This is an exercise in extravagant claustrophobia, not nostagia. [Apr 2009, p.86]

It will, rightly, go a long way to repairing Pete Doherty's reputation as a singer and songwriter of note. But half of it is a bit boring.

His 2007's "Spiderman Of The Rings" was filled with good ideas but prone to novelty. Bromst goes a long way to reversing this trend. [Apr 2009, p.84]

The album sound stultifying, but this is far from the case, thanks to a steady stream of surprises and a depth of detail that reveals itself incrementally.

The group conjure a brilliantly ludicrous trash-pop poetry, hymning girls with gammy eyes on night buses--all much more seedily evocative and enjoyable than erstwhile Yummy Fur comrades, Franz Ferdinand. [May 2009, p.77]

That spirit of garageland spontaneity pervades Fuckbook. [Apr 2009, p.84]

The lungs are in good shape here. [Sep 2009, p.86]

Every song offers something different, which holds your attention. [Apr 2009, p.101]

There is much, meanwhile, to recommend the O’Brien remix, or “deconstruction” as he puts it. What O’Brien has mostly done is strip away the more ornate layers of the Palmer mix and cutting back on the album’s moments of more florid melodrama.

The result is a record not in step with any particular fashion, but, on songs like 'Talking To The Dog,' you get choppy and catchy with rare raw-knuckle skill. [May 2009, p.92]

Born Like This finds the New York MC triumphing with content rather than form. [Jun 2009, p.85]

It's blend of whispered poesy, free-form rock, and orchestration, by Jean Claude Vannier, is much celebrated and sampled. this reissue provides a definitive account of its making. [May 2009, p.86]

The results is something scrappier, but loveable than Deerhunter's billowing drone. Less sonic cathedrals, more tripping at chapel. [Apr 2009, p.91]

Technicolor Health amply delivers on the promis of their 2007 EP, "Burning Birthdays." [Apr 2009, p.86]

The band’s decampment to Berlin to record has resulted in a concise statement of renewed interest, resulting in a debate between life expectancy and boredom, and a brief mutation into Roxy Music.

The blend of Owen Brinley's choirboy vocals and a raft of prog-tinged riffs is a source of promise, magic and drama. [Mar 2009, p.87]

Still mourning the loss of The Bravery? Look no further. [Feb 2009, p.85]

Beware is a body record,, a playful and intimate piece that lyrically and melodically invites you in, where his remote personae have occasionally served to push one away. [Apr 2009, p.80]

Damned meets JAMC with a snifter of So-Cal pyscho-country-surf--on a series of hip, heady, lo-fi tunes, a large number of which seems to have the word "goth" in the title. [Aug 2009, p.95]

It’s an extravagantly orchestrated set, but with Marc Ribot as lead guitarist and the Dirty Three’s Jim White on drums, the playing remains off-kilter, to quite thrilling effect.

Too often, though, we find shaw sloshing around in cyber-soup, drunk on technology and singing existential love songs in a manner akin to Alexander Armstrong scatting with Squarepusher. [Apr 2009, p.84]

If the odd clunker remains ('Hostage Of Love' could be a Meatloaf out-take) Slipway Fires largely sees a return to the introspection of debut album "Up All Night."

Despite some interesting -co-writes with the likes of Walter Becker, it never achieves lift-off. [Apr 2009, p.82]

Apparently Stith shied away from any musical expression for years--in which case Heavy Ghost represents a quite spectacular plunge. [Apr 2009, p.87]

The band push their mathematical lines into some great perverse shapes that occasionally remind of Fugazi, and even Yes. [May 2009, p.85]

The result, inevitably, feels much more like a live band at work. [May 2009, p.95]

The ebb and flow of Arbouretum's music, still rooted in folk but flaring into twin-guitar noise-rock, is often astounding. [Apr 2009, p.90]

Their first album doesn't quite match the hype, but is still an appealing piece of go-ahead indie-[pop, with a certain charismatic bagginess and wit that points to a bright future. [Apr 2009, p.91]

It's diverting enough. [Apr 2009, p.82]

Her lyrics remain to-the-point, just more upbeat, with her wispy, whimsical vocals sitting snugly on top of crunchy guitars. [May 2009, p.85]

Clanging rockers, elegant ballads, and yearning epics are testement to their diversity, while James Walsh has almost managed to lose the bleat in his voice that used to drive Starsailor's critics to distraction. [Apr 2009, p.99]

Laced with grime squelches, riot-inducing raps and dark dub, it tackles gun crime, political deceit and terrorism--but also features enough tunes to sugar the pill. [Mar 2009, p.87]

In the ugliest way possible Invaders Must Die shows that the Prodigy have still got it.

M Ward and Garth Hudson, members of Giant Sand, Los Lobos and Calexico are all present and correct on Middle Cyclone lending their distinctive instrumental hands--but this ultimately Case’s tour de force, and hers alone.

It's U2's least immediate album--but there's something about it that suggests it may be one of their most enduring.

Though Lucky One is his first collection of orginal material in seven years, it's still rooted firmly in Malo's familiar enthusiasms. [Apr 2009, p.91]

It's the range of styles that impress most, from slow cowboy ballads and Western swing to full-throated honky-tonk, Tin Pan Alley and exquisite break-up songs. [May 2009, p.90]

The album's ersatz old school mode inevitably pales when judged against the revolutionary Flash asides. [Mar 2009, p86]

Despite a few rote movements, becomes an early contender for 2009 Top 10 lists. [Mar 2009, p.92]

From present to future at Warp factor. [Mar 2009, p.86]

This follow-up tries too hard to prolong the high. [Apr 2009, p.80]

The surprise of C'est Com...Com...Complique is not that Faust continue, four decades after their inception, but that they do so with such inventiveness and sense of play. [May 2009, p.85]

The clumsy pot-banging campfire folk of his backing band doesn't help make it all any more listenable. Great lyrics, though. [Mar 2009, p.92]

Boden is a true original who has crafted an engaging album that's no easy listen, but worth sticking with. [May 2009, p.79]

For the most part, For Now is characterised by a lack of personality and charm. [Apr 2009, p.80]

This album is uneven, undisciplined and overlong, but much the same could be said or Lloyd's sporadically brilliant career. [Apr 2009, p.95]

He pulls it off in style. [Apr 2009, p.91]

This great LP is best seen as their Desert Island Discs, a statement of things the band can't do without. [May 2009, p.79]

This is vintage front-porch Cale. [May 2009, p.79]

The many highlights on this big name covers album include Lily Allen--sounding like Kate Nash impersonating Lily Allen--locating the wobbly charm in Joe Strummer's 'Straight To Hell,' Elbow's adding a shabby grandeur to U2's 'Running To Stand Still,' and Rufus Wainwright bringing his heavenly voice to Brian Wilson's 'Wonderful.'

The efforts are inconsistent, though, and his affinity with the fun and doom of '50s R'n'R is mostly lost to the demands of commercial bombast. [Jun 2009, p.88]

Here We Go Magic's faintly tropical, fuzzy, circular grooves are beguiling, if a little slight. [Aug 2009, p.92]

For all the perversity, tracks like 'Stumble Out Of Bed' would ignite any dancefloor. [Apr 2009, p.80]

It may be no great leap forward, but on this showing Nelson can still produce graceful electronica with a rare poise and reserve. [Mar 2009, p.95]

The beauty of those opening moments suggests that Condon's future really does lie in soundtracks, where you can imagine him collaborating with and finding inspiration in the baroque visual inventions of an Anderson or a Gondry, and where his restless musical wandererings might yet chance upon the truly undiscovered countries of the imagination.

The album's leitmotif is a lush, dreamy string sections, which bring a gorgeous poignancy not only to the metaphysical songs, but also his radical reworkings of a pair of '50s rockers. [Mar 2009, p.81]

Records as bright and occasionally beautiful as Years Of Refusal make us forgive Morrissey (the artist) even his most juvenile foibles.

A familiar sound predominates: an impressive fanfare for a royal procession that never quite arrives. [Apr 2009, p.78]

This is best thought of as ‘country soul’. Isbell’s words, in style and content, are old-school tears-in-the-beer laments, deftly lightened by exquisite deadpan payoffs.

The dozen tunes here are sumptuous slices of bliss-pop with an art-punk edge. [Mar 2009, p.78]

Cabic’s limited vocal powers are part of the problem. His dusty delivery is allusive when wrapped in instrumental swirls--asked to front up a song, it sounds merely flat.

In Gareth Liddiard, the quartet have a singer-songwriter and guitarist of dark intensity, and his vivid narratives draw on the landscape and character of his homeland in a delicately melancholic way. [May 2009, p.85]

Although less exhausting than their debut, "Terrific Sounds," this remains an attention-demanding record. [Apr 2009, p.101]

To Be Still is a quantum leap from its predecessor, and one which establishes Alela Diane as a significant figure in contemporary Americana.

This one is more bluesy and soulful, a kind of semi-protest record that takes stock of post-Bush USA. [Mar 2009, p.88]

This is the polite, less freaky end of modern American indie folk: earnest, well-intentioned, Obama-fundraising, National Public Radio-supporting... and cumulatively a little dull.

Ferree's insistence of shoving everything right up front in the mix, all the time, becomes wearing, but you can't fault his enthusiasm. [Jan 2010, p. 110]

Mountains' skillful manipulation of texture and space creates a sound that stealthily envelopes you like an Appalachian fog. [mar 2009, p.92]

Belatedly, it turns out to be great: seven prescise, insurrectionist ramalams that somehow fit somewhere between the MC5's high Time and Dead Boys' 'Sonic Reducer.' [Mar 2009, p.82]

If once she was sweetly sardonic, now she sounds utterly bored, and collaborator Greg Kurtsin hardly helps with an anodyne synthpop production that makes excruciating excursions into rawhide country, pallid polka and Bontempi showtunes.

It is an album in the original sense of the word, offering a coherent display of Auerbach’s influences.

American show "Saturday Night Live" has a tradition of creating comedy heroes we don't quite get in the UK. Alongside Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell we can add The Lonely Island--essentially Flight Of The Conchords with more sperm jokes. [May 2009, p.91]

Emmy's startling pure voice is a vehicle for some smart, candid and subversive lyrics. [Mar 2009, p.87]

Here they continue their mission with bashes at Wilco, Pink Floyd, and a straight-but-great take on Yes' 'Long Distance Runaround.' [Dec 2008, p.81]

Not only a radio-friendly unit-shifter, but also a bona fide guilty pleasure. [Mar 2009, p.85]

It’s earthy and it’s eloquent--no doubt Willie will approve.

His own production work has been inconsistent. [Feb 2009, p.78]

All round, an unsettling development. [Jun 2009, p.109]

Kweller keeps his melodies clean and his arrangements simple, frequently teaming pedal steel or dobro with his acoustic guitar. [Mar 2009, p.91]

Sea Sew is a subtle and intricately woven set of songs that seeps further into you with every listening. [Sep 2009, p.84]

There's some good stuff here. [Mar 2009, p.92]

Intriguingly odd in small does, Wannerstrom's cheerless, unschooled voice and rudimentary guitar chordings can get mighty oppressive over the course of 50 minutes. [Feb 2009, p.82]

Their sound is an accident born of naivety, but their unabashed love for '80s indie is unmistakeable. [Feb 2009, p.89]

A Fool For Everyone proves Bones can write a song or two. [Apr 2009, p.80]

Treasury Library Canada feels less whimsical and more polished, although Hamilton still sticks closely to his signature mix of rich acoustic chamber-pop arrangemnts and quietly barbed lyrics. [Mar 2009, p.107]

A late flowering triumph. [Jul 2010, p.117]

The thick broth of Kyle Falconer's Scots vowels remain the signature sound--but don't let it distract you from some genuinely adventurous and witty indie guitar rock. [Mar 2009, p.107]

For all their adroitness, most of the songs on Tonight sound too similar to each other (and to existing Franz Ferdinand songs).

An existentialist’s song cycle, Vacilando's grim, lonely songs reinforce each other with an impeccable internal logic, fashioning its own little world-weary universe, wherein less is more, simple guitar strums signal seismic shifts in mood, shadows bump into one another.

His 16th full-length recording is by some distance, Springsteen's weirdest, and most constantly startling to date. [Mar 2009, p.76]

Heady and infused with whimsy, their second full-length flows effortlessly from dreamy girl-group pop to electro-bossa nova. [Feb 2009, p.76]

Gutter Tactics lets a little light in, though, the glimmering, shoegazey 'We Lost Sight' being the surest glimpse yet of redemption within the gloom. [Mar 2009, p.82]

This is a bold howl for attention from the backwoods of folktronica. [Apr 2009, p.89]

This reunion feels like they've never been away. [Nov 2008, p.102]

Its wilful eccentricity distracts from the Native Tongues style that's their strongest card. [Mar 2009, p.107]

Unusually for him, his 10th album sounds like a collection of Chili Peppers demos. [Feb 2009, p.82]

If the elastic funk of 'You And Everyone Else' comes as a welcome surprise, put it down to the contribution of underrated backing band South. [Feb 2009, p.85]

Lambs Anger zig-zags from the sublime to the silly. [Feb 2009, p.89]