Recorded as a tribute to former singer Beau Velasco, who died of a drugs overdose in September 2009, it's clearly a form of catharsis. Mercifully their sense of humour remains intact. [Apr 2011, p.101]

By the time Campbell opens penultimate boozer ballad Every Hour That Passes with "You can be the perfect bitch to my bastardness," you'll find it hard not to succumb. [Apr 2011, p.101]

Lou Reed guests and she's brave enough to wrestle with both Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan's unsettling The Stations, while her four lugubrious originals show the drugs didn't turn her brain to much. [Apr 2011, p.101]

While tracks such as This Day Is A Loaf could be straight out of an album by Stevens himself, it's when the band stretches out, on the gentle but unsettling Hosanna In The Forest, that they really excel. [Apr 2011, p.101]

The View appear to be growing up. Forever, of course, is a very, very, long time. But on this evidence, against all odds, The View look set to run and run. [Apr 2011, p.99]

The admirable rhetoric might mean something were it not backed by such a generic pastiche of Editors/White Lies/Interpol, all cavernous bass and drums and two-note guitar solos. [Apr 2011, p.98]

Skins is the sound of a band reinvigorated. [Apr 2011, p.98]

Whether they can carry with them a rebirth of indie as characterized by debuts by Suede, The Strokes or Arctic Monkeys before them remains to be seen. But there's more than enough here to justify their talk-of-the-town status. [Apr 2011, p.96]

Hunger's three-minute nuggets blend '80s guitar jangle with doo-wop harmonies, the nostalgic charm offset by the neurotic intensity of both the lyrics and frontman Frankie Francis's desperate vocals. [Mar 2011, p.104]

Davies' voice, weathered but still fine as a Waterloo sunset, is complemented by few here. [Dec 2010, p.113]

Beans is also in eclectic mood, delivering word association freestyles over a dizzying array of instrumental backdrops. [Mar 2011, p.101]

Mostly, he has little to say. [Mar 2011, p.109]

Cinematic, crammed full of literary allusions, odd time signatures and mature-in-wood musical textures, Nightingale is a record that will haunt you if you let it. [Mar 2011, p.110]

Cited as a missing link between Radiohead and Massive Attack following their self-titled 2007 debut, the Leeds outfit here start to live up to the hype. [Mar 2011, p.115]

Bewitching and hugely ambitious. [Apr 2011, p.110]

Gomez's future seems cloudy, but with these nine tracks, Ottewell has a fighting chance. [Mar 2011, p.112]

With his piano-playing accompanied by Daniel Joseph Dorff's drumming, the arrangements are minimal affairs, placing Moore's voice centre stage and allowing the songs to breathe. [Mar 2011, p.112]

The follow-up is far more coherent, as passionate but resisting the temptation to press the button marked "Gotterdammerung" with quite such abandon. [Dec 2010, p.103]

Immersion certainly contains its share of crossover anthems--not to mention some palette-expanding diversions into dubstep and progressive trance territories--but they'll be better appreciated in a festival field than the front room. [Jul 2010, p.135]

More engaging doom from the download kings. [March 2011, p. 101]

If this really is a farewell, Bright Eyes is at least going out with an apocalyptic bang. [March 2011, p. 100]

It's simply another excellent Elbow record. [March 2011, p. 98]

No Time For Dreaming has the gritty feel of the real thing, a man who's known mostly hard times and tells it with a pleading throaty roar and blood-curdling scream worthy of James Brown. A real find. [Mar 2011, p.117]

Tell Me is produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, an arrangement that suits her lean, unsentimental alt-country just fine. [Mar 2011, p.116]

In time-honored fashion it rattles through a dozen tracks in a shade over 30 minutes, never getting close to overstaying its welcome. [Mar 2011, p.116]

An oddly addictive hip hop concoction of self-doubt and dread, set against a minimalist, almost jazzy backdrop that's also a bit Tricky, too. [Mar 2011, p.116]

Like most grime, the words come thick and fast, as do the beats, a feeling of punch drunkenness settling in long before the end. Job done, then. [Mar 2011, p.116]

Live On Ten Legs is career-spanning, expertly played, surprisingly spirited resume, with the curveballs of Joe Strummer And The Mescaleros' Arms Aloft and a slightly tweaked version of Public Image Limited's Public Image that misses the point by such a distance it borders on skewed genius. [Mar 2011, p.115]

With measured assistance from pianist Huw Warren and melodeon Maestro Andy Cutting, it seems almost rude to suggest it's probably too one-paced and cheerless to really warm to. [Mar 2011, p.115]

Hardcore sounds defiantly re-energised, like a band starting over. [Mar 2011, p.112]

While they never quite manage to better the decayed teen-idol horror-pop of Deerhunter, another band preoccupied with the thin membrane between dreams and nightmares, at their best they keep the listener from Playing I Spy with their influences. [Mar 2011, p.107]

Don't bet against them lighting up the indie firmament in 2011. [Mar 2011, p.106]

Yet whatever they're singing about, be it bad donkeys, clouds or river snakes, they make a spine-tingling noise. [Mar 2011, p.106]

Produced by the ever-tasteful T-Bone Burnett, Ray Charles wouldn't have been disgraced by the earthy mix of soulful blues and gospel. [Mar 2011, p.105]

True, he lacks bandmate 50 Cent's raw charisma. But his leisurely delivery carries weight. [Mar 2011, p.101]

As super cutesy as a Hello Kitty hair-grip. Best avoided, in other words. [Mar 2011, p.101]

Electronic outfit return after a decade and a half. [March 2011, p. 114]

Super Furry Animal ditches band and experimentation for the simple life. [March 2011, p. 114]

Milwaukee songstress's first offering. [Feb. 2011, p. 123]

There's a slightly scattershot quality to 21 that suggests that Adele is not quite the mistress of her own destiny. Greatness is tantalizingly within reach, though; perhaps she just needs to grab the wheel, and quickly. [Feb 2011, p.106]

Stronger on revved-up dancehall than coffee-table soul, it's on the collaborations they really come into their own. [Feb 2011, p.125]

A handsomely crafted affair of aching sincerity and a light pleasing soulful touch. What's missing are a couple of standout tracks to get the ball rolling. [Feb 2011, p.124]

Zeroes QC bristles with ideas, assimilating elements of Krautrock, electronica and post-punk to dazzling effect. [Feb 2011, p.124]

His fifth and final Streets album turns into his best since "A Grand Don't Come For Free." [Feb 2011, p.123]

It's hardly original, but is frequently beautiful. [Feb 2011, p.123]

Beach House may get all the headlines for this style of music, but Spokes seem destined to make waves of their own. [Feb 2011, p.123]

Well-connected New Jerseyite's fifth solo album. [March 2011, p. 117]

In a word, charming. [Feb 2011, p.123]

Give this album a very wide berth. [Feb 2011, p.120]

There's nothing to diminish his status as a nearly great, albeit mostly unheralded, American songwriter. [Feb 2011, p.120]

London Sessions is a solid memento of the group at their peak, albeit closer to a Peel session than a live album. [Feb 2011, p.120]

It's equally ambitious, forceful and joyous as Courtney Love's high water mark. [Feb 2011, p.118]

They have expanded their joint sabbatical into an album that ram-raids its way through baroque pop, garage rock and Byrdsian harmonies. [Feb 2011, p.118]

There is slick virtuosity to all the playing here but it is her warm, witty presence that shines through. [Feb 2011, p.118]

The conveyor belt of vocalists means an album-long identity crisis, but there are good things here. [Feb 2011, p.117]

Just Because, Youth and Poverty and the simmering Finale show there's genuine craft here too. Thrilling. [Feb 2011, p.117]

Second album confirms sonic wizard's wizardry. [March 2011, p. 116]

Crucially, as well as nailing the sound perfectly, they do so with a winning passion. [March 2011, p. 117]

Son of Richard and Linda. Acorns can fall far... [March 2011, p. 115]

Album 13 of experimental Californian acoustic folk. [March 2011, p. 115]

Haunting debut from post-dubstep pioneer. [March 2011, p. 113]

Bristol duo mix up hugely potent psychedelic brew. [March 2011, p. 109]

Another slug of moonshine and a rootsy rock from the Georgia sextet. [March 2011, p. 108]

More downtempo delights from Rhode Islanders. [March 2011, p. 106]

Fallen street poet gets remixed by rising street urchin. Result: comeback complete. [March 2011]

Beady Eye's Different Gear, Still Speeding was always going to be one of the most important records Liam Gallagher would ever make. The gobsmacking reality is that it's also among the best. [March 2011, p. 102]

In any sensible home there's always room for some no-nonsense, Nuggets-era Garage rock, however, and for that alone the impossibly titled **** pushes plenty of the right buttons. [Jan 2011, p.142]

Their eighth album is no departure. [Jan 2011, p.135]

Her state-of-the-nation address. Stunning. [Feb. 2011, p. 112]

Veteran art-punks reinvent themselves 35 years on. [Feb. 2011, p. 125]

Their debut positions itself somewhere sonically between the avant-gardism of These New Puritans and Siouxsie And The Banshees at their most stridently gothic. [Feb. 2011, p. 114]

The World Is Yours is the usual drill: fast, frenetic and very, very loud, with Lemmy belching his messages of defiance and rock'n'roll redemption like a raging, fire and brimstone preacher. Who would want it any other way? [Feb. 2011, p. 124]

Long-awaited debut from the sweary Brooklyn collective. [Feb. 2011, p. 120]

Rockabilly queen gets the Jack White treatment. [Feb. 2011, p. 118]

More subtle delights from the bearded Mr. Beam. [Feb. 2011, p. 117]

Lively third outing from Brighton collective. [Feb. 2011, p. 117]

Post-punk quartet's first all-new record since 1995. [Feb. 2011, p. 117]

With Valhalla Dancehall, it's time to laud British Sea Power for attaining greatness strictly on their own terms. [Feb. 2011, p. 116]

The title's maths may not add up, but he's onto a winning formula. [Feb. 2011, p. 115]

There's a little too much in the way of filler, but this is a promising start. [Feb. 2011, p. 113]

South Coast Krautrockers' quirky, moody fourth. [Feb. 2011, p. 114]

Playful pop brainteasers from the cult quartet. [Feb. 2011, p. 114]

The Decemberists have never sounded more ordinary. [Feb. 2011, p. 114]

On Mine Is Yours they take flight at last: the distinctive Willett is excellent throughout and the songs almost all snap and bite. [Feb. 2011, p. 114]

Winning UK indie rock/US power-pop fusion. [Feb. 2011, p. 113]

The Ealing doom merchants come of age. [Feb. 2011, p. 110]

The problem here isn't sullying Jackson's memory and reputation: he was perfectly capable of doing that himself. The problem is that Michael simply isn't good enough. [Feb. 2011, p. 108]

It feels like a nimble, pleasure-seeking record which takes its grown-up themes in its stride and wants to entertain first and impress second. [Feb 2011, p.126]

It might be out of time, but it's worth tuning out modern life and falling in with its curious beat. [Jan 2011, p.140]

Those seeking the key to The Script's success will remain puzzled. [October 2010, p. 113]

It's not an obvious fit, and with all songs apparently written in the space of just three days there's distinctly rushed, work-in-progress feel that does nobody any favours. [Jan 2011, p.142]

Even if the songs aren't much more than workmanlike, they're good enough to showcase the man's still mighty roar and shattering guitar playing. [Jan 2011, p.142]

It still has its winning moments. [Jan 2011, p.142]

Her collaborations, from Foo Fighters to Ray Charles. [Jan. 2011, p. 151]

Drone metal linchpin, with guest Kurt Cobain. [Jan. 2011, p. 150]

Co-produced in the US by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor, Twin Shadow is assured hipster status in his adopted New York home. [Jan 2011, p.142]

It isn't just that it's (mostly) a covers album, more that so many of the selections are so uninspired. [Jan 2011, p.139]

His third album shows his mic skills to be only marginally above average--though given the right vintage soul groove he can raise his game. [Jan 2011, p.138]