Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith may not make as many dollars these days, but they still have a winning way with their slouching, filthy funk. [Feb 2009, p.109]

The writing on this third album's greatest strength. [Feb 2009, p.109]

'Lifelong Passion' and 'Don't Stop Running' suggest that there's something inspirational, even cathartic, about making an album under an assumed name (even if the world know it's you). McCartney should do it more often. [Dec 2008, p.111]

It is his most facinating, and bewildering, record to date. [Jan 2008, p.104]

It's at once plush and anodyne, both insatiable and confined. [Dec 2008, p.100]

The singer's second solo album is far removed from VR's ass-kicking hard rock. [Feb 2009, p.108]

The sun's gone out and here is the soundtrack to our long, dark financial winter. [Mar 2009, p.114]

Chinese Democracy reveals itself to be an ambitious, brave and expansive offering. [Feb 2009, p.108]

Lange hasn't changed Nickelback wholesale: mostly, they still rock like a post-grunge Metallica. [Jan 2008, p.104]

There's something for anyone with a taste for things multicoloured and marvellously eclectic. [Nov 2008, p.104]

Finger-pointing music has rarely been as much fun. [Nov 2008, p.116]

He's walking away on style, delivering a collection of distinctive songs. [Nov 2009, p.97]

Its such an embarrassment of riches it actually seems preposterous that everything here was produced in just four years. [Dec 2008, p.118]

If the spirit of punk and the brawn of US hardcore is to be found anywhere today then it is in this, the third dazzling full-length album by The Bronx. [Jan 2008, p.110]

These sweetly sad songs of grown up, imperfect romance reach their height with a jazzy version of Hawley's own 'Coles Corner,' where dreams and reality intermingle around Sheffield's now-demolished romatic rendezvous of the same name. [Dec 2008, p.100]

No one's about to mistake them for Sonic Youth, but the sheen of easy listening has been stripped away, and they sound all the better for it. [Oct 2008, p.110]

His reliably nerdular delivery and thoughtful lyrics still make it sound box-fresh compared to the generic macho fare that still dominates mainstream hip hop. [Dec 2008, p.100]

Play sees Nashville superstar Paisley jam with an array of equally adroit pickers. [Dec 2008, p.111]

Lovely music, no agendas. [Dec 2008, p.102]

It's great that the music is allowed to live in the moment, but the inevitable live albums are hardly essential purchases. [Dec 2008, p.112]

Much looser and more interpretative than its predecessor. [Jan 2008, p.111]

Silence is not an option when Hyvonen is this witty and brazen. [Mar 2009, p.115]

Fans of mavericks like Mark Stewart, and indeed Mr. Van Vilet, should investigate. [Feb 2009, p.109]

Out Of Control is something kinda meh. [Jan 2008, p.104]

It is every bit as ace as their debut. [Jan 2008, p.110]

Boldness has its own reward in the big grime beats, tension-filled horns and cold self-loathing of Mercury. [Nov 2008, p.104]

Occasionally they stumble, as on the clunky 'Warboys.' But with Rogers imperious, Queen's second coming is vindicated. [Oct 2008, p.100]

Off With Their Heads deftest creations may fall just short of the Kasier Chief debut's ruddy-faced string of exhuberant big hitters, 'Never Beat A Beat,' 'Addicted To Drugs' and the huge 'Like You Too Much' are still sizeable cut above some of "Yours Truely's" tepid misfires. [Nov 2008, p.104]

Their third album is more highly evolved than what normally constitutes straight up good-time rock. [Feb 2009, p.105]

The four-piece line-up allows for some breathing space amid the existential shitstorm. [Dec 2008, p.101]

A Hundred Million Suns sounds like a holding pattern for Snow Patrol. [Nov 2008, p.104]

Microcastle could be 4AD's best release in well over a decade. [Dec 2008, p.108]

This is a good album, but there's a pull between the commercial and the more left-field. [Dec 2008, p.104]

Like the rest of this moving album, it whispers in the dark instead of hitting you in the face. [Dec 2008, p.110]

Unfortunately the reality doesn't quite live up to the concept, because unuually for Squarepusher it isn't quite bonkers enough. [Dec 2008, p.100]

Its influences and allusions diverse, but fruitful. [Dec 2008, p.110]

Alight Of Night is devoid of current context, making for a weird timelessness. A treat. [Mar 2009, p.108]

That these and a tranche of equally alluring gems were never released during Russell's lifetime only adds to their poignancy. [Dec 2008, p.104]

Car Alarm offers a fine entry point into the quartet's breezy soundworld. [Nov 2008, p.110]

Lightburn continues to enthral though, his heartfelt, inventive arrangements testament to many questing hours in the studio. [Dec 2008, p.112]

Though he can give good ballad he mostly sticks to what suits his gritty vocal and his attitude best: speed-grass. [Dec 2008, p.108]

On opener 'Satellites,' with Neu!-like locomotion, big guitars and electronics, and melodic twists, they trump their better-known neighbours. [Dec 2008, p.111]

This first widely available release is a superb distillation of the duo's talents. [Dec 2008, p.112]

This is a rariety--bright, soulful and (yes) clever pop. [Mar 2009, p.114]

His solo debut is, however, a robust proposition, not as his former band but certainly not the alt country indulgence implied by label and name. [Apr 2009, p.103]

LLFR! is a skiffle-ish, gung-ho affair built upon driving acoustic guitar and organ. [May 2009, p.102]

"Back In Back" it ain't, but it's certainly a real return to form. [Nov 2008, p.102]

Oldham's typically weary, wavering larynx is rendered imperious as it rises Lazarus-like from the wind-tanned dronescapes and rasping harmonues of an epic 'Cursed Sleep,' while a mistily brooding 'Ain't You Wealthy? Ain't You Wise?' finds him deploying unlikely falsetto whoops a la springsteen. [Nov 2008, p.110]

The trio have bounced back from frontman Tim Rice-Oxley's surprise 2006 stinct in rehab by discovering the '80s. And not in a good way. [Nov 2008, p.108]

Little Honey is, then, a something for everyone offering. And a few will be disappointed. [Nov 2008, p.104]

Elsewhere, Lamontange's vocals slip back into mope mode, but his tour band's firm playing and decent string arrangemebts add an aura of depth and substance. [Dec 2008, p.110]

The NYC three-piece are a band playing to their strengths. [Feb 2009, p.113]

At Carnegie Hall, doesn't so much add to the legend as confirm the original was no studio-contrived fluke. [Nov 2008, p.109]

Tobacco is more appealing when playing it straight. [Aug 2009, p.108]

It's not much different (from their first album), and that's no bad thing with Holly Golightly and Lawyer Dave's self-produced duets recalling Leadbelly and Jimmy Reed, as well as the gospel recordings of Loretta Lynn and Nancy & Lee. [Nov 2008, p.109]

These lads really knock together a proper tune. [Oct 2008, p.108]

While the album has its awkward moments, there are enough slinkily wonderful tunes, gleeful beats and miments of genuine tenderness to make Skinner's transformation not just convincing but also really rather lovely. [Oct 2008, p.100]

Dig Out Your Soul might not be the sound of envelopes being pushed, but its mix of kitchen-sink production and too many vague songs mark a deviation from business as usual that ultimately fails to deliver. [Nov 2008, p.105]

'Of Raymond' one exquisite lick of brass sends out enough light to illuminate the whole record. [Nov 2008, p.106]

The surprises keep coming. [Nov 2008, p.108]

This record is looser and more organic, and a different sonic palette for Hynde. [Jul 2009, p.106]

A few songs confirm her gifts....More often, self-satisfaction takes over and the final track's dull. [Nov 2008, p.108]

Maybe if they'd dated this collection back to 1979 and the Christian albums, they'd have a more interesting storyline, but we definitely wouldn't have had a better collection of songs. [Nov 2008, p.122]

It boasts stronger songs than Stern's 2007 debut "In Advance Of The Broken Arm," without losing the fretboard fireworks that made its predecessor an underground smash. [Feb 2009, p.106]

Un Dia is if anything, even more challenging, a set of songs that demand interpretation even as they beautifully defy it. [Nov 2008, p.106]

The music is sneakily sophisticated, buoyed on a mesh of relentless guitar tracks and driven by motorik drums toward a golden pyschpunk horizon. [Nov 2008, p.106]

Elephant's songs of love and death are heart-wrenchingly sad, movingly performed and sung in a poignant, luminous voice betwixt pop and country folk-country. [Apr 2009, p.110]

With her flinty guitar growling eloquent melodies and stricken solos, the group rock with a primal sensitivity akin to early Throwing Muses, but it's Powell's voice that's their truly irresistible element. [Nov 2008, p.118]

The sounds that Volker Bertelmann creates with(in) a piano is astonishing. [Oct 2008, p.112]

Fans of Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver and Mercury Rev's Deserter's Songs take note. [Nov 2008, p.19]

Their full-length follow-up to 2007's "Burning Off Impurities" is a multi-textured out-rock masterpiece. [Jan 2008, p.101]

Some more like-minded collaborators might raise the temperature. [Feb 2009, p.112]

Part polemic, part paean and featuring contributions from amongst others, Paul McCartney, Imogen Heap and Tina Grace, it makes for an arresting colection that's as valid musically as it is for any mesage it is sending. [Nov 2008, p.12]

He hones in on what he does best, and improves it. [Nov 2008, p.109]

This bunch of Southend art school layabouts, constrastingly, really cut the mustard, kicking up a distinctively murky din. [Oct 2008, p.108]

Folds' leaps from satire to farce to domestic drama are part brilliant, part alarming, yet he still seems to wear wit and the manic energy of his voice as a carapace to conceal his soul. [Dec 2008, p.102]

This Rev record is another triumph in which all is dream and this sometimes symbolism, the overall effect trippy, though less dark than of yore. [Oct 2008, p.102]

This fourth album proper is a stunning return to mind-melting form. [Nov 2008, p.118]

Seeger's voice is frail now and he has to rely on an array of accomplished singers to help him deliver his message....Even so, Seeger remains innovative. [Jan 2008, p.100]

WLIB AM is best taken as a whole. [Nov 2008, p.116]

A hypnotic and original treat, an utterly timeless futurist retro symphony. [Jan 2008, p.100]

Well yes, there's that ear-splitting explosion of aural nihilist expressionism, but still it's thrilling and has lost little of the initial impact. [Dec 2008, p.120]

It is mainly a joyous affair, good-timey in a well structured way and often reminiscent of the kind of thing Johnny Rivers used to dispense at the start of the '70s. [Apr 2009, p.101]

Hearing Mahal mimic African Blues players is usually fun, but 'Zanzibar' is underwhelming. But when Ben Harper turns his guitar up, things get interesting. [Nov 2008, p.116]

This follow-up to The Aliens' debut "Astronomy For Dogs" keeps the faith. [Oct 2008, p.109]

His whip-smart three-string guitar licks still take centre stage and his banter sizzles with the personality and charm that have won him so many new admirers. [Oct 2008, p.112]

The Hawk Is Howling finds the Glasgow's guitar army relaxing the taut, economical songcraft of its 2006 predecessor, "Mr. Beast," and setting a new standard for irreverent track titles. [Oct 2008, p.102]

Only By The Night is best viewed as a transitional record from a band who have quite literally done their growing up in public. [Oct 2008, p.98]

Malone excels himself with the brassy pop of 'Lover's Day' and 'Golden Age.' [Oct 2008, p.112]

This second album easily stands on its own merits. [Oct 2008, p.102]

Its facinating music nevertheless and extremely psychedelic, with gospelly backing singers, flutes and guitars reaching the listener through a reverb-heavy haze. [Dec 2008, p.104]

Radio Retaliation is another example of the Corporation's remarkable consistency. [Dec 2008, p.104]

File under 'brilliantly out-there.' [Oct 2008, p.110]

On the second listen it sounds like a future classic. [Nov 2008, p.109]

Six years on from his last, with a white beard grown, Browne delivers elegantly considered weight and truth. [Nov 2008, p.119]

Flawless.

[Laurenz's] supple grooves energise their quixotic synth patterns and intricate guitar-scree, ensuring this wordless yet dramatic debut triangulates the oft-dweebish worlds of electronica, no wave and retro sci-fi with a funky red-blooded brio. [Sep 2008, p.106]

'Love Runs Deeper' is vintage Buckingham soft rock, while the barmy title track recalls the new wave-inspired weirdness of 'Tusk.' [Nov 2008, p.118]