The simple truth is, you won't find a sadder yet more uplifting album all year.

As a whole, this EP is not a disaster by any means, and as such it's perhaps an exaggeration to call it a disappointment. But for those familiar with a body of work that's to date shown an impressively high quality control there's cause for concern.

An immaculately told doomed love story with such an evocative quality that you can almost smell the rain on the logs, The High Country is an album in which to immerse yourself.

Love them or loathe them, it is hard to ignore the brash confidence with which the band take another giant stride towards stadium dominance.

This is an album that sparkles with invention and surprise.

Paradise is the sound of a more mature and confident Slow Club, but without losing that adorable edge that's so vital to them. Start clearing some space at the top of those 'Best of 2011' lists, for this is sure to figure.

Plodding rhythms predominate and there's a prevalent sense of nostalgia that sometimes threatens to become a little syrupy, not least because of the numerous cliches about highways or the open road.

Dreams Come True was never going to reach the near untouchable height of his canon, but you'd be hard pressed to map out a better first attempt to break free from that diamond-encrusted leash.

These are truly wonderful songs that deserved to be poured over and analysed for months to come.

It may not be leaps and bounds ahead of previous St Vincent releases, but this is a rich and multi-faceted album to pay close attention to.

With their second album The Drums are more absorbing than ever, and have created a record that will last far longer than their first.

Here, Pritchard and company aim for an even more mainstream success than Konk, and they will likely succeed in selling a boatload of albums. But they've lost something in the process.

Hysterical marks a significant return to form and fortune for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

This series of albums has strongly suggested that Lowe is able to make the music he wishes to make, without any pressure of expectation or commercial improvement. Sometimes the old ones are the best.

On their own merits some of these tracks are classy pop songs, but there needs to be more depth and scope to Grouplove's sound if they are to look forward.

At times it can become something of an amorphous blob, with songs blending into one another, but the highlights of Home and Flight ensure that there's something tangible to hang on to.

It's one of the finer conversions of 2011, managing the delicate task of crafting a record that sounds both incomprehensibly universal, deeply personal, and, yes, endlessly listenable.

You Are All I See may be surreal and even hard work at times, but this is a work of sheer beauty whose contours are worth exploring in depth.

Although Pull Up Some Dust... delves deep into both North and South American musical history and moves rapidly from style to style, there is scant scope for quibbling over Cooder's honesty or authenticity.

Klinghoffer wisely makes no attempt to mimic Frusciante; the new boy on the block's musical talent is obvious in its own right here, and the musical partnership that has formed between the older members of the band and Klinghoffer is evident. Red Hot Chili Peppers are not quite ready to slope off yet.

It sounds a hefty record to contend with, but it's actually an easy listen; her voice, while pouty and oozing sex, lures the listener in with the promise of fascinating, wide-eyed stories.

Still Living is an unobjectionable album, and any of its songs, taken individually, are certainly a fine soundtrack to the final lazy days of summer. As a whole, though, Still Living barely limps along, only occasionally revealing flashes of semi-greatness, and it ultimately falls victim to its own aesthetics.

They're making music for people who love dance music, which makes them part of their own audience. If you fit the demographic, you'll feel right at home.

The collection of 11 tracks are both majestic and effortless--qualities that give the album a feeling of natural progression, perhaps bettering what's gone before.

For new fans, this is a pretty good introduction. For fans who already own all his previous work, it's more of the same, but so well-crafted that they probably won't mind.

In order to achieve the greatness within their grasp the bicycle club need to do some free-wheeling instead of all this furious peddling.

Overall, it's an easily enjoyable album with its heart in the right place.

If this is the sound of the Apocalypse, it's the sound of a fiendishly inventive musician and his talented producer trying to squeeze in all the great ideas before armageddon hits.