It is a polished sound, one the band does very well. The musicianship is solid and the mixture of high-energy vocal performance with the instrumental post-rock passages is uplifting and at times enthralling.

The music drifts effortlessly between bright effervescence and dreamy, eerie moods.

This is clearly and audibly the work of a musician, composer and performer keen to embrace evolution and the possibilities which that opens up - not only within individual tracks or across a release, but also in terms of his overall body of work.

It might be a bit too idealistic for some people, but these are songs with melodies in abundance, and appealing melodic and lyrical quirks.

This is, after all, the sound of Paul Smith freed of his band and label obligations - but the fact remains that Margins, while an interesting insight into a character, is a frustratingly hit-and-miss affair.

Yes its weighed down by some empty dancefloor tat, but it's probably the strongest record work Tricky has put out this decade; definitely much more of a comeback than Knowle West Boy was.

Despite her self-confessed lack of confidence when it comes to crossing musical boundaries, Tunstall proves that in the guise of her Tiger Suit she can achieve anything she puts her mind to. For her at least, 2010 is the year of the Tiger.

Bubblegum is unlikely to see Clinic rocket to mainstream notoriety all of a sudden, but they'll continue to be one of indie's best known secrets.

The rest of the album plods along nicely, Healy's lullaby vocals soothing their way through single Buttercups and sure-to-be follow-up single Anything, which will sit quite happily alongside the likes of Driftwood and Sing.

It all adds up to Stern's most fully realised, most rounded album yet, and a huge step in her evolution as an artist.

An album that merits--and rewards--repeated listening, this is further evidence of a band not simply in it for the short haul. Certainly no one-trick ponies, it will be interesting, exciting even, to see where Abe Vigoda take their music next.

Halcyon Digest is a triumph of multilayered nuance, and repeated listens reveal its genius buried just beyond the obvious.

By the time the vocal duet and droning guitars of Chem Trails come around, you'll realise that this is the sound of a band who are going from strength to strength.

The results of The Place We Ran From are ultimately pretty mixed. To start with the positives, it is a lot of better than expected and there are some genuinely decent pieces of songwriting. However, to enjoy those you have to wade through a thick fog of filler that either doesn't really go anywhere or just doesn't connect.

The emotional impact of this music is sometimes disorientating or alienating, but that is probably the intention. It's mostly impossible to discern the lyrics or comprehend their themes. Somehow this doesn't matter, given the striking, weird and often turbulent music beneath.

It adds up to Folds' finest record yet, and while nobody would dare suggest that Nick Hornby would give up his day job, a sequel to this fascinating collaboration would be more than welcome.

Le Noise is the sound of a restless and prolific artist striving to deal with the burden of his great legacy.

By creating a world so comic-book vivid, each track stands and walks in its own desolate, saturnine world. But it's a world where the dead want to be alive and the alive would rather be dead. The creation of warped minds, Salem just made a monster.

It's tempting to deride the album as too similar at times, but the truth is that each of these songs is a perfectly sculpted and realised work of wonder revolving around a couple of central themes, which appears to be based primarily in the sounds of the Orient and the South American rainforest.

A Swedish Love Story is, from one end to the other, a completely enjoyable slice of violin-driven pop perfection. But its brevity means that the listener is slapped in the face with reality all too quickly, like being awoken from a dream just as you were getting to the really good part.

This collection of songs have no problems with originality (redundancy isn't an issue) but it never escapes its aged disposition.

This is an album that celebrates OMD's electric romanticism as purely as ever, with occasional concessions to house music developments made in a way that flatters their own work, part of an impressive desire to keep their original aesthetic . In that respect, it represents a qualified triumph.

Whether or not Shit Robot is making grooves and beats that are unique and progressive isn't the point. The whole point of his work is to embrace the glorious past and then push the necessary knobs and buttons that are commonplace today to take it to a wonderfully hip-shaking new level.

Whilst this may be its chief difficulty, and one that will undoubtedly deter and daunt some listeners, it is nevertheless good to have a band and an artist with this darkly poetic a vision back recording and performing once again.

Maximum Balloon is by no means a perfect album, but there are some fantastic performances to be found (Karen O, Ambrosia Parsley's sultry Pink Bricks). It's a shame that Sitek never steps up to the mic, but when you've got friends like these it doesn't really matter.

Overall, Postcards finds Manic Street Preachers at the top of their game, even 22 years after their first single. It's not for everyone--though pop radio will undoubtedly spin several of these tracks hourly for the foreseeable future--but longtime Manics fans will likely find plenty to love in this polished, grandiose "last attempt at mass communication" from an enigmatic rock 'n' roll institution.

Whilst Duppy Writer is an engaging and mostly enjoyable album, it also sometimes feels slightly lightweight, or intentionally minimal and immediate.

Sadly, expert guitar playing cannot carry an album. Moreover, it is too sterile and obsessively arranged, and the majority of the vocals lack that rock fierceness. Everyone is playing it too safe, with the production geared towards something mainstream and pop-oriented rather than experimentation and reinterpretation.