For the main part, The Life Of The World To Come is so familiar as The Mountain Goats that it seems rather lazy.

Listeners who enjoy acts such as The Flaming Lips, Pavement, Dinosaur Jr, Superchunk and Neil Young would also enjoy Built To Spill. No, really, they would. And There Is No Enemy would be a pretty good place for those listeners to begin their investigations.

It turns out to be much more than just the sum of its influences. It's evocative when it could just be shamelessly retro.

This is simply a collection of well-crafted songs, honestly and simply arranged and delivered, and as such very much worth a listen.

This is a definite progression from their earlier material and if this is an indication of where the band is ultimately headed, then Exploding Head is likely to be the first of some very exciting albums.

Hockey are not yet the finished article and are still finding their sound, but judging from Mind Chaos they're having a bloody laugh looking for it.

Kurt Vile: 50% Velvet Underground; 50% The Jesus And Mary Chain. Childish Prodigy: 50% Velvet Underground & Nico; 50% Darklands.

Naming a band The Very Best may seem like posturing, but on the evidence of Warm Heart Of Africa they're on to something.

A welcome snapshot, for it is that, of the Brakes live experience, in which there is absolutely no padding, total passion and commitment, and the odd wistful aside away from the bluster.

Go Hard is worth a listen, if only to laugh at all the bravado.

The Liberty Of Norton Folgate may just be the best thing they have ever recorded.

So far 2009 belongs to La Roux, the rest are just playing catch-up.

Though it's commendable to stick with one set of producers to give a sense of cohesion, Memoirs could have done with some variation.

With instantly infectious attitude and a seemingly unending supply of irresistible hooks, Brand New Eyes comes close to perfecting the emo-rock art.

With fewer studio effects and electronic twiddles, Crash Love is a simpler rock record than its US number one predecessor "Decemberunderground." If anything, it's better however, and shows that while fusing goth, punk and pop doesn't need to be rocket science, when AFI are involved it's very definitely an artform.

Here's hoping that the pleasant-at-best Yeah Ghost is but a wispy, passing apparition, and not a haunting omen for similarly ineffective work in the future.

Never judge a book by its cover, they say, but with Cymbals Eat Guitars it's fine to do just that--the lush green grass and dense vegetation of their own artwork accurately reflected in their own music.

This soundtrack is a successful exercise in painting pictures with music.

The Collective may have broken up, reformed and been on the comeback trail for the last 18 months or so, but it is heartening to see that they are still putting out material as strong as this, and are still capable of being an off-centre, welcome and relevant voice in 21st century hip-hop

So in summary if you are looking for an album that could almost double up as an engrossing series of short stories, with tales from the darker side of life and love, then you could certainly do worse than dip into this album.

This new project is hardly a bandwagon-shaped whim. Instead, Fool's Gold, the album, has been made with genuine passion and a desire to pay homage to something its creators clearly love.

Ian Brown just keeps on getting better. As it stands, his way seems like the only way to go.

It's an LP wrought for enjoyment, and whichever peers it name-checks, whichever influences it acknowledges, it meets its remit with flair.

These twelve tracks make for diverting and beguiling company for the fifty or so minutes spent with them.

Like its predecessor, The Boy Who Knew Too Much is an eclectic work, lurching between exuberant pop, vaudevillian knees-ups, disco and sombre ballads. Mika would probably describe the album as 'kaleidoscopic', but it can come across as scattershot and unfocused.

The end result is a pleasing, intimate experience by no means out of context with the rest of Gray's catalogue.

There's a breathtaking array of bleeps, quirks, bits and bobs popping up to keep the boogie busy and the mind attentive.

It is because of this collaborative rejuvenation that Monsters Of Folk is a worthwhile endeavour, a stirring album and an outfit that is as nourishing for its constituent members as they are for it.