Release Me feels like the soundtrack to a Josie And The Pussycats sequel unlikely to be made. [Sep 2010, p.96]

Kath's basic approach to synth-pop means most tracks adhere to a glitchy arpeggiated formula that resembles a Faithless record, but with added indie weirdness. [Jul 2010, p.104]

Shadows is full of drowsy sweetness and mellow doubt: the sound of a great group ageing gracefully. [Jun 2010, p.89]

The veteran New York trio draws from synth-pop, to pomp rock, yet somehow turns the wildly disparate source material into a coherent album that doubles as a tribute to their own roots in The Byrds and Big Star. [May 2010, p.99]

The 12 artfully crafted songs here suggest Blitzen Trapper should now be judged in the elevated company of Wilco, Brendan Benson and The Raconteurs. [Jul 2010, p.113]

Impressively, it achieves the feat of enghancing Pink's legend with out puncturing his mystique. [Jul 2010, p.105]

Another group who make a virtue of the physical and cultural space America has to offer, drawing on the disparateness of their origins. [Ju l 2010, p.108]

The Dublin troubadour's debut as Villagers is rich with risk and imagination, evoking Robert Wyatt and Brian Protheroe. [Jun 2010, p.106]

Champ sees TPC breathing deeper and taking a wider view. [Aug 2010, p.102]

The Black Dirt Sessions is roughly the equivalent of The Replacements going straight from the rowdy delinquency of 1981's "Sorry Ma, Forget To take Out The Trash" to the ashen resignation of 1990's "All Shook Down," with nothing in between. [Aug 2010, p.74]

All too often, though, slick jams such as "Drugs" and "Party With Children" resemble library tracks, exercises in style that pirouette exquistely, but shy away from becoming anything meaningful. [Aug 2010, p.93]

Too often Cunningham fails to develop his tracks, which start thrillingly only to fizzle out. [Jul 2010, p.101]

Potter's expressive voice leads the charge, but wouldn't make half as much impact without the tight and nuanced Nocturnals punctuating each quiver and wail. [Oct 2010, p.101]

You'd be a curmudgeon on to hate such a soothing, well-produced brew, but an undemanding soul to hear it as more than aural wallpaper. [Jul 2010, p.115]

Wake Up The Nation, an album that goes a long way to differentiate itself from its predecessor in sound, texture and atmosphere.

A treatise on the tattered state-of-the-nation told over 12 slices of earnest, unerring pop-punk, the lowering mood is lifted by intricate harmonies and big singalong tunes. [Jun 2010, p.88]

The finished result has a curiously restrained feel, an odd mix of clumpy drumming, bluesy vocals and spidery guitars. [Jul 2010, p.103]

There's something awkward about the whole: the album wins attention but doesn't keep it. [Jun 2010, p.95]

Everyone from Hendrix to CSN&Y to Pink Floyd to Led Zep turns up in their dusky psych-blues-folk blended with a symphonic approach to song construction that keeps Sleepy Sun sounding fresh. [Jun 2010, p.98]

The Bride Screamed Murder channels the band's two-kit battery into intense percussion romps topped by burly call-and-response bellows, like a military drill conducted on strong hallucinogens. [Aug 2010, p.88]

"You And Your Heart" tries to kick out the jams, but in the most polite fashion imaginable. He's at his best on more familiar ground of the mid-tempo chug "Red Wine, Mistakes, Mythology." [Aug 2010, p.84]

His vechile of expression alternates between acoustic confessional and clapped-out pub rock, leaving Dangerfield pootling down the middle of a fairly nondescript road. [Feb 2010, p.81]

They have bell-clear voices, and a spooky ability to envince naivety and world-weariness in the same breath. [Feb 2010, p.88]

All round it makes for a slightly uncomfortable listen. [Apr 2010, p.90]

Swift guides Jurado through the sub-Spectorisms of "Arkansas" and "Throwing Your Voice" with a sensitive touch. [Jun 2010, p.96]

There are strings aplenty, arranged as baroque lullabies or strange waltzes, Hinson shuffling his sorrows against a backdrop of multitracked choirs and fractured noise. Incredibly addictive. [Jul 2010, p.116]

If this is indeed, as rumoured, LCD's final bout, it finds them a little heavy and tired, but occasionally deceptively light on their feet. [Jun 2010, p.82]

Infinite Arms is a neoclassic landmark that you'll need to get on vinyl. This is a record that begs to be flipped over and played again. [Jun 2010, p.93]

Brothers is really all about The Black Keys; swaggering journey from sub-White Stripes curio to one of the best rock'n'roll bands on the planet. [Jun 2010, p.81]

Sadly, Nas brings self-importance to "Strong Will Continue," that's encumbered his latter career, but it's the exception on a broadly fruitful collaboration. [Jul 2010, p.115]

Lidell's vocals are alternately anguished and joyous but always supple. It's quite a ride. [May 2010, p.97]

It's autumnal but never overbearingly bleak, thanks to the enduring warmth of Thorn's voice, and the empathy of her lyrics, even on the almost desolate "Singles Bar." [Jul 2010, p.125]

Producer Jari Haapalainen successfully blends it all together, but Karolina Komstedt's vacant vocals remian glacially unmoved. [Jul 2010, p.104]

Exile itself remains the tour de force it's been since release in May '72. [Jun 2010, p.104]

This quartet have honed thier lumbering heaviness into something both glorious and at times funny. [Aug 2010, p.82]

Not since Lennon howled "Mother" have there been songs as naked and fraught as "Mama Here, Mama Gone" and "March 11 1962." [Jun 2010, p.88]

This seventh studio album doesn't find them doing anything much different but still doing it with grit and conviction. [Dec 2009, p. 113]

Sea Of Cowards is undeniably a major rock record in terms of production and personnel, but is caught between two camps: What is contains is neither major, nor indie, simply enjoyably minor. [Jun 2010, p.94]

At the peak moments of High Violet, The National are magnificent. [Jun 2010, p.78]

It's all a very respectable, and closer "P.I.G.S" is great, just slightly disappointing if one had hoped for more than acceptable continuity soundtracks. [Jun 2010, p.90]

Results range from sumptuous to the exotic and baleful, while Mark Lanegan's climactic swansong as post apocalyptic lounge lizard provides a stylish send-off. [Jun 2010, p.106]

As is generally the case with Loaf's oeuvre, the ridiculousness of the enterprise is redeemed somewhat by a recognition of its own absurdity. [Jul 2010, p.112]

Here's To Taking it Easy is a bold record steeped in the golden, rich sounds of classic rock and country. [Jun 2910, p.101]

It's hard going, but one can only applaud the ambition. [Jun 2010, p.83]

It's a short album, just 30 minutes, and "Weird Feelings" is one song that stands for most: full of hooks and sparks it's fun while it lasts but over in two minutes and too easily forgotten.

Relayted manages to be both comfortingly familiar and devastatingly futuristic. [Jun 2010, p.90]

Thee Oh Sees manage to simultaneously evoke Suicide, Them and The Fall on their latest album of echoey, dense psychedelia. [Aug 2010, p.96]

Tahita Bulmer, once the coy mistress of nu rave, now singing lines like "we wake up in the morning and tyhe glass is empty" in a portentous tone, oddly reminiscent of early-'80s Hazel O'Connor, but no more engaging than her erstwhile deadpan party mode. [Apr 2010, p.95]

They appropriate Thin Lizzy's strutting grooves and harmonised guitars on "Dream City" and Psychic Lighting," while other tracks gleefullly work in a careening analog synth as if it had just been invented. [Jun 2010, p.86]

It's the natural, assured way in which Heaven Is Whenever moves between building on past glories and breaking fresh ground that's so impressive. [Jun 2010, p.85]

Oddball, but articulate, brimming over with a delight in language, "Bury" is a wonderful example of Mark Smith's transformative science fiction, and pretty much what one would hope to find on The Fall's first album for Domino records.

The album is reliant on the Scene's female associates--like Lisa Lobsinger on the lovely Moroderish cosmic disco of "All To All"--to bring character to whtat remain some pretty hazy jams. [Jun 2010, p.83]

Woozy, off-track beats blend with video game blips and organic strings, harp and sax, while a cameo from Thom Yorke is woven neatly into this lush, psychedelic fabric. [Jun 2010, p.86]

The guest list is impressive. But it'd take a very straight face to refute the frequent echoes of The New Seekers or Fleetwood Mac, while "Silver Jenny Dollar" sounds like something Mike Batt might have knocked up for The Wombles. [Jun 2010, p.97]

Producer Joe Chiccarelli curbs their proggy tendencies in favor of chromed-out, geometrically precise arrangements embedded with bull's eye melodic and instrumental hooks. [Jul 2010, p.115]

The Latin syllables are well suited to Patton's croon and snarl, and he attacks Fred Buscaglione's cavalier "Che Notte!" with relish. [Jul 2010, p.117]

The veteran Frankfort duo's rather sterile approach to arty club bangers such as "divine" and "Regenerate" leaves them creatively stranded, scoring a hair-gel as on the VIVA channel. [Jun 2010, p.83]

With every element wound so tight, the relentless pace grows exhausting over the long haul. [Jul 2010, p.108]

A deceptively sweet concoction. [Aug 2010, p.79]

So Runs The World Away is vivid, artful, expressive and more besides. [Sep 2010, p.100]

Their debut is a good deal more engaging thgan any number of Bloc Party or Daeth Cab For Cutie comparisons might imply, however apt. [Mar 2010, p.88]

Far too many songs here are conducted in a mid-pace. [Jun 2010, p.90]

Sub Pop reckon they've unearthed a gem in the form of 18-year-old Avi Buffalo frontman Avigor Zahner-Isenberg; the superior West Coast jangle of his debut album suggest they might well be right. [May 2010, p.92]

The idea was to expand Gogol Bordell's palate to accommodate the Ukrainian-American's recently adopted homeland of Brazil. The Good news is that it doesn't matter--if Gogol Bordello still sound like an Eastern European answer to The Pogues, it still means they're doing something nobody else is. [Jul 2010, p.108]

Despite its meaty themes Our Inventions feels rather slight. [May 2010, p.94]

Heavy on stately soul pianos and produced by singer-songwriter Richard Swift, its strength-through-adversity feels is held back from flight by Burhenn's entirely earthbound voice. [Jul 2010, p.115]

Frog Eyes' fifth album has been three years in the making and is every bit as much of an epic as its acclaimed predecessor "Tears Of The Valedictorian." [May 2010, p.90]

Cornershop's 2009 incarnation may not have the kinetic energy of the 2002 model, or the accidental pop brilliance of "Asha", but it isn't short on inventiveness.

Banjos, xylophones and 12-string guitars sound oddly unfolky in this context, instead taking an almost symphonic dimension on tracks like the lead single "SDP." [Apr 2010, p.88]

Working with former Lamb partner Andy Barlow for the first time in six years, her marriage of vocal and acoustic guitar is raw yet rewarding. [Apr 2010, p.97]

It is his most beguiling release yet. [May 2010, p.85]

The music starts to grip most powerfully when it's more allusive and introspective.

You couldn't imagine anyone else pulling all this off with such grace and style. [Jun 2010, p.96]

B-Real and Sen Dog's adenoidal cartton raps about beefs and bongs can still raise a smile when matched to a sparse, elastic beat, but the novelty of a Cypress Hill comeback has long since worn off by the 15th track. [May 2010, p.86]

It's this pretence of overbearing world dominance which is realised on Thing. [May 2010, p.108]

This terrific album casts its net wider though: as well as Dinosaur fans, this will appeal to admirers of T. Rex, Thin Lizzy, Reigning Sound ad Alex Chilton, too. [May 2010, p.108]

These songs are full and rich, with longtime foil The Strangers creating honky-tonk, country shuffles and even Tin Pan Alley backdrops that often explode with life. [May 2010, p.98]

That it so compellingly rescues a cache of unforgettable songs and signals the unlikeliest of artistic revivals, must rank it among rock's most trascendent tales. [Jul 2010, p.109]

It features vernal song titles and sleeve imagery, in contrast to the half-whispered, wintery beauty of their last LP, which was echoed by its snowy cover scene. [Jul 2010, p.108]

Fire Away makes an energetic fist of recapturing in the studio their raucous collision of salsa, hip hop, funk and R&B. [Aug 2010, p.91]

This terrific record is the first on her own Everso imprint and seems to finds her more settled. [Oct 2010, p.89]

This is a wilful and lovably eccentric second album from a band who've had a sniff of being pop stars and decided they'd much rather be weird and esoteric, thanks all the same.

's the urgent but effortless certainty that Matsson was born to sing these songs. [May 2010, p.108]

Featuring gently swooning arrangements by Nico Mhly, four duets with Beth Orton, three nimble reworkings of children's singing games and an affectionate R Kelly cover, I See The Sign inhabits an enchanted universe, not a million miles from Sufjan Stevens' "Michigan." [May 2010, p.83]

Yes, Beck was always unpredictable, but this is one weirdly unfocused album. [May 2010, p.83]

Texturally, the mood is one of warm, sensual dreaminess, of hushed vocals and woozy analogue synth. Prins Thomas isn't, though, wanting of strong grooves. [May 2010, p.102]

This is the best Raw Power has sounded since it was first humiliating people's turntables in the 1970s.

With their stuttering beats, AutoTuned vocals and cheerfully foulmouthed lyrics, these genetically modified mongrel tunes are mostly misfires, which only makes them more intriguing. [Sep 2010, p.101]

Unfortunately, Scouting For Girls occasionally meander out of their depth. [May 2010, p.102]

There's sparse evidence of their supposedly influential stay in Mali with desert bluesmen Tinariwen here, and ultimately their sonic porridge ends up a tad unsalted. [Mar 2010, p.98]

It's almost as if the quieter tracks allow her to relax, while the full band numbers--fleshed out rather over-eagerly by a group containing several Mumfords and a Whale--subdue and constrain her. [Apr 2010, p.101]

As long as nobody mentions Aled Jones, this is exhilarating. [May 2010, p.94]

Here Lies Love could do with a lot less reportage and a great deal more drama, melody and wit. If anything, with morem not less, artistsic licence. [Mar 2010, p.99]

For all the effective arrangements, most of the songs sound a bit anonymous. [Jun 2010, p.92]

Wolf's twofold skillfulness and stirring guest performances compensate for the sometimes overcooked arrangements. [Apr 2010, p.109]

This album finds him in complete mastery of his musical range and lyrical fancies. [Apr 2010, p.91]

The understated gospel-style fervor and steely determination of "Nothing But The Whole Wide World" with Neko Case stands out. [Jun 2010, p.84]

Only on "Faces" and the concluding "Poolside" does the stifling fug of rock'n'pop traditionalism lift a little bit. [Jul 2010, p.108]