It's a cruel world in which a Nelly sells more records than the Blastmaster KRS but what 'Nellyville' makes abundantly clear is that its creator won't be leaving a fraction of his foe's proud mark on hip-hop once the dust settles on the frantic promotion of this record.

It's hard to deny Papa Roach have a certain knack of crafting big, glossy, annoyingly catchy anthems for the Kerrang TV generation.

Only lunatics would rank 'Heathen' alongside Bowie's '70s masterpieces. But for a 55-year-old who's spent such a surreally long time floundering, desperately searching for a) the zeitgeist and b) a tune, it's actually rather respectable.

'Storytelling' contains some of B&S's finest songs since their 'If You're Feeling Sinister' peak.

This is music designed to fill arenas - possessed of a consistent quality and vision, a head, a heart and soul - that simply leaves the competition trailing in its wake. An utter triumph.

It feels like the work of a man groping his way, fastidiously but uncertainly, towards the next level.

The good news is that The Polyphonic Spree still make sense stripped of all visual gimmicks.

We've heard it all before, we know the punchline, we've bought into the joke, but still we want the delivery again and again.

The follow-up to 'Play' is, essentially, 'Re-Play', a cynical rehash of the melancholic-yet-strangely-uplifting schtick which sold ten million albums and soundtracked every single advert of the last three years.

'Maladroit' is a more satisfying half an hour than the often-impersonal 'Green' album. Quick-fire melody-driven, riff-heavy pop songs that resurrect the gritty, edginess of 'Pinkerton'. The best of both worlds basically.

Gomez continue to make powerfully relevant music.

It's an album that feels like a watershed somehow, a significant step onwards.

Just a little sensible pruning then and 'When I Was Cruel' would be a triumphant return to rocking form for Mr Costello.

Tweedy takes conventional songforms birthed on his acoustic guitar and scrambles them completely, reassembled into fractured, dissonant epics with the help of the reliably brilliant Jim O'Rourke.

While there's no doubting Tjinder's undeniably good taste, the sheer profusion of ideas on offer is probably Cornershop's biggest shortcoming.

A drab and depressingly familiar proposition.

It's by no means a bad album, just not his best by a long way, or the triumphant return it should have been.

Tweet has the kind of voice that doesn't overpower her music but lets it breathe.

Beyond the shiny surface of these songs lurks an unusual wealth of detail decorating the landscape through which the Furries power, scattering verse after chorus after verse at breathtaking speed.

Eclectic, electric and at times rather hectic, 'Souljacker' is without doubt the Eels finest release to date.

Marks a return to warm homespun acoustica.

If you're lucky enough to have the original version of 'In Search Of', you don't just own a sure-to-be-valuable collectors' classic, you also have the better album. [Review of U.S. version]

Overall, 'Don't Be Afraid...' is a tad frustrating. Everything ticks along funkily and proficiently, but nothing really wants to stick out.

'White Lilies Island' sees Imbruglia free herself from the Alanis Morissette-clone image that you sense was very much forced last time around and actually manage to carve out an identity, both in her vocals and as a personality.

But for all its feel-good factor and predominantly strong songwriting, 'Sha Sha' does have its forgettable filler tracks and near-misses and generally needs a stronger, more individual voice to help it stand out from an already heaving crowd of young American singer/songwriters.

Imagine an album programmed by a focus group of John Peel fanatics.

This is a genuinely dreadful album.

Whilst any fan will probably have all these tracks already, 'G Sides' acts as a nifty companion piece to the album and looks ace too.