Sensibly, Sumner steers clear of Caucasian reggae on her surprisingly strong debut, opting instead for polished, sullen synth-pop with husky, La Roux-style vocals. [Nov 2010, p.93]

With Lisa Milberg sounding like a cross between Nico, Bjork and Yoko Ono, WYWH is one deep, dark, sexy reinvention. [Dec 2010, p.87]

Their The Fool traces out similar shapes as east coast cousins Effi Briest: dreamy, faintly pagan psychedelia, their tumbling vocal harmonies, undercut by inexorable, tidal bass. Their softly-softly approach does breed some earworms, though. [Dec 2010, p.104]

The result is a promising record that's much closer in tone and sentiment to an act like Hurts than they'd presumably be comfortable with. [Dec 2010, p.88]

All this makes the album sound like an arid conservatoire experiment, but it's more than that. Many of its tracks, like Morricone-feeling "Written, Forgotten," are designed to drift into the background--upmarket mood music, if you will--but others demand your attention. [Dec 2010, p.89]

A resounding power chord marks the confident introduction to this fine debut album. [Nov 2010, p.113]

With flurries of old-time whimsy, The Beatles gone gothic and vaudevillian storytelling, it's dense and sometimes obscure. [Nov 2010, p.84]

Down There reveals a lyrical quality to Dave Avey Tare Portner's songwriting that's not always apparent amid the radiant clatter of the full band. [Nov 2010, p.81]

Most of the tracks were written on the piano and jettison guitars for chamber orchestrations. There are Brechtian oom-pah songs, elegant tangos, and two bruise-coloured ballads that might be the best Barat has written. [Nov 2010, p.81]

Olympia could do with a little more of that future-facing yearning, the contemporary spirit that crackled through the remixes, to remind us of times when Ferry seemed as much a figure from our future as from our recent past. [Nov 2010, p.85]

The resultant music is quite compelling. [Oct 2010, p.101]

It's still excruciatingly fey in places, but then you know what to expect by now. [Nov 2010, p.81]

It's never indulgent, always exciting. [Oct 2010, p.114]

It bubbles with conviction, the mock-fearsome, statuesque diva loading her lyrics with Prince-like panche. [Nov 2008, p.105]

The London-based trio of Matt Parker, Chris Amlion and Ayu Okakita reinvent the [trip-hop] genre on their terrific debut, a futuristsic sonic collage of dreamy glitch-folk, shimmering electronica and weapons-grade dubstep percussion. [Mar 2010, p.90]

You're willing him to succeed, but ultimately it's hard to listen to a lot of this album without cringing. [Aug 2010, p.78]

Losing Sleep is a great record, period. [Oct 2010, p.102]

The 21-year-old with the bell-clear vocals scarcely puts a foot wrong, sliding easily between solemn country balladry and snappy country rock. [Sep 2010, p.90]

Lights feels like the product of a distinctive personality, following a peculiar vision rather than ticking genre boxes. [Apr 2010, p.90]

Vito Deluca indulges himself on his outstanding debut. [Oct 2010, p.104]

The Ghosts Within typifies the uniqueness of Wyatt's oeuvre, though on this occasion it's not just his. [Nov 2010, p.95]

This time out, the band wants you to have an experience, and that's what you get, on a record that's over the top, wildly inventive and satisfying in the ever-deepening way of landmark longplayers from the last century. [Nov 2010, p.89]

In the jigsaw puzzle that is Bob Dylan, The Whitmark Demos are crucial pieces, and it's easy to get lost in the depths, the sheer audacity and beauty, of this music. [Nov 2010, p.107]

The downside of Stevens' inward journey is that it seems to have eroded his confidence, leading to a maddening tendency to sabotage his best tunes. [Nov 2010, p.82]

All the elements of old are there--his voice, those lyrical hankerings to melt away from the limits of life. [Oct 2010, p.85]

What most surprising is the diversity here--the sense of direction is not pressing, but ultimately there's plenty to revisit. [Nov 2010, p.94]

Pitched as the first part of a trilogy, this is a batch of effortlessly lovely tunes, warmly intimate and muzzy with reverb. [Nov 2010, p.81]

Sketchy beginnings, but lots of promise. [Nov 2010, p.100]

It's likable enough, but pretty much interchangeable with the seven studio albums that preceded it. [Nov 2010, p.94]

Kelley Stoltz is one of the millennium's great unsung auteurs. To Dreamers is frustrating though. [Nov 2010, p.102]

At its best, Margins is unobtrusively impressive. [Nov 2010, p.101]

Tricky has a frustrating tendency to lurk behind his collaborators, and one has to fight the feeling that ideas rarely gel. [Oct 2010, p.106]

She's full of ideas on this sonically, adventurous effort. [Oct 2010, p.108]

So aesthetically perfect was the formula that Clinic displayed on their earliest singles, an acidic blend of The Velvet Underground, '60s garage and The Monks delivered with frenetic intensity, that subsequent attempts to branch out have felt strangely limited. Bubblegum, however, succeeds quite neatly in making some distance. [Nov 2010, p.83]

Multi-instrumentalist Joe Pisapia, produced much of Easy Wonderful, which is distinguished by impeccably crafted contours, sharp lyrics, buoyant grooves and swelling choruses. [Nov 2010, p.90]

Presumably bucketloads of fun live, the novelty wear thin on record. [Nov 2010, p.101]

Wreckorder;s main virtues--decent songs, solidly played--are also its downfall, and you end up wondering why Healy bothered taking a vacation only to stay at home. [Nov 2010, p.90]

As his vocals wobble theatrically over synths, seasick sequencers and squelchy early-'80s sonics, Crush's component parts conspire to pack a considerable emotional punch. [Oct 2010, p.85]

How to cope [with increasing adulation and greater expectations]? It seems, by softly imploding--further muffling their already oddly diffuse abrasiveness and by replacing pummelling noise with woozily reflective loops. [Oct 2010, p.98]

The guitar sounds engineered here by Young and Lanois are astonishing, almost terrifying at times in their elemental beauty. [Nov 2010, p.78]

Elastic raps from Q-Tip and Spank Rock, plus some ballsy vocals at last from Rose Elinir Dougall, save the venture from total ignominy. [Oct 2010, p.105]

Cleverer and more talented people--say Clive James and Pete Atkin--have tried to make such collaborations work, and failed. Folds and Hornby join the line, a faint whiff of misogyny trailing behind them. [Oct 2010, p.97]

A rather lovely record...Fully audible at last, Cox's downcast lyrics invest these hazy tunes with gripping poignancy. [Oct 2010, p.90]

It's yielded his best solo album in years. Rather than home, it's actually a close-knit kind of jam session. [Oct 2010, p.96]

The Place We Ran From is bloody and dense and dark, and not in the least like a pastiche. [Aug 2010, p.85]

The results will probably not prove a tremendous cash cow, but theirs is a commendably original aesthetic, and theirs is an enigma you resolve to crack. [Oct 2010, p.114]

Played loud, King Night is a widescreen hallucinogen. [Oct 2010, p.104]

For anyone else, Going Back is a heartfelt but pointless exercise in ersatz soul. [Nov 2010, p.84]

Maximum Balloon isn't intended to carry the emotional and cultural weight of a TV On The Radio release, but it's a charming diversion that bodes well for Dear Science's follow-up, not to mention whichever artist is smart enough to hire Sitek as their producer next. [Sep 2010, p.98]

A solid if formulaic record. [Nov 2010, p.94]

Those who felt that LCD's This IS Happening was too downbeat will find From Cradle To The Rave a perfect remedy, fashioning an obviously derivative but irresistible transatlantic electro-pop. [Oct 2010, p.105]

Dig deeper, though, and what we have here is a record more in line with the excellent, vengeful Americana of frontman Michael Gira's latter-day Angels Of Light fare. [Oct 2010, p.106]

Taking its musical cues from Dennis Wilson and Echo And The Bunnymen, the band remain human underneath the strum and bang and always make sure that, in among the fire and thunder, there are songs, and emotion and, as ever, extraordinary lyrics. [Oct 2010, p.93]

The result is Roots Manuva's most purely pleasurable long-player. [Oct 2010, p.105]

It's halfway between Kim Wilde and truly wild, and, as such, hugely entertaining. [Oct 2010, p.97]

Sadier's intonation can be awkward, but her compassionate yet detached voice remains as affecting as ever. [Nov 2010, p.97]

Roots For Ruin burns with their reignited love of Fugazi, Pixies and Pavement. [Oct 2010, p.98]

There's an intriguing version of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" and tunes by Monk and Ellington alongside originals that lurch from freaky modernism to stately classical. [Oct 2010, p.108]

The albums three producers create a gloopy mix of mid-'80s soft rock and air-punching choruses which lack the urgency of the Killers, while the gambling metaphors and religious images quickly irritate. [Oct 2010, p.94]

Lisbon instead makes defiant virtues of under-ambition and overindulgence. Short on hooks but long on atmosphere, the songs suit Hamilton Leithauser's Dylan drawl. [Nov 2010, p.110]

It's the sound of a man confronting his own inevitable end with humour and dignity. Let's hope he doesn't move on any time soon. As band OF Joy proves, this particular wellspring is far from dry. [Oct 2010, p.82]

Their one great idea grows tiresome over an album's length. [Oct 2010, p.88]

The blues remain a touchstone--the album's first line is "Woke up this Morning"--but Grinderman 2 prefers to prowl rock's perimeter with Amon Duul II, Suicide and contemporary drone practitioners like Wooden Shjips. [Oct 2010, p.86]

Barnes' lyrics remain a stumbling block. [Oct 2001, p.98]

A spring creeps into the step of "Sunday Afternoon" and "Telephone," providing a welcome break in the weather from a band who conform a little too readily to Henry Ford's dictum of having any colour you like so ling as it's black. [Oct 2010, p.87]

An interim record before their next assault, perhaps. [Oct 2010, p.87]

Some sound like strange nursery rhymes; some like surreal Eurovision entries. All are very good indeed. [Oct 2010, p.85]

The Vaselines were more of an idea than a reality, but this revival, with Kelly joined by founding member Frances McKee, Belle And Sebastian's Stevie Jackson and Bob Kildea, plus 1990s drummer Michael McGaughrin, shows they have finally perfected the art of being Just Dumb Enough. [Sep 2010, p.108]

The stripped-down, Muscle Shoals-style arrangements give Mavis space to do her thing, and the song choices are spot-on. [Oct 2010, p.106]

Cocteau Twins, MBV and Angelo Badalamenti are obvious touchstones for the narcotised, heat0haze beauty of Penny Sparkle, which might stupefy were it not for the stylishly gloomy "Love Or Prison" and the deliciously frost-bitten "Oslo." [Oct 2010, p.87]

Listening to the ramalama of "Slow Drip" and "Hot Tubes" you can't help but cheer them on. [Nov 2010, p.102]

Gonzalez's cooing voice tends to sing the same pentatonic scale over the same minor chords on every song, which does make things a little repetitive. [Oct 2010, p.98]

The Charlatans make commendable attempts to expand their creative horizons. [Oct 2010, p.88]

With experiments in disco, dubstep and drum'n'bass all unmistakably Underworld, Barking is the sound of veterans re-energised. [Oct 2010, p.

This third album is even better, his voice smoother, more assured, and the tunes equally as confident. [Nov 2010, p.92]

"Normal" offers the most accessible punk foot-tapper that races past but leaves you wanting more. [Nov 2010, p.97]

He reins in the Liberace-meets-Lenny Bruce schtick on his sixth album, a curiously anodyne effort helmed by Berlin electro buccaneer Boyz Noize. [Oct 2010, p.89]

Booth's increasingly Morrissey-esque voice has a richer and more expressive timbre these days, even if the band's loose, liquid melodies sometimes lack focus. [Oct 2010, p.97]

This is their sixth album and inevitably some jazzy ostentation has crept in, but generally there's a warm, graceful fluidity to Skit I Allt's billowing jams that remains uniquely beguiling. [Oct 2010, p.94]

For anyone who fretted that Glory Hope Mountain might have been a beautiful fluke, No Ghost confirms The Acorn's credentials, building thrillingly on the band's ability to access a variety of moods and textures. [Jul 2010, p.121]

It is still familiar as an Interpol album, but it's certainly their most refined, elegant and frightening release. [Oct 2010, p.97]

Lewis' piano still sounds as urgent and uncontained as it did whrn rock'n'roll was invented on it, and his insouciant snarl remains thrillingly feral. [Nov 2010, p.93]

Old Punch Card is surprising and, at points, quite brilliant--it'll make your ears double-take. [Nov 2010, p.97]

Their slick, synth-heavy commuter pop is rendered faintly exotic only because you never imagine anyone wanting to make pop music as frigidly bombastic as this again. [Sep 2010, p.90]

Red Velvet Car finds Heart holding back on the lacquer. [Oct 2010, p.94]

The ubiquitous use of the hang, a sophisticated modern take on the old-fashioned steel pan, gives a distinctive sound to this east London quartet. It's a surprisingly versatile instrument from which Nick Mulvey and Duncan Bellamy coax melodic and rhythmic patterns to complement Jack Wylie's inventive sax riffing. [Nov 2009, p.99]

Dream Attic has the brio that matches any of Thompson's past few studio albums. [Sep 2010, p.84]

T Bone's unfussy production is key, allowing Bingham's rusted voice to take stage centre. [Oct 2010, p.89]

A couple of tracks suggest exits from the familiar labyrinth. [Oct 2010, p.88]

The results, while hardly ground-breaking, are moving and accomplished. [Sep 2010, p.102]

The group's fourth, recorded in Berlin, pulls a few new shapes but a lack of any truly transcendent moments suggests a group destined to remain middleweights. [Sep 2010, p.83]

The results shimmer like rivers at dusk. [Sep 2010, p.111]

"Lately" is a wonderfully uplifting finale to a finely conceived record, an eloquent testament to an unlikely partnership that's only now delivering its full potential. [Sep 2010, p.97]

It turns out that this consistently astonishing writer chronicles happiness as astutely as he evokes its opposite. [Sep 2010, p.92]

The album is carpeted with generic riffage, shredding and mouldy memories of heavy rock's past. [Oct 2010, p.106]

Sugar, by comparison [to "Wrecking Ball"], feels laboured. [Sep 2010, p.91]

It's hard to imagine anyone but the previously committed fan will be signing up here. [Sep 2010, p.99]

Like Arthur Russell, he marries such influences [of Steve Reich and Terry Riley] with an off-kilter pop sensibility. [Oct 2010, p.87]