Five years in gestation, these revved-up anthems are fuctional enough, but none have the catchy ska-punk bounce of the band's late 1990s commercial peak. [Sep 2008, p.99]

Unavailability has also played its part in pumping up the myth – so much so that you wonder if, heard in 2008, these songs stand to disappoint. In fact, key moments of Pacific Ocean Blue square dramatically up to your loftiest expectations.

Their third LP reveal a sweary rock toughness that suits them (surprisingly) well. [Nov 2008, p.120]

Even when they slow up, the quality doesn't let up. [Sep 2008, p.100]

This is where the kid really comes into his own.

Nicholas clearly isn't finished with us yet, judging by Silent Cry's pint-in-the-air riffing, chiming playlist-pop and brooding social commentary. [Aug 2008, p.93]

'Fire' and 'Drugs' certainly boasts the head-in-the-speakers mania of old, but it's the more meditative 'Vision' that suggests a future beyond Rizla conventions. [July 2008, p.104]

Veering between faux-soul and Hoxton hipness, Adele simply hasn't found her own voice yet.

Apply megawatt tunes and career-best performances and you’ve got an album to top even 2002’s criminally neglected "Life On Other Planets."

It's a concept album about vengeance and contempt, and reminds that they're one of the only UK bands of their era still worth following. [June 2008, p.86]

Wainwright is newly hitched herself (to producer Brad Albetta) and I Know... is for the most part a decidedly mature singer-songwriter album.

If 2005's "Z" flirted with cautiously with funk synths and a more direct pop sound, Evil Urges makes it a full-blown, messy tryst.

Pollard fleshes out his vaguely familiar melodies with inventive, unpredictably expansive arrangements. [July 2008, p.108]

It's the no-frills productions like 'Not As We' which stand out, although these are marred by the lyrics--a mess of self-help-manual platitudes and environmentally minded bollocks. [July 2008, p.104]

Harris is as proud, painful, and plaintive as ever here, dripping with life and dealing in dire certainties. But she never gets heavy about it, and in places sounds lighter than air.

In which the prince of hip hop get a blessing from the king. [Sep 2008, p.110]

Not for everyone, but quite a party. [July 2008, p.94]

Together [Dylan and Rick Rubin] have made an austere acoustic album that could've been titled "American Recordings VI." [June 2008, p.87]

Voice and piano are to the fore, but Wasser's orchestrations pulse and ebb like living things. [July 2008, p.102]

A partnership with Cologne's minimal techno doyens Kompakt hasn't quite posited the outfit back at the cutting edge, but The Dream steps with a new vitality. [Mar 2008, p.96]

The follow-up--featuring a mere 13 songs--is solid and functional, but lacks that inspired edge. [Aug 2008, p.106]

She reinvents the standards songbook in her image, using her deep, husky, Malboro-burnished voice to breathe life intro hackneyed old showtunes. [July 2008, p.115]

It is, like LA itself, heavy on style. [Sep 2008, p.88]

Mostly sounds like a weary retread of 2005's superb Loneliness. [Jul 2006, p.95]

Sadly, though, nothing on The Ting Tings debut album quite lives up to that promise [of 'That's Not My Name']. [June 2008, p.94]

Much of it is overly polite, with Ilhan taming the hurt in PJ Harvey's 'Oh My Lover,' but he also teases mourful hidden nuances from Breeders, Smashing Pumkins and Tortoise tracks. [June 2008, p.83]

There are fewer surprises here than on previous offerings, but enough ideas to cement their position as this generation's most creative guitar band. [June 2008, p.90]

It's perhaps inevitable Ladytron sound as if they're going through the motion on this solid fourth album. [July 2008, p.102]

Starting with irresistible lead single 'Pork and Beans', a chunk of Weezer’s sixth album delivers the band’s trademark combo of crushing power chords, pop-culture references and a healthy dose of ironic self-ridicule.

Her decision to forgo electric guitars on @#%&*! Smilers results in the aural equivalent of watercolour washes, lovely and tasteful but lacking presence. [July 2008, p.102]

The New York threesome have just about enough tunes to pull it off. [Jun 2009, p.93]

Like the equally rapturous "Sun Giant" EP which preceded it, Fleet Foxes' debut album is a fastidious, sometimes overwhelmingly pretty evocation of the American wilderness; a dreamy companion piece to last month's superb Bon Iver album.

From clanging rock songs to eerie ambient pieces to sensual acoustic reveries, it's all highly detailed and perfectly weighted. [Aug 2008, p.98]

Growls and blast-beats come decorated with guitar work that explores scale after scale of diabolical pleasures. [Aug 2008, p.101]

This is too timid for modern R&B, too bland to rival Blige, and won't halt the sharp decline since 2003's "Rock Wit U." [Sep 2008, p.110]

It's appealing stuff--Lil Wayne is a fan--while the pair's wit suggests they'll continue to stay ahead of the critical curve. [Sep 2008, p.85]

While they are at their most comfortable when laying down the ZZ Top meets Black Flag hardcore boogie of 'Skull Socks and Rope Shoes,' it's difficult not to be charmed by their wit, style and salute to Southern rock. [Sep 2008, p.89]

Mark Ronson will be looking elsewhere for his next single. [July 2008, p.115]

There's brio and craft behind the cosmetic nostalgia. [July 2008, p.100]

The atmosphere is organic and engaging, the only problem being that amid the fug of good vibes, no one remembered to write a killer song. [July 2008, p.94]

Songs In A&E swells with tender, cautious optimism.

A facinating treatment, and really rather groovy. [Sep 2008, p.89]

Same Old Man won't upend the form-book, but it's an agreeably unpretentious addition to the Indiana-born veteran's canon. [June 2008, p.93]

Welcome is necessarily all over the place--and that place is pretty damn funky. [July 2008, p.108]

CD2 is a quirky new mixtape which proves he's still up to his old tricks. [Dec 2008, p.116]

It's occasionally redolent of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, but the likes of 'Hornett' retain a heady, defiantly exploratory quality. [Dec 2008, p.92]

The Pigeon Detectives' second in a year smacks of too much haste and too little thought. [June 2008, p.98]

Their primitive dance beats and carefree, nostalgic melodies recall Saint Etienne, and their endearingly earnest efforts to summer upon tracks such as 'No Excuses' and 'June Evenings' are a joy to behold. [Jan 2009, p.85]

Johansson’s bland, flat contralto leaves you admiring the Cocteau Twins-style sonic backdrops and wondering how another singer--Liz Fraser, perhaps?--might improve them.

The Lucky Ones frames this new worldview in a punchier, tauter, leaner sound--less fuzz but more crunch. [July 2008, p.104]

This is a less than ideal introduction to the oeuvre of the usually intriguing 'Dolls. [July 2008, p.93]

Hailing from the wrong coast, the Charleston, South Carolina-based Explorers Club have done the near-impossible, turning an obsession with everything Beach Boys into an utterly beguiling pop album. [June 2008, p.88

Lie Down In The Light is his most coherent LP since the bleak masterpiece "I See A Darkness." [Aug 2008, p.85]

Maybe it's not Albini's fault that El Rey lacks the melodic thrust of earlier projects, but this is wiry, unappealing fare. [July 2008, p.114]

Inherit strips back rock, baring its constituent parts without flourish or fanfare. [Aug 2008, p.93]

Rockferry is almost a very good album, but, for all the classic hallmarks, there's little insight into the soul of Duffy herself. [Apr 2008, p.84]

In a world of fast thrills, WAS remain admirably opaque. [Apr 2008, p.109]

This is the sound of a band surprising itself. [July 2008, p.92]

The players' tight grip on the material reveals a first-rate band in peak form. [June 2008, p.98]

Listening to this is like being followed home by a puppy--initially cute and guilelessly affecting, but rapidly irritating. [July 2008, p.104]

The mood is sweet and slightly whacked-out as Cabic brings campfire cheeriness to Norman Greenbaum;s 'Hook & Ladder' and wistful resilence to Ian (Fairport) Matthews' 'Road to Ronderlin.' [June 2008, p.109]

It's dark, powerful and groovy, but some more variety wouldn't go amiss. [July 2008, p.90]

While there is no doubting the power of Marc Ribot’s off-kilter twanging or the noirish density of the music, the songs don’t really work on their own.

The slick sequel starts strongly.... Alas, the album then falls into a compentent but monotonous groove of priapic Prince-old-porno-funk, its minor flashes of OutKast-style irreverence ultimately overshadowed by routine reto-pastiche. [June 2008, p.99]

It's all charmingly rendered and, as in the wigout 'Pigeonhold,' teeming with joyous abandon a la the Arcade Fire. [Sep 2008, p.98]

The Airing Of Grievances is one of the smartest, most joyous records in an age, channelling the spirit of other too-clever-by-half suburban punks from The Replacements to Nirvana and adding a dash of felllow New Jerseyite Bruce Springsteen's eye for detail. [MAr 2009, p.87]

Tracks like 'Couples' prove their trademark sound is still as strong (and smart) as ever. [May 2008, p.102]

With Arcade Fire arranger Owen Pallett draping the songs in sympathetic strings and producer James Ford working overtime on drums, the result is a widescreen epic, full of high fevers and crystal-clear vocal performances.

This is predictably slick and inoffensive stuff. [Dec 2007, p.90]

Taken on its own terms, though, Nouns is a righteous success: delightfully dazed, good-times punk rock for a new generation of Californian dreamers.

Supreme Balloon adds up to the duo's most consistently enjoyable albums yet. [June 2008, p.98]

It's not a ballet or a string quartet, but Costello sounding more "Attractions"-like than he has in over 20 years. [Oct 2008, p.83]

This four-track mini-album is something of a departure from [previous works, this is] a relatively straightforward, stripped down techno work with a few mischievous touches. [June 2008, p.88]

Some of it is as good as anything Diamond has done.

Predictably, it's all over the map, but The Golden Hour fizzes with invention. [July 2008, p.106]

Everything's The Rush plays it safer, eschewing the Cocteaus-esque material and dance-pop for a more route-one, stadium approach, hoofing it up to the big chorus. [July 2008, p.93]

Despite the starry cameos and production turns, Shine lacks a little lustre. [May 2008, p.94]

Third is the most stunning, stark and superb Portishead album yet. [May 2008, p.84]

The world-view is challenging and heart-felt, the playing deft, the conviction clear. [June 2008, p.88]

He's at his best here on the playful Beck-like 'Hurricane' and the sweetly mournful 'Rope of Sand,' but Jamiroquai-averse listeners would do well to avoid 'Figure Me Out.' [May 2008, p.102]

And though it sometimes plays safe, Hard Candy could be her most unpretentious and consistently enjoyable pop record since Like A Virgin.

White is undoubtedly talented, but neither she nor her record company seem to know what to do with her. [July 2008, p.100]

A cover of 'Flower Sun Rain' by '70s Japanese supergroup Pyg sounds like the Super Furries, while a 16-mkinute doom jam with SunO)))'s Stephen O'Malley is as titanic as you'd hope. [May 2008, p.91]

The Evangelist isn’t a Go-Betweens album, but it’s more cohesive than any of Forster’s other solo albums, and more moving.

Metal has teken giant evolutionary strides these past few years but, like mammoths frozen in ice, Def Leppard remain perfectly preserved in their own oblivion to them. [July 2008, p.91]

Not as muddy as one might have hoped, then, but this was definitely a revisit worth making. [July 2008, p.96]

Much of [Buckshot's] edge is lost but fans of hip hop's yellowing indie template will find much to enjoy nonetheless. [Sep 2008, p.90]

As reassuring as Nine Lives will be to longtime Winwood fans, it’s bound to leave them wanting more--like a full album of Winwood-Clapton interplay.

Her passion may be sincere, but the songs are a mixed bag. [July 2008, p.108]

This is knowing, glitzy, trash. [July 2008, p.96]

'The Tipping Point' is typical of the album as a whole, a rush of hoe-down guitars and echo-laden drums topped off with a half-yelp of a vocal that recalls a slightly more unhinged Jack White. [July 2008, p109]

A superb new Fall album.

The album works as whole--beginning with an eruptive blast of noise and ending with the gentle farewell that is 'Friend Of Ours.'

His best work transcends politics. Mr Love & Justice contains both he best and worst of Bragg.

No shocks here, but a laudably short and sharp effort. [June 2008, p.94]

It's safe to say this is the most endlessly playable comedy album of the new millennium. [May 2008, p.95]

On first listen, this follow-up is less impressive, but subtle melodies soon sugar the melancholy of 'Glory to the Owlrd' and 'Happiness Won Me over.' [June 2008, p.100]

If only all music was this fun. [Nov 2008, p.102]