Their excellent debut album is a neat mix of somnambulant balladry and ragged high drama. [Oct 2011, p.105]

It's all rather tasteful and familiar, though, and a few jagged edges might snare passers-by. [Oct 2011, p.98]

Sprawling, impassioned and mostly terrific. [Oct 2011, p.98]

They are less successful when they step beyond these templates--the trippy "Surface" doesn't quite come off-- but this is a strong set. [Oct 2011, p.95]

Though not quite the full Finn, nonetheless Pajama Club is fresh and fun. [Oct 2011, p.95]

The duo delivers all the exuberance of the Ting Tings, channeling the joys of domesticity, parenthood and conjugal intimacy with an infectious giddiness. [Oct 2011, p.93]

The Old Magic won't do his reputation any harm. [Oct 2011, p.91]

It represents Lauderdale travelling full circle, coming 30 years after his first recordings with bluegrass legend Roland white, but with a few of the flourishes he brought to Elvis Costello's recent touring outfit The Sugarcanes. [Oct 2011, p.91]

There are plenty of moments where everything clicks, with Sun Araw's dayglo-acid guitar skirling over motorik rhythms and hubble-bubble analogica. But these don't on their own justify its existence, alas. [Oct 2011, p.84]

Just about every songs clicks. [Oct 2011, p.84]

In the transition from imitator to originator, the old boy has made one of his best albums ever. [Oct 2011, p.83]

After a fair-to-middling second album they took a self-imposed break before returning with this excellent effort. [Oct 2011, p.83]

Rather precious in places, but often enchanting. [Oct 2011, p.81]

Though his songbook, like theirs [Jagger and Richards], is already abundant, Seeds We Sow suggests that there's plenty more to come. [Oct 2011, p.88]

The writing is strong and Pisano's wracked vocals have pleasing echoes of Justin Vernon, but neither quality is best served by a creative aesthetic which often subjects perfectly good songs to the aural equivalent of waterboarding. [Oct 2011, p.95]

The Rapture have picked themselves up with a third album packed with ragged romps every bit as joyous as "house Of Jealous Lovers," their 2002 breakthrough. [Oct 2011, p.95]

They've perfected a kind of free-wheeling, self-conscious pop classicism with immediate surface appeal but little emotional depth, a disappointingly familiar amalgam of Coldplay, Cast, Arctic Monkeys and The verve. [Oct 2011, p.91]

For a while, it seemed like they'd never leave the hipster ghetto, but this is a convincing exit. [Oct 2011, p.90]

A 1980s vibe predominates, at times in a most agreeable Japan-like kind of way; at times a disagreeably Phil Collinsy one. [Oct 2011, p.90]

"Die" is generic glam riffage, and "Magic" is a tedious Britpop stomp, but there are many successes. [Oct 2011, p.86]

They only really have one kin do f song and tempo, rollicking yet melancholy, but they write them very, very well. [Oct 2011, p.84]

Their thing is Troubadour-era rootsy rocking rather than harmonic rapture, but American Goldwing's free-wheeling charms are still hard to resist. [Oct 2011, p.81]

For now, we should simply savour the sound of an artist setting herself new targets and hitting each one with real panache. [Oct 2011, p.78]

Rigidity is a hallmark of electropop, from Numan to Miss Kittin, but Ladytron's plodding rhythms and banal melodies straightjacket their songs. [Sep 2011, p.88]

Wildlife rocks like rock still truly matter and isn't just so much mp3 content.

This linear, orderly chronicle i s a faithful overview of the studio career nevertheless. [Sep 2011, p.100]

Olive doesn't have the strongest voice, but songs like "Traveling" and the choolin' "Strange Attractor" have a pure pop heart that blends beautifully with Auerbach's retro-rock aesthetic. [Sep 2011, p.93]

Comparisons are inevitable, but take nothing away from Asa's own character. [Apr 2011, p.75]

The key to the understated triumph of Sarah Nixey's second solo album is her recognition that there's nothing wrong with sounding like Black Box Recorder. [Jul 2011]

Songs such as "Bad Timing" and "Leave It" sound pleasingly full as a result, although it's at the expense of some of the intimacy that was arguably the band's best quality. [Sep 2011, p.81]

Kleyn's songs sung to a rugged, vaguely Celtic harp accompaniment with electric piano, bridge the gap between Judy Collins and Joanna Newsom. [Sep 2011, p.88]

If there's a whiff of C86-styled whimsy in this debut, then its savvy more than compensates. [Sep 2011, p.89]

It's a delicate balance, but the obvious sincerity of Campbell's performance overcomes any qualms about what could be an exploitative concept. [Sep 2011, p.90]

Both fierce and mellow, this is smooth-jazz with an alluringly punky heart. [Sep 2011, p.96]

Terrific, genre-flipping from Seattle collective. [Jun 2011, p.92]

This collection further substantiates Newman's rarefied status as a songwriter. [Jun 2011, p.93]

The ferocious cauldron of funk guitars, stinging horns, simmering grooves and incendiary, politicized lyrics departs little from Fela's trademark style, but is delivered with a spiky aggression that entirely justifies the album's title. [May 2011, p.94]

Ganglians take care to lace everything with bright, primary colour melodies, suggesting they might yet follow the likes of MGMT and Yeasayer into the mainstream. [Sep 2011, p.87]

No boundaries are breached, but this is a loose, engaging record. [Sep 2011, p.96]

It's reliably hypnotic stuff, although the final two seemingly interminable tracks d o expose Stallones' rather rudimentary chops. [Sep 2011, p.96]

Consistently entertaining beautifully recorded, enough lyrical Malkmusing to occupy a generation of decoders, plus it rocks. [Sep 2011, p.92]

there's a little too much here that's predictable or worse still, forgettable. [Sep 2011, p.91]

It only really comes alive with an alternate version of "Take Ecstasy With Me," which reminds us that original Magnetic Fields singer Susan Anway is still his definitive interpreter, the Ella to his Cole. [Sep 2011, p.91]

A promising opening gambit. [Sep 2011, p.89]

Amid this poor material, the Chili Peppers still manage t deliver a handful of very very good songs. [Sep 2011, p.86]

The sparkier La Liberacion goes some way to restoring their reputation as festival favourites. [Sep 2011, p.81]

A collection of balmy disco that call to mind some tropical union between Arthur Russell and Prince. [Sep 2011, p.81]

Tinariwen have created an entire genre of desert blues, as young bands like Tamikrest and Terakaft attest, but they remain peerless. [Sep 2011, p.76]

It's an intense, at times crazed live-in-studio session. [Aug 2011, p.104]

The rest is country-tinged "roots-rock" fare, dispatched with an irritatingly blokeish. [Aug 2011, p.100]

His debut illustrates a more prosaic act of creation, in which fastidious study is transformed into compelling new music. [Aug 2011, p.92]

Drums Between The Bells captures Eno in versatile and intricate mode. [Aug 2011, p.82]

Something's happening wherever you turn on tracks that are dense with detail and brilliant accumulations of incident, but never overwrought or too busy, sheer grace their common link. [Sep 2011, p.80]

An austere beauty. [Aug 2011, p.81]

Here, as always, he turns out to be a natural. [Sep 2011, p.81]

The Riptide glides by satisfyingly. [Sep 2011, p.83]

These 10 supple, radiant songs blur the boundaries between African pop an funky American new wave with the same glorious ease as Talking Heads' Speaking in Tongues. [Sep 2011, p.84]

FoW's impeccably assembled works rarely stir little more than fond memories of their obvious influences. This is largely true of Sky Full Of Holes, though there are moments of irresistible sticky sweetness. [Sep 2011, p.84]

The rest of Tripper rises to the challenge with nonchalant ease. [Sep 2011, p.87]

A deftly underplayed album. [Sep 2011, p.87]

It's a great combustible mix, a whirlwind of new sounds caught by the tail, diced and dissected and in permanent hectic propulsion. [Sep 2011, p.91]

It's effective, but the lyrics and the slightly mannered vocals never really rise above the level of jokey pastiche. [Sep 2011, p.91]

Biblical parable and bumptious force-of-nature feminism, ensure Better Day fulfills its upbeat mission. [Sep 2011, p.93]

Nothing US wrong reminds you of early Jackson Browne or Jimmy Webb, albeit with a tougher, rootsier swagger. And it's a worthy addition to that fine Californian bloodline. [Sep 2011, p.94]

Excellent and indispensable. [Sep 2011, p.94]

Nashville's elite session men construct an intimate acoustic framework for Souther to cast himself as crooning confidant, but it all feels a little polished and polite. [Sep 2011, p.95]

There is an occasional excess of histrionics, particularly on "Boat Yard," but her teenage talent has found a convincing adult path. [Sep 2011, p.96]

This traverses dancehall, lovers rock and jungle, and adds in more UK-centric bass styles, with some success. [Sep 2011, p.96]

Chops-wise, all is unimpeachable--but one ends up craving novelty. [Sep 2011, p.98]

Famous First Words passes by amiably enough, like a TV clip-show but is eerily without a sense of place, time or even quirk to make you believe in it. [Sep 2011, p.98]

More rock music should be this reduced and addictive--but they'll have to think long and hard about self-parody some time soon. [Sep 2011, p.105]

The first half's schmaltzy flight-themed concept and the cliche-stewn acoustic second half mean that take-off, to labour an already laboured concept, proves indefinitely delayed. [Sep 2011, p.105]

Beefy but unremarkable debut album. [Sep 2011, p.105]

The lyrics are occasionally hackneyed, but overall 4 is a very strong record indeed. [Sep 2011, p.79]

Basically Big Talk is how The Killers might sound if, rather than combining Bruce Springsteen and the Pet Shop Boys, they settle for blending Kings of Leon with ELO. [Sep 2011, p.79]

Their 1993 debut, remastered by Bob Weston with b-sides and rarities, treads similar--of less self-consciously clever--ground to Crooked rain-era Pavement, with dissonant, spiky guitars piercing surprisingly melodic college radio favorites. [Sep 2011, p.79]

It's lush, detailed, frequently over-rich, but Fabricius' bright, perky voice and some generically kooky lyrics can't really carry the weight of the whole production. [Aug 2011, p.94]

If corralling the chaos is their new MO, they made a smart move. [Aug 2011, p.81]

Gaye's music was on the move, but it never moved quite like What's Going On: still seraphic, still turbulent. [Aug 2011, p.95]

The slow stuff exposes Dex's limited vocals, and his deliberately artless approach feels threadbare--but at least he doesn't take himself that seriously. [Aug 2011, p.97]

It sounds more like sketchbook of snippets rather than fully formed tracks. Even so, it still tickles the pleasure zones with its goodtime swing and verve. [Aug 2011, p98]

When co-leader Marshall LaCount takes vocals the band teeter on the brink of woe-is-me self-parody, but overall this is like a statelier Mazzy Star, dark in all the right places. [May 2011, p.82]

A 25-track bonus disc of rarities makes this a feast for Barlow heads. [May 2011, p.94]

Tobin's virtuoso collaging of alien sounds is bracingly vivid in small doses, but a little chilly and disorienting over the long haul. [Jun 2011, p.96]

Not bad for four young men barely out of their teens playing rowdy, undiluted hardcore. That has a lot to do with the excellence of their debut album. [Jun 2011, p.85]

Lyrically, the fare wavers from the unspectacularly anecdotal to the spinelessly soppy. [Jul 2011, p.121]

Friday shamelessly rekindles the Eno/Lannois unforgettable shimmer, croons against the dying of the light and somehow emerges defiantly alive. [Jun 2011, p.85]

With guests including trumpeter Terry Edwards and The Clientele's Alasdair MacLean, theses pure, poetic songs advance their euphoric yet melancholy quest for improbable romance. [Jun 2011, p.79]

Nikolaj Manuel Vonslid's choirboy vibrato lends a ghostly quality to these 10 pretty synth tunes, all of which fuse north European wistfulness and vaguely Oriental motifs in soothing manner. [Jul 2011, p.103]

While his unique but resolutely unchanging styles of slap bass shards and cut-up vocal syllables works well in a balanced DJ set, it wears quickly over 22 tracks. [Jul 2011, p.94]

Nothing on Take The High Road isn't impeccable, but equally little is surprising. [Jul 2011, p.79]

The 19 tracks revisited here constitute a mixed bag, ranging from imaginative reinventions to faithful recreations. [Aug 2011, p.100]

This time they've come armed with an acoustic guitar to counterpoint their love of reverb--something that works well with their generally playful attitude. [Aug 2011, p.100]

The pleasant surprise on their 15th album is how proficient they've become, without surrendering their innocence along the way. [Aug 2011, p.98]

Exec producer JR Hutson's scratch beats and jazzy interpolations give a spark to velvet soul confessionals where he aching but pliant, octave-scaling vocal colours across the emotional spectrum. [Aug 2011, p.98]

There's an earworm-like lure in every track. [Aug 2011, p.98]

This album essentially serves as a showcase for rising Brit soul singers Sampha and Jessie Ware, who add just the right quantities of sugar and grit. [Aug 2011, p.98]

The 23-year-old deals in the kind of one-take, reverb-drenched, sugary psych-pop that mostly sounds effortless and might occasionally be genius. [Aug 2011, p.98]