It’s at its best when it mixes Badu-style soul vocals and booming apocalypse bass ('The Road', 'At Night'), but there’s evidence of a lighter side in the sort of jazzy tribal stompers that Gilles Peterson would approve of (‘Ra_Light’, ‘Near The End’).

Wild Divine ain't 'Kid A', but it's hardly musical stagnation.

Though the harder of heart might not be able to swallow the rock’n’retro stylings, Invisible Girl is an ice-cool, analogue-warm winner. Make like its creators and loosen up.

No post-nu-metal. No nu-post-hardcore. Just a solid, honest, rock album.

Once again the rhyming is painfully funny, the delivery fresh, and the music catchy.

The epic emoting can feel a tad weighty towards the end, but you're left with a solid impression of who Active Child is, rather than who he wants to be.

Balf Quarry, however, sees Elisa Ambrogio and Pete Nolan emerging blinking into the sunlight as they continue to excavate the more focussed sounds of last album "Boss."

III is a fluid, inventive affair.

It may not possess the mind-blowing innovation of 1995’s ‘Clear’, but when something is as darkly gorgeous as this, it’s hard to quibble.

If you don't mind flicking the fast-forward, there's enough hot shizzle to keep you returning for more. [20 Nov 2004, p.57]

Once more, we're in a world of uptight, high-gloss grooves, wry tales of dirty old men, and, of course, terrifyingly proficient guitar solos.

We Are The Ocean's third is a record full of lean, muscular rock and sees a band who were once regarded as sub-You Me At Six also-rans, deliver an undeniably stonking LP full of catchy choruses and chunky riffs.

The likes of 'Chromakey Dreamcoat' sound like they were made on a potter's wheel rather than an iBook. [15 Oct 2005, p.36]

This return to drone primitivism might seem somewhat regressive for Gordon, as it doesn't represent anything remotely new for her as a musician or for drone music as a whole. But it is done with a pleasing malevolence.

If you enjoy using your brain rather than listening to it fizzle to the strains of Virgin Radio, then buy this.

In her music, as in her life, everything revolves around sex - but unseemly as it is for a woman of a certain age to frug bawdily alongside Damon Albarn, Marianne gets away with it.

At times throwaway, at others raw, intimate and charming, there’s plenty here you’ll want to get your mate to ask out for you.

While the only revolutions here might be the creaky cogs of the Fannies' 20-year career turning nicely, there's little denying they're still worthy of the reverence they effortlessly garner.

Just because it’s essentially heavy-metal karaoke, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy it.

Her debut LP is good, but not up to the standard its title suggests.

There's little, if any, regard for structure or convention, meaning that Mole City could be five tracks long or 50 and still happily exist in a brilliantly idiosyncratic bubble all of its own.

The Fall: quantity and quality.

There's no escaping it: Foster The People are a great pop band, and Torches pop production accentuates every handclap and harmony for maximum effect.

The album begins to lag toward the end as the slower tracks drag their heels, but it’s still an impressive debut.

This, basically, is an extremely tastefully done, soulful modern r’n’b record.

Even if this is business as usual for Xzibit, then at least business is good.

There's a squelchy warmth at the heart of 'Human After All' that's been well masked since their arrival. [19 Mar 2005, p.59]

While the Nicolas Jaar, Liars and Lindstrøm remixes add synthetic space to ‘Sleeping Ute’, ‘A Simple Answer’ and a Daft-ly disco ‘Gun-Shy’ respectively, it’s the fragile new tracks ‘Smothering Green’ (a muted, modernist Cole Porter clatter), ‘Taken Down’ (falsetto Fleet Foxes) and the two versions of ‘Everyone I Know’ (one churchy, one space-jazz meltdown renamed ‘Will Calls (Marfa Demo)’) that are the real treasures here.