomorrow, chase their melodies to powerfully dramatic heights, pocket symphonies that stir and haunt with graceful, emotive crescendos that beg lighters waved aloft. [Feb 2010, p. 104]

The music is taut, the vocals, if anything, under-emoted, and the overall feeling is that of a muse rediscovered. [Jun 2009, p.108]

It's funnier than the Crue. And that's no mean feat. [Jul 2009, p.106]

There's a kernal of quality to Goodnight Unknown that renders Barlow's obsessive self-absorption palatable. [Nov 2009, p.102]

It's all about Rosanne's voice. And she's rarely sounded better. [Nov 2009, p.96]

Bonfires is an honourable epitaph. [Feb 2010, p. 100]

It is a slow-growing treasure that reveals a little more of itself with each listen. [Nov 2009, p.94]

Dead Man's Bones turns out to be a decidedly beautiful thing. [Nov 2009, p.93]

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]