Generous handclaps and a beautifully thrumming guitar buoy The Loneliness & The Scream. Living In Coulour, meanwhile, is a statement of intent, chiming pianos and a reeling rhythm pushing things along, typifying an album made by a band happily at the peak of its powers. [mar 2010, p.90]

A restful, even romantic experience, Kastlander echoing Tracey Thorn's plaintive soul, in a beguiling confluence of wan Scando-folk currents and American hip hop. [June 2010, p. 97]

Taken as a whole, these poignant moments never threaten to cohere into a greater whole. [Apr 2010, p.111]

More muscular, less ethereal than 2007's "...Are The Dark Horse," it is no less exciting. [Apr 2010, p.99]

The Chieftains lay a vibrant carpet of colour but veering between joyous and heartbreaking, the fiery Mexican element is what makes it so compelling. [Apr 2010, p.105]

The quality across this neat primer demands the high star rating. [Apr 2010, p.112]

There's no mistaking this advent of a genuine original, the woozy, whacked-out linguistic precision of A Sufi And A Killer resisiting all efforts at summary. [Apr 2010, p.105]

Casey and collaborator Shawn Creeden deliver a bold album that eschews their previous organic approach in favour of a more electronic direction. The effect is intoxicating. [Apr 2010, p.92]

The sweetness of its sun-kissed textures and playful melodies mark out El Turista as his best work since 2005's near flawless "Nashville." [Apr 2010, p.98]

Encyclopedic US indie rock--American Civil War, Walt Whitman, Hold Steady, Shakespeare all included.

Hands sees the 24-year-old blossom into a throughly modern chart contender, but at the expense of some of that quirkiness. [Jul 2009, p.95]

First new solo album for four years from the young jazz maverick.

The overall result is not the studious mess it could have been, but an adventurous, challenging and futuristic recording, albeit one that might cause a little aural indigestion. [Feb 2010, p. 93]

This is spare, emotionally charged piano music which always errs toward the melodic side of melancholy. [Mar 2010, p.99]

An album to make you happy feeling sad, Scratch My Back gets better with each play; it might just turn out to be the best surprise present of the year. [Mar 2010, p.88]

They've never been subtle, but they're still highly effective. [Mar 2010, p.93]

While he's putting love into these rippling, galloping beats, the vocal melodies get a little samey. [Apr 2010, p.103]

Pollack's velvety, diction-rich voice shines on the syncopated, a cappella intro of "The Loop," and her idiosyncratic, mostly cryptic lyrics can be striking. [Apr 2010, p.104]

This lavish song cycle, embarcing intricate choral, chamber and post-rock passages, is the feted US/Australian ensemble's first non-instrumental album. [Jul 2010, p.95]

There is a pinch of prog too, manifested in kaleidoscopic intricacy rather than anything unnecessarily tricksy - their sound remains muscular and funky. [Feb 2010]

Don't expect a companion to the "Life On Earth" soundtrack though, even the ballads here are highly strung, some made otherworldly by drones, controlled feedback and mallet percussion, other stung by Meiburg's vocals, gear-shifted from choirboy puriety to anguish. [Mar 2010, p.98]

It would be easy to write off the album as pastiche but a confessional, honky-tonk-styled "Cigarettes," and the grit Merriweather puts into the immaculately fashioned grooves, show he's more about feel than fashion. [Jul 2009, p.95]

The economy and velvet touch of Efterklang's music-making have survived, except the finesse is now allied to a newly arresting, wistful songwriting style that carries with it echoes of the early Coldplay.

That's the master interpreter, though older and creakier. He brings the song to you in detail. [Apr 2010, p.93]

Have One on Me is a very mature work indeed, even its resonant, discursive themes are underpinned by Newsom's usual playfulness. [Apr 2010, p.90]

Not many bands who've been going since Kurt Cobain was alive are capable of improving on their work. [Apr 2010, p.94]

This parting gift from Philadelphia-based guitarist Jack Rose stands as a superlative statement of his love for pre-war American music. [Apr 2010, p.95]

Where her previous band, Williamburg's The Jealous Girlfiends, struggled to reconcile an awkward mix of styles, the vision on Miranda's solo debut is seemless. [Mar 2009, p.90]