New Clouds is at once both denser and groovier. [Nov 2009, p.113]

His attempts to capture some of that city's pre-Katrina musical spark are satisfying, in parts - as well as recruiting former Meters bassist George Porter Jr to help out, tracks like "idiots In The Rain" capture the clatter of Bourbons St. However, Ounsworth's nasal vocals might still be an acquired taste for some. [Jan 2010, p. 116]

He's a minimalist/multi-instrumentalist who manages to find warmth in what could otherwise be sparse and unforgiving--note the breathtaking pauses between chords in "arise Arise" or the unremitting lilt of "All Day Monday And Tuesday." [Nov 2009, p.117]

Greg Weeks and band reference artists as diverse as Michael Rother ("Caroline"), Cowboy Junkies, and "No Quarter" - era Zeppelin, but the classicism of their compositions keeps all this firmly in the service of the song. [Dec 2009, p. 92]

So while it can get a bit too diffuse and self consciously complex, when the quartet breaks into something gorgeous (like the joyous tagliatelle of guitars that wriggles and wrinkles through "Uda Hah") you'll suspend your cynicism. [Jan 2010, p. 124]

The air of melancholy on display throughout is as enticing as Beirut's. Impressive. [Nov 2009, p.94]

Embryonic is certainly as exciting as anything produced by the psych rock underground this year. [Nov 2009, p.78]

Removed from the comfort of his own musical constructions, they often sound like a collection of rasps, croaks and burrs optimistically corralled in to what just might be words; Latin has never sounded more like a dead language than when Dylan sings in it on "O Come All Ye-Faithful". [Dec 2009, p. 87]

Even a nice take-off of moody Pharrell-style R&B, "Gangsters Want To Cuddle Me", and a rap by Adam Green can't save Dark Touches from being fairly irritating. [Nov 2009, p. 88]

Here it brillianrly showcases the interplay between Iyer's melodic clattering, Stephan Crump's slithery bass and Marque Gilmore's fizy drum explosuions. [Oct 2009, p.98]

It seems weird--if delightful-that the folk polka of "To A hammer" and the Eels-like electronic of "(Put The Fun Back In The Funeral)" could come from one career, never mind one album: a creative blessing, if a commercial curse. [Dec 2009, p.103]

The scuzzy arrangements ate trickier and less cute, while the lyrics fester with hard experience. [Feb 2010, p.104]

Brace yourselves, naysayers, for a tour de force.

The finished result occupies land between Young Marble Giants' "Colossal Youth" and Tricky's "Maxinquaye": not the equal of either of those landmark albums, maybe, but certainly cut from the same cloth. [Sep 2009, p.89]

Ambitious, orchestral and accompanied by a 45-minute film, it candidly documents singer Charlie Fink’s recovery from a badly broken heart.

A provocative and inventive second album. [Sep 2009, p.96]

Love 2 is a cinematic affair--but not in a good way. [Oct 2009, p.89]

Each of the 12 tracks on The Life Of The World To Come is named after the [Bible] verse that informs it. The settings are gloriously apposite. [Nov 2009, p.96]

This is a soundscape bordered by The Flaming Lips and the Pixies, and mapped with verve. [Mar 2010, p.81]

Deft guitar lines from Charlie Burgess never quite paper over the cracks in numbers that would have been consigned to b-sides in the band's heyday. [Jun 2009, p.101]

Seductively decaddent, but a feeling that The Raveonettes are living on borrowed time persists. [Nov 2009, p.99]

But though folky numbers like "I'm Thinking" are obviously heartfelt, there's sadly little on Goodnight Unknown that matches the glory of Barlow's best work. [Nov 2009, p.81]

Twelve are here, and while Rosanne doesn't reinvent songs in the manner of, say, Cat Power, she does restate them briskly, with husband John Levanthal's production pushing her beautiful bell-like voice to the fore. [Dec 2009, p. 87]

What's remarkable though, is the seamless way in which they carried on from where they left off after their two-decade hiatus: although this sounds modern, it still has enough of their early urgency, once more balancing the anthemic ("SSL83", "One Day We Will Live There") with a thrilling sense of a band about to career off-course at any moment. [Jan 2010, p. 121]

Like Felt Before them, The Clientele have completed a commercially neglected yet conceptually immaculate decade, mapping, across four albums and a couple of compilations, a twilit suburb of English pop, as though a young TS Eliot had fronted The Zombies. [Jan 2010, p. 105]

While they could use a second tune, this has bags of vitality and personality. [Sep 2009, p.84]

Unexpectedly, it's all pretty exciting. negotiate the scree, and the songs demand repeating. [Dec 2009, p.121]

Their seventh album is the soundtrack to a full-length film made by singer Tim Rutili but comfortably works on its own, sounding genuinely unlike anyone else - every song contains a surprise, however minor. [Nov 2009, p. 83]