Two years and two million album sales later- and minus raffish bassist Max Rafferty--their sugar-rush enthusiasm has dissolved almost entirely.

The truth is, this is actually rather safe music. [Apr 2008, p.94]

My Bloody Underground is the sound of someone geting My Bloody Valentine about two-thirds right, which is to say that while BJM can certainly conjure interminable, feedback-slathered drones, they lack Kevin Shields' gift for sonic invention or melody. [June 2008, p.83]

Reduced to aural bones, Gossip's live show in Liverpool last year still rocks, but in a diminished way. [May 2008, p.100]

Just Us Kids in part repeats the forumla, targeting SUV drivers, filthy corporations, and Dick Cheney, in an affecting but familiar preach to the converted. [June 2008, p.97]

The band has never sounded better, and Cave seems to have relaxed into the hysteria of his vocal style; like Elmer Gantry singing Leonard Cohen at a tent-revival.

Without Reznor's shouting, they're more hypnotic, even, at times, soothing. [June 2008, p.98]

Mountain Battles is marginally more polished than "Title TK" but it still sounds as if it was recorded in one take in Steve Albini’s toilet. A good thing, as it turns out. The intimacy of is what makes it precious.

This is an exciting debut.

Only on 'Time of Songs' do the Tapes sound more than just another bunch of collegiate slackers with cool record collections. [May 2008, p.111]

Main;y, though, we leave Clinic where we always find them: nervously pacing the room, waiting for something to happen. [May 2007, p.92]

Their approach is eclectic, esoteric, and not easy on the ear, though it does have a restless energy which suggests it might work better live. [June 2008, p.97]

It brims with psychedelic electro-pop of the most inventively buoyant and sweetly retro-futuristic kind. [May 2008, p.106]

At 15 tracks, it outstays its welcome, but in small does this is deliciously addictive. [June 2008, p.86]

Boo! has plenty of highpoints. [May 2008, p.113]

The second album from Cheltenham's The Duke Spirit sounds every bit the heads-down attampt at chart-bothering major rock album. Except, well, it's on an indie, and the tunes don't always match the band's stadium-echo ambitions. [Mar 2008, p.86]

St Jude proves that there is much more to The Courteeners than first meets to the eye.

In short, a glittering sign reading "business as usual"--even if it’s not a return to adventurous Kylie gold.

LC! balance their more precious tendencies-winsome vocals, chiming xylophone--with a sharp wit and ideas that arrive in energetic tumbles. [Mar 2008, p.88]

This finds Richard Melville Hall seemingly going through the motions. [Mar 2008, p.96]

The Black Keys are on the cusp of greatness--Attack and Release, produced by Danger Mouse, takes them one step closer, but not quite over the edge.

Accelerate is a simple, pragmatic record built on an uncomfortable truth: sometimes, even the best bands have to retrace their steps, if only to remind themselves what they're really good at.

So far, so agreeable, but a minor niggle is that Morrison evidently continues to favour comfortable rather than challenging accompanists. Then the album hots up.

This blend of Sabbath-inspired riffing, windswept chug and songs called things like 'Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians' has a neat shtick, no particularly awkward edges, and a vague sense of nostalgia for an adolescence maybe you never lived the first time out. [May 2008, p.107]

Few chronicle heartbreak with such methodical, forensic attention. [May 2008, p.111]

There's some shrewd commercial nous behind their retro-wackiness. [Aug 2008, p.85]

In fine and fiesty form, Auchtermuchty's Craig and Charlie Reid effectively slap you round the face with their latest batch of songs. [Nov 2007, p.116]

Less is more, and the Stones are at their best on the spoof country of Faraway Eyes; and Richards’ attack on You Got The Silver, with Ronnie Wood picking holes in an acoustic slide guitar.

Funplex consists largely of a series of witless retreads of school disco hit 'Love Shack,' with Fred Schneider's deadpan "woo!" recalling an increasinglt weary holiday rep. [Apr 2008, p.83]

Pretty.Odd. often tries way too hard to be obtuse, it's true, but you have to admire the band's willingness to grow. [May 2008, p.106

There are moments--notably 'You Can't Count On me'--but the band behind him are wringing diminishing returns from their polished country-rock. [May 2008, p.92]

Twice as long as the band's debut, it's also more than doubly assured. [June 2008, p.99]

It's a modest sampler, with a feel more akin to 1961 than 2008. [May 2008, p.98]

If a few tracks see them flirt with Eno-esque avant garde, thes wayward tendencies are balanced out by pretty folk ballads. [June 2008, p.88]

The Heavy's debut album is a dirty, bluesy, funk rock noise that, on paper, looks deeply uncool but might actually be the album of the year. [Dec 2007, p.97]

A bold leap forwards. [Apr 2008, p.98]

A huge disappointment.

Jemina Pearl's voice is compelling, ensuring Be Your Own Pet sound like a candy-coloured, pocket-sized Yeah Yeah Yeahs. [may 2008, p.87]

Balancing staccato rhythms and itchy guitars with a neat line in woozy, trance-like synthesisers, they have an oblique lyrical bent that's all their own. [Feb 2008, p.80]

The results--notably 'Cheap And Cheerful,' which suggests that Britney Spears' 'Toxic' made quite an impact on them and the chaotic 'Alphabet Pony'--are a revelation.

Bejar's band--either completely at ease with or oblivious to his verbal flights of fancy--play rich, languid, bar-room indie-rock with florid bursts of guitar. [May 2008, p.94]

A Mad & Faithful Telling is an impeccably titled album [Apr 2008, p.88]

The key is a rhythmic edge--be it tribal drumming or waves of sound--that trip these rainbow drones into full-on euphoria. [Apr 2008, p.94]

True, every song here is virtually identical, but at least it's a great song. [Apr 2008, p.94]

Throughout the album, it's a thrill to hear Rhys' mellifluous voice juxtaposed with the music's synthetic thrust.

The result is a milestone in modern psychedelic soul.

Where the album suffers, however--especially in comparision to the Jenny Lewis record--is the absence of any real lyrical verve or personality. [Aug 2008, p.94]

What could be a kitschy nostalgia trip, however, becomes something more thanks to the songs themselves. [Apr 2008, p.94]

Green's songs are memorable and his subtle orchestrations effective, while his lovely, burnished, Dean Martin-ish baritone voice glues it all together. [Apr 2008, p.90]

This collection, like all of his work, conjures a world unto itself, drawing from seemingly random sources to weave a work of mystic, spiritual power. [May 2008, p.102]

Visiter suggesting both a rhythm-centric Shins and a more hard-bitten Feelies. [Aug 2008, p.90]

They can do dreamy folk, they can also violently attack their guitars, but best of all is the opening track, 'So Messed Up,' a Neil Young-inspired ballad where the guitars rumble and flicker oiver Ryan Sawyer's Keith Moon-style perpetual drum solo. [May 2008, p.111]

Alopecia is another woozily layered, beguilingly fractured affair, driven by beats and samples. [May 2008, p.113]

Booming Back To You is palatable enough. [Apr 2008, p.93]

This is surely the desperate death-thore of a rank '90s relic. [Apr 2008, p.99]

Whatever the situation, Ayers's amenability shines through regardless, a wave of warmth that can lighten the heaviest soul.

The buoyant beats of his debut seem well-judged to invite a wiggle whether your "booty" is on the dancefloor or wearing a groove into you favorite armchair. [May 2008, p.94]

Superabundance sees the trio break away from the neo-post-punk pack, in one swoop, but without sacrificing one calorie of their furious energy. [Apr 2008, p.109]

It sounds alive and kicking almost to its own detriment. [Mar 2008, p.83]

It is, in short, a hippy record, and a very good one.

17 endurance-defying tracks of gormless, soulless cookie-cutter corporate country, carting woefully trite homilies to smalltown values that leave the listener feeling uneasily like jackson's running from something. [May 2008, p.100]

With Lanegan at his stentorian best and Dulli in full confessional mode, Saturnalia is a feast, certainly--but one where the dishes are served delightfully raw.

It's their best since 1995's "LP5." [Apr 2008, p.83]

A confident melodic sensibility ensures such self-conscious quirkiness stays just the right side of irritating. [July 2008, p.90]

Warpaint does, however, fall somewhat short of the triumphant comeback The Black Crowes set their 10-gallons at.

The raw machine clap has been replced by Chaotic deconstruction of house music. It's a frequently awkward fit, lacking the fluid styling that makes the best hip hop. [Apr 2008, p.84]

Red of Tooth & Claw sometimes feels too much like style over substance, but the best moments here are in the detail. [July 2008, p.106]

Her blowsy voice now seems happier in those quieter settings. [May 2008, p.104]

There is much here that is wonderful, but less of the tone set by the self-parodically chirpy 'Turqouise House' would have improved matters. [Nov 2007, p.132]

Magnificent Fiend is both indebted to the past and utterly timeless, wild but controlled, chin-stroking clever and head-shaking dumb, referential without being reverential. [May 2008, p.88]

The sumptuous Sea Lion sees him exploring similar territory to the Elephant 6 collective, adding notes of African highlife, Polynesian folk, Disney soundtracks and (briefly) '80s synth pop, to joyous and naively charming effect. [Apr 2008, p.99]

To say Ladyhawk offer a pretty straightforward rock trip make them sound unadventurous, which they probably are, but also doesn't really do justice to the sheer head-nodding, play-loud-and-prosper enjoymenet this offers. [May 2008, p.102]

Rowdy, vivid, moving and playful, The Felice Brothers is just glorious.

It’s a brave, bonkers, often beautiful, sometimes haunting and occasionally ridiculous album.

She's far bolder, singing in a strange, little girl's voice over a solitary Chet Baker-style trumpet or chanting mantra-like over a bubbling African rhythm. [May 2008, p.87]

If you like Galaxie 500, Mazzy Star, Low, you'll adore them. If you don't, you won't. [Mar 2008, p.83]

Merritt's pure voice is mostly accompanied by gentle piano on a set of songs that ultimately lack the fire of her earlier work. [June 2008, p.100]

We Have You Surrounded has more variety than 2003's excellent "Dangerous Magical Noise." [May 2008, p.94]

The post-coital twang of 'Aly, Walk With Me' and 'Lust' are enough to arouse even the most jaded trash-rock fetishist. [Dec 2008, p.101]

The Golden Age is the real thing. [Feb 2008, p.72]

Darnielle dresses songs of romance, heartache, and travel in elegant leaps of language. [Mar 2008, p.96]

For Emma, Forever Ago is such a hermetically sealed, complete and satisfying album, the prospect of a follow-up--of a life for Vernon beyond the wilderness, even - seems merely extraneous.

There are times when the playing of the session band is slick to the point of blandness, and the production (by Davies and Ray Kennedy) is crisply tasteful when the songs cry out for dissonance.... But when it works, it works.

Ironically, the straight country of Jessi Colter's 'I'm Looking For Blue Eyes,' suits her best, while the busted drones and banjos of Julie Miller's 'Orphan Train' suggest there is better still to come. [Apr 2008, p.98]

They haven't downsized: the rock is (well played) bog-standard retro, but themes cover Guantanamo and the afterlife. Amid the Dylan raps and Yardbirds licks (and if The Charlatans made this, they'd be garlanded) there's a welcome sense that they're smartly chuckling at themselves.

Perfect background music for those late-night venues that tend to overdo the ultra-violet lights. [Mar 2008, p.96]

The songs are much more confidently realised. [May 2008, p.100]

Album two finds them pressing the Gilbert O'SuperTramp button with gusto. [Mar 2008, p.87]

Pete & The Pirates have a handful of great pop songs to balance out the weight of their obvious influences. [Mar 2008, p.97]

British Sea Power are still without a 'Wake Up' or a 'Float On' but Do You Like Rock Music? is exhilarating in its ambition, full of songs that will warm the cockles at whichever National Heritage site they choose to play next.

As a listener, it’s equally hard not to feel the love. With Hot Chip, it now feels like the right time to commit.

The Brooklyn-based veterns have beefed up the arrangements on LP number five, and Matthew Caws' material happily carries that weight. [Mar 2008, p.96]

Watershed feels like a declaration of independence. [Feb 2008, p.87]

You'd be hard pressed to find anything to summon the blood and stiffen the sinew among the 14 songs on offer here. [Mar 2007, p.90]

A song called 'Vietnam' only reinforces the all-around impression Lenny is 40 years too late. [Mar 2008, p.92]

It's as convincing and heartfelt as anything else here--and suggests that by incorporating disco into the rest of his music, even better things may lie ahead. [Mar 2008, p.96]

This fifth album gets progressively less fuzztoned and more overtly tuneful as it progresses. [Mar 2008, p.85]

It's fitting that this debut contains at least half a dozen exquiste songs that could work in any idiom. [Feb 2008, p.80]