Snotty wit can be heard on the droll "Down On Loving" or the splenetic "Parasites," probably the best examples of the Ramones-via-Replacements sound that defines the album. [Apr 2010, p.90]

The band's plush indietronica is still in place, but there's greater warmth and imagination, and real consistency. [Mar 2010, p.79]

Only the sub-Marilyn Manson riff-slammer "Mars Needs Women" stand out in an otherwise generic batch of spoofy "Rocky Horror" lyrics and painful superfluous drum solos. [Mar 2010, p.107]

In a way, this album serves as a fitting sonic museum to Serge, one that plunders from his past while maintaining his relentlessly forward-looking, hybridised pop vision. [Feb 2010, p.87]

For their second album proper, the band have beefed up their sound at the expense of their spindly charm. [Mar 2010, p.89]

Teen Dream finds the duo resolving to present their songs in somewhat firmer strokes. Nothing rocks, exactly, but organs coo in sharper focus, drum machines bear with added vigour, and an eerie disquiet occasionally linger. [Feb 2009, p.79]

Ten years ago this hand-stitched tapestry of astral-jazz harp, dusty acoustics, crackling breakbeats, music-box twinkles and twitchy "Intelligent Dance Music" might have seemed bravely genre-bending, but now it's as cosy a pair of favourite slippers. [Feb 2010, p.84]

Here are miasmic, dizzyingly gorgeous songs built on the grandest and most romantic, but steadied by the hand of hook-loving classicists. Bravo! [Mar 2010, p.90]

Realism is conceptually closer to "69 Love Songs" than anything he's done since, opting for a "variety folk" sound somewhere between Kurt Weill and Sufjan Stevens, but its ratio of heart-felt-to-hokey is out of whack. [Feb 2010, p.93]

It's a delicate, individual record, from the same neighbourhood as Paul Weller's recent excursions in rustic soul, but instead of Weller's creosotey vocals, the emotion is carried in a Minnie Riperton trill.

This wildly varied collection begins with their first release in 2002, "No Pasaran" about the Spanish Civil War, and include treats such as "Dream Come True," a self-released 7" given away at gigs, which sounds like Henry Rollins singing the "Grease "soundtrack while vomiting marbles. Yes, it's that good. [Feb 2010, p.84]

Long stretches of listless strumming may test your patience, but the reward is the gorgeous psychedelic folk reverie of 11-minute closer "Do Soto De Son," as hypnotically lovely as anything that they've laid down since. [Feb 2010, p.79]

The wildcard element comes in the shape of thier guitarist, who makes much of this album sound as if Brian May had been airlifted into a Devendra Banhart recording session. Disconcerting, but really rather good. [Feb 2010, p.81]

Pop's lightness doesn't much suit Bulat; she's at her best on the banjo-driven title track and gospel toned closer "If It Rains." [Feb 2010, p.79]

Steve Albini is admirably restrained here, preserving the raw power of Niblett's guitar, allowing it to throb and hum beneath--and sometimes above--her bell-like voice. [Apr 2010, p.95]

Five American Portraits, another collaboration with conceptual art group Art & Language, combines the two [awkward rock music and high conceptualism]: these simple, rough portraits of George W Bush, Wile E Coyote, etc, while each song musically quotes relevant tunes. [Mar 2010, p.93]

Enchanting arrangements, glistening instrumentation, and Griffin's hypnotic vocals carry the day. [Mar 2010, p.86]

Not easy listening, but a reminder that to evolve, we must first emerge from the slime. [Apr 2010, p.91]

Return To Form's one of their better efforts. [Mar 2010, p.90]

As the title suggests, No Hope, No Future is rather short on vim. The wiry, Wire-y dynamics are mostly presnt and correct. [Feb 2010, p.86]

It invokes countless familiar sources--The Byrds, Ennio Morricone, The La's, The Doors, Joe Meek--but reassembles them in such an unexpected way that 500-year-old songs sound utterly fresh. [Feb 2010, p.88]

Guitar band goes synth' isn't going to stop any presses, but this new phase perfectly suits Editors well. [Nov 2009, p. 84]

When you live in Florida, it is summertime all the time, which might be why this Palm Beach quartet have developed such a seasonal vibe on their sun-spotted indie-pop debut. [Aug 2010, p.96]

This is the challenging, take-no-prisoners result, an audacious fusion of the reliable and the experimental, as daniel and Eno continue into the new decade a musical conversation as lively and uncompromising as that of Jack and Meg White. [Feb 2010, p.99]

End Times is not merely Eels' best album yet, but in the highest rank of breakup albums, something with the anguished fury of Ryan Adam's "Heartbreaker," sighing with the stoic resignation of Bruce Springsteen's "Tunnel Of Love." [Feb 2010, p.83]

Real Life... is a triumphant return to the dancefloor. [Feb 2010, p.90]

Coombes and Goffey undoubtedly had fun romping through "Queen Bitch," or tackling "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)" in the style of The Zombie, but you'll never play this album more than once. [Apr 2010, p.91]

This follow-up feels less homemade, but just as delicately adventurous. [Oct 2009, p.108]

The charms of this deceptively nifty record slowly revealed with each spin. [Feb 2010, p.107]

Guitarist Glenn Page appears to be channelling namesake Jimmy in his Yardbirds days, while the spot-on harmonies of "After You're Gone" suggest a live anthem in waiting. [Mar 2010, p.93]

Still present is a populist edge that, while occasionally somewhat saccharine, shakes out some great choruses. [Feb 2010, p.90]

Bold, beautiful and carefully contrary, it's an album by a band in complete control. [Feb 2010, p.77]

They clearly asked Dave Fridmann to produce for his MGMT work rather than his exploratory Mercury Rev backstory. It's well, OK. [Mar 2010, p.90]

Amid the cornball sentiments and bizarre arrangements elsewhere, here against the odds, a touching moment presents itself. [Mar 2010, p.96]

Pallett's pallid voice fails to dramatise the narrative or really engage the listener. As a calling card for future soundtrack commissions, however, it should succeed splendidly. [Feb 2010, p.84]

This is a vivid song cycle that's part ecstasy, part-sadness--but unfailingly lovely. [Jan 2010, p.119]

Rain is a fetching guitar-pop wonder, a melodic feastm blending vintage Marshall Crenshaw-like hooks with elegant, acoustic scenes-in-miniature. [Mar 2010, p.89]

It's a gruff set of semi-apocalypic country-blues songs with twangy guitar and all manners of noises. [Apr 2010, p.96]

The 23-year-old Valley girl's sonically lurid and brash, (supposedly) autobiographical debut may boast production heavyweights like Benny Blancoi, but her witless, cranked-to-11 stridency recalls Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne rather than Pink or Britney. [May 2010, p.94]

All round, it's a remarkable electronic musicanship. [Apr 2010, p.124]

The effortlessly adroit songwriting on this, his second album shows why [in-the-know Kiwis have long talked up the talents of James Milne]. [Jan 2010, p.118]

They're back to tacky autopilot, forcing Sean C and LV to save face with two rousing contributions. [Apr 2010, p.84]

There's nothing here to rival "Drop It Like It's Hot", much less "gin N Juice", but the results are mostly harmless, even if that was never quite the point. [Jan 2010, p. 126]

What's absolutely consistent is Young's almost alchemical ability to mesmerise with the sparest of tools - his reedy quaver and sturdy but unflashy accompaniment providing the only embellishments to his elliptical lyrics and aching melodies. [Jan 2010, p. 120]

Waiting For You echoes something of The Bug's brooding, echo-drenched pressure, but where London Zoo felt dense, the likes of "Meltdown" have a beautifully spectral, washed-out quality, Robinson's sweet, soulful vocals weaving through the night in search of salvation. [Jan 2010, p. 118]

What Day Is It Tonight?--culled from 15 years of recording since 1993--captures their tight ferocity in full force. [Feb 2010, p.104]

Accept the general aura of legwarmers and it's fun. [Nov 2009, p.90]

The Black Keys must take credit for negotiating the minefield of the rap/rock crossover without any serious casualties, but maybe an R&B/rock crossover would have reaped even greater rewards. [Jan 2010, p. 113]

Glitter And Doom Live is an admirable document of yet another stage in his continually engrossing career.

It's more than a mix, pulling out lost takes and reassembling constituent parts--a snatch of Afrka Bambaataa here, a flurry of Liquid Liquid percussion there--with phantasmagorical results. [Feb 2010, p.82]

This release overcompensates handsomely, delivering 48 sharp, gorgeous-sounding missives that document ensemble brilliance and Petty’s chiming, hook-happy American-everykid songwriting.

Stone's impeccable vocal ensures that her past glories thrive on this new frontier. [Mar 2010, p.96]

A gift for deadpan couplets alone can't quite elevate him to [Rufas Wainwright or Pet Shop Boys'] league, [but] this album offer signs that, if he want to, Robbie might escape the neurosis of celebrity and mature into a genuinely witty songwriter. [Dec 2009, p.121]

Fragrant ballads "When The Night" and "Marie Cheri" add a softer dimension to a bold collection on which Annie rarely puts a foot wrong. [Nov 2009, p. 81]

The emotional imprint of The Fall moves beyond the pining, wistful tones that are her trademark in favour of Sex And The City scenarios bursting with heartbreak, regret and emotional devastation.

Created under vows of artistic chastity (one room, no overdubs), yet played with the rambling freedom of an afternoon jam, Recordings...feels like a necessary reaction to Portishead, but seems unlikely as yet to usurp his day job. [Dec 2009, p. 85]

In their careers, this band might prove to be a sideshow. But right now, it's one with the possibility of being as gripping as the main event. [Jan 2010, p. 104]

The lackadaisical nostalgia for childhood beach holidays is certainly evocative--as indeed, is the way Real Estate recall New Jersey Antecedents The Feelies and Yo La Tengo, plus any number of old Flying Nun bands. [Feb 2010, p.96]

It is pure nostalgia, and some of these songs are familiar to the point of tedium, but even a Beatles sceptic would find it hard to suppress a shudder of recognition on hearing these tunes sung by the man who wrote them.

Anyone who ever felt that David Rawlings hid his light under Gillian Welch's bushel-never getting the full credit he merited as her partner and accomplice--will greet his first solo album with a lusty cheer. [Dec 2009, p. 101]

The four-and-a-half minutes of tuning that takes up the first track of this six-disc boxset signals that Live In New York a scrupulously compiled audio verite document - and there's plenty more tuning to come. [Dec 2009, p. 88]

The vocals are muddied, but there are diamond-bright tunes here. [Oct 2009, p.95]

"Runaway" and "Head Into Tomorrow" sound like the songs that Joy Division might have written if they'd hung out with Ewan MacColl. Good, but slightly disorienting. [Nov 2009, p. 81]

Buffed to a hyper-compressed, anodyne sheen by John McLaughlin, The Fountain is so craven in its bid for airplay it even includes an insipid number called "Drivetime". [Nov 2009, p.84]

Dave Huismans brings an aesthetic informed by the metallic echo of Berlin and machine melodies of Detroit to the music's syncopated UK rave logic. [Jan 2010, p. 103]

This two-disc compilation charting the journey suggests it was simply a matter of waiting for Travis to falter, tweaking the Coldplay template and amping up the earnest Celtic bluster. [Dec 2009, p. 113]

If you find it impressive how AC/DC have spun three chords into a 30-year career, then you'll enjoy what they can do with a boxset: Backtracks comes with three CDs, two DVDs, all packaged inside a recession-friendly amplifier. [Jan 2010, p. 103]

For their third album, Githead - that's Wire's Colin Newman, Robin 'Scanner' Rimbaud, and Malka Spigel and Max Franken of Israeli post-punkers Minimal Compact - have partly abandoned the sly hooks of 2007's well-named Art Pop In favour of a leaner and more ambient approach. [Jan 2010, p. 112]

Radian, the Vienna based trio of martin Brandlmayr (drums), Stefan Nemeth (guitars, synthesizers)and John Norman (bass), are a cerebral, digital post-rock outfit whose wibbliness too often leads them into a state of rhythmic paralysis. [Jan 2010, p. 123]

This affinity with Muse is impossible to escape on pounding epics like "That Golden Rule" and "Mountains," but the slight personal "God & Satan" and intriguingly angular "Born On A Horse" offer respite from the bombast, while Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme brings a welcome touch of class to "Bubbles." [Feb 2010, p.79]

All good fun, but inevitably, without Taylor's Longing vocals, it feels a bit like playing a piano with the black keys removed. [Jan 2010, p. 112]

On this mostly splendid debut, meanwhile, Hawk actually fuses two of his previous recording identities bridging the shiny electronic of his Weird Tapes alter ego with the hazy lo-fi psychedelia of its "feminine" mirror image, Memory Cassette. [Jan 2010, p. 116]

Ultimately, Phrazes For The Young testifies that the qualities that made Julian Casablancas so noteworthy in 2001 remain in place, just a little more difficult to predict.

Weezer's likeabe, insubstantial powerpop has often been infused with somewhat tetchy intimations of latent intellectual heft. On Raditude, this manifests in guest appearances by Amrita Sen and Nishat Khan on the dreadful "Love Is The Answer." Elsewhere, though, Weeaee seem to have ceased to care. [Feb 2010, p.107]

Molina's downhome style and tender vocals coalesce with Johnson's frugger voice on minor marvels like "Almost Let You In" and "Twenty Cycles To The Ground", while the tidal hum and strum of "Now, Divide" is moodily unusual. [Dec 2009, p. 103]

While a large proportion of these Swords are decidedly blunt blades, a few could have easily found a place on a greatest hits.

This is a fierce live performance by a band who didn’t always manage to hold things together onstage. It catches Nirvana at maximum intensity, aware of, but not disabled by, the contradictions that tormented Cobain and would eventually tear him asunder.

One small quibble, though: while it’s great to have documentation of the band’s early live sound (and in many ways the versions of the songs from Bleach are superior thanks to the sprightly energy), you don’t really get a sense of the sheer ferocity and electricity Nirvana generated in a tiny, cramped college bar.

Reissued by Matador mere months after its boutique debut, Love Comes Close is shaping up to be the indie-noise synth-pop crossover hit of the year. [Nov 2009, p. 83]

As ever with Canadian German duo King Khan & BBQ Show, this offers little in the way of subtlety and a lot in the way of entertainment. [Dec 2009, p. 100]

30 years on from "Chuck E.", it's a stunning testament to the vitality of her vagabond muse.

Intricately layering a wide array of sounds, from piano to field recordings, over seven dreamlike pieces, the duo's third album is at times pacific (in every sense), at others deeply unsettling, especially when they run tapes backwards over the end of the 11-minute "Daydreaming So Early". [Dec 2009, p. 108]

Audacious cybernetic pirouettes such as "Poison Lips" and "Flashmob" bear the hallmarks of a musician enjoying a purple patch, who is able to caress from his machines a spectrum of emotion that leaves the listener purring with pleasure. [Oct 2009, p.119]

To get the measure of Jagger's contribution you have to turn to the five new songs on disc two, which are also the meat of the DVD offering.

The MC's focus on Escape 2 Mars is mainly ecological, the music packing ample punch to underline his message. [Feb 2010, p.86]

Night Music, the debut solo LP from Zombie-Zombie's Etienne Jaumet offers proof that there's more to analogue synth than kitsch retro-futurist appeal. [Jan 2010, p. 124]

"Once I Was Pretty" and "The Disappearance Of My Youth" only confirm they know their territory and stick to it. [Feb 2010, p.93]

Brian Gibson and Brian Chippendale somehow manage to make a bass guitar and half a drum kit sound like a particularly loud avalanche, and then sneak in some tunes along the way. [Dec 2009, p. 103]

What Will We Be stands as a fittingly ambiguous, partly frustrating and altogether fascinating response to that question. Call it artful artlessness, or vice versa.

Sometimes it's grating - "The Ocean" could be a Belinda Carlisle album track - but the supremely catchy likes of first single "Hell" deserves daytime radio ubiquity. [Jan 2010, p. 131]

In 39 tracks over two CDs, the punk-fuelled folk-rock group that had ruled the ’80s along with U2 magically reappears.

Pelican don't look like metal kids - however, their ruminative riffology and ability to raise apocalyptic visions mark them out as practitioners of a new, reflective metallurgy alongside the likes of Sun0)))'s Stephen O' Malley. [Jan 2010, p. 123]

Hubble bubble! From weird sources and high ideals comes a spooky, sensual piece of pop sorcery. And it's bewitching. [Dec 2009, p. 91]

What thesy have done is make the odd generational shift, acknowledging Boston, Steppenwolf, Alice In Chains and The White Stripes in their search for the ultimate cosmic-blues groove, which on 'In The Morning,' they find. [Nov 2009, p.113]

When they do get it right, as when highlighting the acerbic lyrics of "That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" or cleverly flexing the groove of "Coming Around Again," you can see why it semed a good idea. [Apr 2010, p.98]

There's barely a duff track here, from the talking gothic blues of "The Pill" and the slinky Monks-esque strut of "Isolation". Top marks, though, go the pulpit croon of "(Sometimes You Got To Be) Gentle". [Dec 2009, p. 97]

It's more accessible than that lute album, but -barring the sole Sting composition, the lovely "The Hounds Of Winter" - it will baffle all but the hardiest Police fan. [Jan 2010, p. 126]