The effete Norwegian's music is becoming too unobtrusive for its own good. [Apr 2009, p.103]

More than great, this is well worth hearing for the Tex Mex No Way I'll Never Need You, Lone Star barroom rocker Just About Time, beautifully-sung After The Storm, and state-of-the nation border ballad Homeland Refugee. [May 2009, p.101]

Black Cascade meshes razor-throated fundamentals with panoramic sweep, its four thunderous riff odysseys wreathed in soulful desolation. [May 2009, p.109]

Welcome to Mali celebrates its artificiality, flaunts its illegitimacy and waggles its infidelities in your face. Amadou & Mariam have just damned authenticite to an eternity in caducite. [Dec 2008, p.98]

It's captivating stuff, with the gnomic lyrics adding to the implied oppostion between the natural world and the machines used to make the record. [Apr 2009, p.108]

It's the songs--funny, literate, doomed--which get under your skin. [Apr 2009, p.100]

Cheeky, but delightful. [Apr 2009, p.106]

By turns acoustic intimate and theatrical-loud, this spellbinding work peaks and soars with all the warmth and wonder of some great romantic adventure, demanding and rewarding total immersion in its magical narrative. [May 2009, p.110]

Beyond the singles-"Melody A.M." lapsed into a latterday jazz-funk. This album sometimes tends the same way, but interest is reignited by Royksopp Forever--ELO with dancebeats--and the tracks where Lykke Li and The Knife's Karin Dreijer-Andersson approach Robyn's unhinged lager-umlaut Europop berserkersim. [May 2009, p.104]

It is Mastodon's ability to blend such grandstanding flourishes with a powerful sense of songcraft that suggests Crack The Skye might be some "Master Of Puppets" breakthrough for the Atlanta quartet. [May 2009, p.98]

Kicks may take its leads from The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Orange Juice but these songs about Glasgow and girls still manage to invest the skinny-tie shuffle with some fresh contemporary verve. [Apr 2009, p.98]

Ten is a classic of the grunge era, its super-sized anthems and introspective pieces powered by Eddie Vedder, a Jim Morrision for the plaid shirt brigade. [Apr 2009, p.116]

So that's Obits: rapid tunes, powerhouse performances, great album. [May 2009, p.104]

Klang is a step in the right direction. [May 2009, p.69]

White Lies naivety is emphatically brokered by their songs ability to rouse and inspire. [Feb 2009, p.109]

It is simply beautiful. [May 2009, p.96]

Low on polish but high on anything-goes exuberence, in Wavves-world The Beach Boys rub shoulders with Half Japanese, The Shaggs with Guided By Voices and Pavement with JFA, all held together with sneaker laces and stickers to create a bedroom-wall collage as scruffy as it is irresistible. [Aug 2009, p.96]

John Legend phones it in somewhat, and Ghostface Killah makes little sense, but the brain-pummelling tecno that punctuates the latter's profane offerings certainly makes the best of it. [Jul 2009, p.106]

Despite her emotional punk-meets-Brecht contralto, Marianne's vocal limitations are clear on tracks like 'Easy Come, Easy Go' or Sondheim's Somewhere (A Place For Us)' which she struggles through with an overawed Jarvis Cocker. But she shines on songs that seem more personal to her. [Apr 2009, p.99]

Here, the band look to the more languid nod of Spaceman 3 instead. [Jul 2009, p.98]

A pleasingly melodious onrush from which a complete absence of rhythmic funk fails to detract. [May 2009, p.108]

Develop the creepy incantations into songs and they might really grab some shirtfronts. [Jul 2009, p.107]

On 'North London Trash,' 'Burberry Blue Eyes,' 'Hostage Of Love' and the histrionic 'Blood For Wild Blood,' Razorlight have matured beyond bubblegum rock and may yet answer Borrell's prayers for immortality. [Dec 2008, p.100]

Scream has balls, Cornell vacating his comfort zone with admirable readiness. [Apr 2009, p.98]

At her new best, Peyroux sings as elegantly as Peggy Lee and writes lines bearing the downbeat clarity of Leonard Cohen. [Apr 2009, p.98]

It's Buffalo, New York-born David Stith's turn now to fashion a brilliant, hermetically sealed world that makes unabashed emotional connection. [Apr 2009, p.109]

This third disc, to be blunt, pisses over the competition. [Apr 2009, p.106]

When the quality is this high, Perkins can sing the pain away for as long as he needs. [May 2009, p.101]

Benefiting from a stable line-up throughout, Song of the Pearl manages to sound brighter and more dynamic while retaining its predecessor's visionary essence. [Apr 2009, p.107]

Produced by Tortoise's John McEntire on this, their second outing, BO channel such solitary American composers as Harry Partch and Charles Ives, rattling from distorted second line jazz to mournful Moondog horn stomps and sweet chamber melancholy, creating a claustrophobic city suite that taps into a whole other area of American vernacular music. [Dec 2009, p. 96]

Plenty of good listening here. [Jun 2009, p.105]

You try to remember a single melody or hook from the record and you're found wanting. [Apr 2009, p.99]

This lot recall mid-'90s crusty combos like Senser and Back To The Planet, their politics naive and hectoring, their music, frankly, pretty ghastly. [Apr 2009, p.108]

You could muse on the dignity of 40 year olds having a rave revival but when the 303 synth squelch kicks in on soulful closer 'Stand Up,' it's all more pukka than moody. [Mar 2009, p.105]

Middle Cyclone never lets go enough to take flight; nor does it too quickly wear out its welcome. [Apr 2009, p.110]

The result is a collage of several kinds of classic U2 album, one that has the beauty of their panoramic '80s Eno/Lanois recordings plus the synthetic experimentation andd dalliances with pop merriment which revolutionized the band's modus operandi from "Achtung Baby" onwards. [Apr 2009, p.96]

Communion clearly packs a unique set of quirks, diversions and comedowns. [Sep 2009, p.102]

This follow-up is stronger [than his debut]. [Apr 2009, p.109]

While beats like 'Shine All Day's' electronic bounce feel odd at first, they gradually begin to make sense, while KRS-One's 'What If?' and the Supernatural-helmed 'Tribute To The Breakdancer' will keep the most ardent old-schoooler happy. [Apr 2009, p.108]

Most are country ballads--sentimental, heartfelt and tend towards sacred. [Apr 2009, p.109]

This is room-shaking, gut-quaking stuff. [Apr 2009, p.106]

It's a fine entry point into Faust's lineage. [May 2009, p.104]

As with previous album "Songs III," this us an enchanting record. [Apr 2009, p.109]

Hearing Aidan Moffat in such jocose mood on his first song-based record without Malcolm Middleton is quite the revelation. [Apr 2009, p.99]

Jon Boden delivers an audacious yet subtle solo masterpiece. [Apr 2009, p.108]

Never inept, The Nightingales still remain hard work for precious little gain. [Mar 2009, p.114]

Nit-pick all you want but this is a tour de force, heady, joyful, ambitious, elegiac and--as with the 1968 original--unlike anything else. [Apr 2009, p.99]

For once, such a retrogressive and deconstructive approach is strangely thrilling. [May 2009, p.104]

By doing exactly the same thing for all that time, and by avoiding building up a public image that would come before the music, Cale has come full circle and now sounds fresh and relevant once more. [May 2009, p.110]

Although Duffy sounds like a pissed Year 9 teacher on 'Live And Let Die' and The Hold Steady confirm suspicions that their greatest strength is being an E Street Band covers act on Bruce Springsteen's 'Atlantic City,' Hot Chip, Peaches, TV On The Radio and Elbow all go that extra mile to create something new, unique and often quite wonderful. [Apr 2009, p.101]

Copeland herself is always gloriously centre-stage. [Jun 2009, p.108]

On this solid business-as-usual set, his band kicks requisite ass on Isaak's decent country-rock tearjerkers. [Jul 2009, p.106]

Out on its own, Here We Go Magic demands attention. [Aug 2009, p.108]

The ensuing synthetic pop suite can't disguise a crucial lack of memorable songs. [Mar 2009, p.111]

Bringing out the too-often buried pop nuances of his stylish songs and new inventions from his under-rated guitar work, it's a stylistic cloth that Ward seems very comfortable wearring. [Mar 2009, p.111]

Years Of Refusal isn't a great album, but it's no disaster. [Mar 2009, p.104]

Hanna's sub-Kevin Shields guitars and Chikudate's sparkling keyboards eddy across the Blondie-esque layers. [Feb 2009, p.113]

The results are as scattershot as the guest list. [Mar 2009, p.106]

Tight Knit is a beautiful, lazy album of befogged West Coast dreams. [Apr 2009, p.107]

Goodnight Oslo could be a ghost story, a slice of stoner paranoia or a song about steam trains, but shows something sleek and ominous still looming in the fog of Hitchcock's imagination. [Mar 2009, p.107]

This cleaner-sounding set finds the quartet's elemental power now yielding to poise, thier speaker-bleeding blues and jagged riffs leavened by folk shimmer and country jangle. [Mar 2009, p.110]

A spectacular step forward. [Mar 2009, p.111]

If Solomon Burke and Will Oldham had a baby. [Mar 2009, p.105]

While there is no quibbling with the noble sentiment behind this set, a more judicial selection policy might have established a unified aesthetic to eclipse some of the B-side material here. [Mar 2009, p.114]

Their 14th release enschews improv for structure, its hulking grooves boosted by Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne and the distinctive noir wail of new label boss Mike Patton. [Apr 2009, p.107]

While It's Not Me, It's You isn't quite the voice of wisdom, the Mockney chatter has been dialed right down. [Mar 2009, p.108]

From the lurking threat of 'Street Walkin'' to the pretty sadness of closer 'Goin' Home,' this is outsider's music. Therein lie its real strength. [Mar 2009, p.110]

If anything, she's dreamer, the tempo's a little more down, the mood more twilit. [May 2009, p.101]

She's neither a soft seducer nor a lapel-grabber, but her eye for detail combined with that degree of vocal detachment quietly commands attention. [Mar 2009, p.109]

The band make each piece their own on this, their most satisfying set for years. [Dec 2008, p.102]

This has more than enough beauty and character to stand on its own. [Mar 2009, p.107]

Stollsteimer, it seems, is still in search of his own musical identity. [ Jun 2009, p.96]

Unfortunately, Sea Sew too often clunks along like its awkwardly punning title. [Jun 2009, p.1010]

This may sound wilfully eclectic but actually hangs together, bound by May's showman-like vocals. [Mar 2009, p.109]

Hugely enjoyable, with nagging tunes too, but let's move forward next time. [Mar 2009, p.106]

Less like leftovers from a previous album than another move forward, creating out of his prepared piano and mini string section something fresh, subtle and beguiling. [Apr 2009, p.106]

A Fool For Everyone treads a similarly disconsolate path [as "The Sky Behind The Sea"]. [Apr 2009, p.101]

The Nebraskans' second LP strikes a meaty accord between classic rock swagger and the pumped up, get-in-the-van intensity of hardcore. [Apr 2009, p.107]

Hamilton's second album only firms up a reputation for making pastoral, semi-acoustic pop. [Mar 2009, p.107]

With producer Owen Morris at the controls, Which Bitch? always promised to be a riotous affair. [Mar 2009, p.107]

While Tonight: Franz Ferdinand might not take all the chances those early reports suggested, it shows the band examing their world from all angles, from the unflattering profile in the mirror behind the batr to the long hard look into the soul. Life in three dimensions suits them very well indeed. [Feb 2009, p.102]

The dejected vocals and mesmerising mood of the music are in place, making this an album for long lonely winter nights. [Feb 2009, p.115]

Tke heart and enjoy The Boss's galvanising newie--Mr. Motivator is back. [Mar 2009, p.102]

This sequel ups their ante further; there's inventiveness here that rivals Girls Aloud producers Xenomania. [Apr 2009, p.103]

Gutter Tactics is their most approachable set to date. [Mar 2009, p.107]

This bombastic, cacophonic, but endlessly impressive set would make a fine soundtrack for dancing madly among the wreckage [of capitalism]. [Feb 2009, p.113]

The Rifles perservered, and if originality is not a strong point, their skill for crafting simple but immediate pop choruses makes uo foir it. [Nov 2008, p.109]

By far the most streamlined and purposeful Animal Collective record. [Jan 2008, p.98]

It's an ideal January release, time enough for Antony's spacious, textured odyssey to sink in before those Album Of The Year polls come round again. [Feb 2009, p.104]

It may lack the wrong-footing eclecticism that made his name, but makes up for that in pure melodic charm. [Mar 2009, p.109]

Their star-kissed analogue sprawl and beautiful singing revitalise tired classic rock moves. [Mar 2009, p.107]

The veteran's authoritive amber croon and psychedelicised, occassionally spectacular axework imbue this mid-tempo set with a grace and economy often lacking in the genre. [Apr 2009, p.107]

RTZ is a must for Six Organs fans and anyone interested in what has since been termed "nu weird folk." [Mar 2009, p.123]

Major General plough's The Hold Steady's punk-pop narrative furrow almost to the point of surrealism. [Sep 2009, p.92]

Josh's melodic intelligence and structural wit keeps things neat. [Apr 2009, p.110]

They confidently harness the emotion-sapping melodramas of the '60s girl group. [Oct 2008, p.108]

Here they sound commanding and convincing as they do on-stage. [Mar 2009, p.111]

Folie A Deux recalls the high-impact pop oof "Private Eyes"-era Hall & Oates, and that's preferable to sounding like Blink 182. [Jan 2008, p.104]