Often the players transform the hushed originals into rousing barnstormers, although diehards might baulk at the cluttered performances and newcomers may wonder what seperates the "Prince" from other raggle-taggle troubadours. [Nov 2008, p.107]

It's one of the least boring records you'll hear this year. [Nov 2008, p.108]

For such a distinctive voice, disappointingly run of the mill. [Nov 2008, p.123]

It might alienate those who prefer him to wallow, but there's magic and bravery here. [Dec 2008, p.130]

It's too entrenched in the past to take Costa forward, but there's nobody relighting the old fires with such authenticity. [Mar 2009, p.96]

The old fervour remains intact. In truth, their third LP holds few surprises. [Feb 2009, p.116]

For his eigth studio album he's gone over the top politically. [Feb 2009, p.116]

Their joyous music has an even greater emotional weight. [Dec 2008, p.133]

Tobacco keeps things instrumental, lathering on freakish analogue effects but rejecting dance music's stylistic tics in favour of a pleasingly warped relative of space rock. [Aug 2009, p.112]

It's not going to challenge anyone, but it would bring a welcome touch of class to the charts. [Oct 2008, p.139]

Mostly, it's just not interesting enough to hold the listener's attention throughout. [Aug 2008, p.139]

Everything Is Borrowed is a huge disappointment, riding in on the crest of the huge disappointment that was Skinner's previous album. [Oct 2008, p.140

A second Oasis album to better "Standing On the Shoulders Of Giants" and "Heathen Chemistry," but one too, that promises so much only to fall so short. [Nov 208, p.104]

Aside from the relatively oomph-laden, piano-driven 'Sharing A Gibson Withh Martin Luther King Jr.' and a lonesome cover of Don Williams's 'I Believe In You,' there's barely a melody to savour. [Nov 2008, p.118]

Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand's label is an unlikely home for these militant lesbian rappers who screech sex-filled rhymes over tough, minimal beats, although thheir punky energy should appeal to Messrs Turner and Kapranos. [Oct 2008, p.152]

It's Hynde who steals the show with her lip-curling vibrato, part Elvis, part Dusty, never more intoxicating than on the seductive 'Almost Perfect.' [Jul 2009, p.129]

With ace guitarist Marc Ribot on board, it's rockier than her three previous outings--but in a good way. [Nov 2008, p.121]

Raposa's songs are often just a little too aimless. [Dec 2008, p.126]

Nothing here is essential, but there will always be enough completeist to warrent airing of Dylan's old laundry. [Nov 2008, p.127]

The Spinto Band offer a softer, watered-down version of '90s US indie-rock--their influences include Pavement but now also Prefab Sprout. [Oct 2008, p.150]

The likes of Los Hongos De Marosa glide by in a swirl of subtle beats and understated Spanish vocals, but nothing snags the ear. [Nov 2008, p.118]

With shards of melody poking through the noise, the overall effect is often stunning. [Nov 2008, p.117]

Too aimless for the initiated, the likes of 'Barfuss Durch Gras,' a cacophony of clocks unwinding will have dinner party dilettantes spitting their soup. [Oct 2008, p.142]

Atmospheric and richly layered, their best moments tap the same ecstatic eclecticism of fellow travellers Sufjan Stevens and Beirut's Zach Condon. [Nov 2008, p.114]

Bianchi drops his usual mix of samples and programming for traditional instruments, including banjo and glockenspiel to create a very modern, kind of folk music. [Dec 2008, p.133]

A worthy addition to the Clash canon. [Nov 2008, p.126]

Akin to Manu Chao backed by The Go Team!, fortunately it's no one-off. [Nov 2008, p.117]

Their ability to transport the listener to an imaginary Deep South truckers' bar in 1973 is peerless, while the deft funk-rock of 'Set In Stone' and 'Play the Fool' pay tribute to the slick musicianship and seemless meld of rootsy American music styles that The Doobie Brothers and Little Feat unleashed in their prime. [Nov 2008, p.110]

At times the experimentation verges on the unlistenable but there's enough promising material here to make this an enjoyable debut. [Feb 2009, p.119]

Occassionally the set suffers from too much studio polish and not enough grit. [Jan 2009, p.116]

Sawhney's gentle yet eclectic studio skills make everything agreeable enough but the opening song sets a standard he never tops. [Nov 2008, p.120]

He's better when he lets the words--and music--speak for themselves. [Nov 2008, p.120]

Musically, they could do with a few more gear changes, but it's churlish to complain when the overall effect is so spirit-lifting. [Nov 2008, p.123]

His humour counteracts the widely held assumption that Americans don't do irony. Folds does little else, and he never sounds less than terribly pleased with himself. [Oct 2008, p.142]

Ambitious, yes, inventive, sometimes, but waiting for those rare moments of clarity is like trying to catch a cloud in a colander. [Nov 208, p.118]

The result is something of a left-field classic. [Nov 2008, p.114]

A modern '70s Motown pastiche, that makes him a serious rival to John Legend. [Dec 2008, p.133]

While his big, piano-led MOR tunes are launched from a good place, they land in a fairly awful one. [Apr 2009, p.105]

This mixtape-style collection is more ramshackle than his most celebrated work, but it's still packed wirh inspired funk. [Dec 2008, p.127]

Koushik has crafted an album that glows like a California sunset, even though he's actually a Canadian now living in Vermont. [Nov 2008, p.118]

Victory Shorts makes art-pop by contrasting Michaelson's mordant lyrics and juanty, sophisticated melodies. [Oct 2008, p.139]

While it's hard to see them replicating the crossover success of their old friends, these cross-genre efforts at crafting similarly off-kilter pop are packed with intriguing details. [Dec 2008, p.128]

Their rock'n'roll commitment is beyond doubt, although casual observers might want to wait for their promised new album. [Dec 2008, p.142]

So while fourth album Shogun is impressive, Trivium continues ro make "...And Justice For All" when they could do with a "Black Album" instead. [Nov2008, p.107]

Luna is pleasing rather than groundbreaking. [Oct 2008, p.139]

There's nothing remotely new or sophisticated about any of it. Instead the album happily operates at the most instinctual gut level, oozing authenticity in a way that Jack White, say, would give his front teeth for. [Nov 2008, p.111]

Their debut, recorded in frontman's Ed Macfarlane's parents' garage, is a tuneful affair. [Oct 2008, p.142]

The Hawk Is Howling is similarly impressive [to "Mr. Beast"], the band's earlier experiments in noise more reined in, allowing a subtle and textured approach. [Oct 2008, p.149]

Kings of Leon needed to make a very specific sounding type of album in order to seize their moment, and that they have done, entirely successfully. [Oct 2008, p.134]

No two tracks are the same, none could be anyone else. This is one irresistible party: the joy Adebimpe was looking for is right here. A great, great record. [Oct 2008, p.154]

The Californian four-piece's follow-up is less inspired, however, lacking any memorable tunes or winning hoks to distract from Nathan Willett's grating falsetto, and much of the album is heavy going. [Oct 2008, p.141]

Impressively, she pulls off both sympathy and empathy. [Oct 2008, p.138]

Plain White T's are ultimately as bland and banal as the clothing they take their name from. [Dec 2008, p.133]

Motion To Join makes the druggiest meanderings of the similar "Spiritulized" sound full of pep. [Dec 2008, p. 126]

The occasional tune shines through, but ultimately too much of the material sounds like it's aimlessly ad-libbed. [Oct 2008, p.147]

Tennessee Pusher pushes their envelope further still. [Oct 2008, p.149]

Booming basslines, clubby beats, high production values and a guest list that includes Brazil's Seu Jorge, sitar lady Anushka Shankar and Afrobear star Femi Kuti make it a safe backdrop for just about any bar anywhere in the world. [Nov 2008, p.121]

Shorn of the stunning visuals, a little too much here sounds like aural padding. [Oct 2008, p.149]

While accepting that his odd but beguiling hybrid of rap, country, folk, and Butthole Surfers/Tom Waits-weirdness will never eclipse 1998's platinum "Whitey Ford Sings The Blues" he's injected impetus into what threatened to become a stale formula. [Oct 2008, p.142]

A foursome without a single Ken among them, their self-titled debut is heavy psych-rock for those of a crepuscular calling, with Bearfight and Refined being the songs where they really up the power. [Oct 2008, p.153]

The results are comprehensively bemusing, but Swedish is an exquisitely lulling language to listen to, and so the whole effect is oddly hypnotic. [Nov 2008, p.118]

His first widely distributed release, is no vanity showcase. It's an album of acoustic, guitar-based singer-songwriter pop, although not quite as sparse as that sounds. [Nov 2008, p.107]

One nostalgia trip worth taking. [Oct 2008, p.147]

This kitchen-sink hybrid works remarkably well. [Nov 2008, p.117]

It may sound less dense, but The Hungry Saw is as dark, mysterious and seductive as ever. [May 2008, p.141]

James has surprisingly reunited for this equally surprisingly strong comeback album. [May 2008, p.135]

'Love Runs Deeper' and the bustling 'Wanna Wait For You' especially confirm him as a master of his craft. [Oct 2008, p.153]

What's lacking from the Oakland native is the kind of fresh approach to a retro sound that elevated Amy Winehouse above straight homage. [Apr 2009, p.110]

Phillip Labonte's melodic vocals give the Massachussetts quintet an edge over their contemporaries, and the songwriting and classy production here suggests they're set for bigger things. [Oct 2008, p.141]

This follow-up is still falls between Dido's mild AOR and Lily Allen's bouncier moments while being as memorable as neither. [Mar 2009, p.101]

As warmly irresistible as the Feeling, the impossibly catchy 'Best Of Me' nods to Elton John's 'Your Song' and it's the finest moment here. [Oct 2008, p.150]

Producer Rick Rubin has made Metallica sound like Metallica again. [Nov 2008, p.116]

Emotional debris permeates almost every song here, but so assured are producer Butch Vig's pop touch and Cooper's harmonies that these pop-punk nuggests sound as sunny as anything on their debut. [Aug 2008, p.143]

This is no dour social critique. In fact, his seventh album finds him energised following a period as a soundtrack hack in Los Angeles. [Aug 2008, p.145]

Mariachi horns and guitar twang still form the backbone of a striking return to what they do best. [Oct 2008, p.141]

Joan Baez seems unshakeable on her 28th album. [Oct 2008, p.139]

Their combination of surreal lyrics and Krautrock now sounds pedestrian. [Oct 2008, p.142]

A pointed dig at modern Nashville's dull production line, Sleepless Nights is a collection of covers from a lost era of Patsy Cline and The Everly Brothers, Loveless's classic voice knocking pretenders into a cocked Stetson. [Jan 2009, p.120]

For album number three he's assembled a trio of multi-instrumentalists and vividly succeeded in realising some of his early "Spectorian" ambitions. [Oct 2008, p.149]

It spares us her bluesy, commercially unfriendly side and as a result she's made her best record since, yes, "Relish."

While 'Caskets' and 'Coats Of Ice' evoke Eels at their most melodic, the tedious 'Gillian Was A Horse' belongs in the knackers' yard. [Nov 2008, p.117]

Me and Armini isn't an immediate record--it's too opaque, too guarded for that--but as it gives up its secrets, it slowly moves its stuff into your mind, a strange cuckoo in the musical nest. [Oct 2008, p.151]

Dull production and a workmanlike band let her down on the rockier numbers, but if Desveaux ever finds the right arranger the sky is her only limit. [Oct 2008, p.147]

On a concept album about felleing sad and lonely in clubland, and the instrumental flash is balanced out by forlorn lyrics. [Oct 2008, p.149]

'I Heard Wonders' and the title track are standouts, blissed-out epics suggestive of U2 tangling with 'The Jesus And Mary Chain,' while instrumentals 'Story Of The Ink' and 'Theme/IMC' radiate desolate beauty. [Oct 2008, p.147]

If the closing tracks' chaotic guitars comes close to unlistenability, many fine moments beforehand make forgiveness easy. [Oct 2008, p.142]

Intriguing as this glimpse behind the curtain is, it's hard to imagine many purchasers playing the entire EBW disc more than once. The same might even be said about Brotherhood itself. [Oct 2008, p.156]

HIs fourth album is a step up from the patchy "Awfully Deep." [Oct 2008, p.150]

The end result is 10 songs that switch direction with ear-pricking regularity and generally avoid the sub-Oasis ladrock you might have expected Ifans to churn out. [Oct 2008, p.143]

The lascivious lyrics have gone, replaced by monotone melancholic musings on love and loss that initially grate, but actually compliment the minimalist cello and piano arrangements. [Oct 2008, p.139]

Rootsy San Diego five-piece Delta Spirit's debut is a thought provoking surprise. [Apr 2009, p.102]

The atypical melodic 'English Rose' aside, there's little to distingusih Motorizer from its 19 predecessors. [Oct 2008, p.149]

This is his best in aeons. [Nov 2008, p.121]

Sunny melodies abound, even if the results are more pleasant than thrilling. [Aug 2008, p.139]

The songs sizzle merrily, but the whole is less than the sum of its parts, and the relentlessness becomes wearing. [Oct 2008, p.139]

They're all set to limber pop that draws on the more understated aspects of both indie rock and dance, with Li's one-off personality a delight throughout. [July 2008, p.107]

This effervescent debut seems determined to shake off the tragedy. [Oct 2008, p.150]

This fourth album is all the better for its subdued tone, mining its own strain of sozzled melancholia via underwater guitars, waltzing rhythms and lyrics steeped in wistful regret. [Nov 2008, p.123]