In-between the chaos and peace, 'Drukqs' induces a whole host of emotions using acid squiggles, plucked piano strings and 80s electro-breaks.

'Golden State' is easily the band's most accomplished record and should stand as one of the best British rock albums of 2001.

'The Argument' is the sound of a band stretching out and thereby consolidating their position as a unique entity.

Well, it's not 'Low Life' or 'Technique' but there's at least seven welcome additions to the New Order canon and in the thrilling 'Crystal' and poignant 'Run Wild', a brace of bona fide classics.

Not since Oasis in their gloriously unstoppable and unapologetic heyday have we been given the opportunity to embrace such straight-ahead, ebullient, desire-fuelled guitar music.

A far more sonically ambitious statement than its predecessors, perfectly fusing organic sounds with production techniques that are usually the preserve of underground dance producers or R&B mavericks.

Gone are the likes of 'Queer' or 'Subhuman', there's no ummph or intelligence. In straining to achieve a smarter, more mature album the band have created the most tawdry epitaph possible.

Musically it is by far and away his most complete offering but some cracks do show.

You could get lost for days in the depths of these arrangements, and still find something moving and transcendental at every gilded turn. It's a towering achievement...

There is a feeling of carefully constructed, mellow folk simplicity running through all these songs.

A harsh, almost hollow collection of songs, that are as darkly unsettling and violently disaffected as anything our rather self-absorbed Chicago-based outcast has committed to tape thus far.

With this eclectic, eccentric approach comes a lack of cohesion and quality control.

Nine fantastically-detailed, delicately-constructed and warm-sounding pieces that are far too slippery to fall into neat genre parameters.

She is at the top of her game, and hits it out of the park both concept-wise and musically.

At 31 minutes, the record is a short and bitter mind-melter.

Stuffed full of collaborations, the duo has created a multi layered, analogue driven, polished yet powerful long player.

'Love And Theft' is a much tricksier, elusive and - important, this - entertaining beast, one that mingles reflections on ageing with a host of jokes, both good and bad, and some wickedly limber music.

Make no mistake, this album sounds incredible: cascading orchestrations, pulsating and instantly memorable tunes, an atmosphere that's both accessible and palpably psychedelic.

Not quite as effortlessly enormous as 1999's blistering 'Synkronised', 'A Funk Odyssey' nevertheless won't disappoint anyone taken with the band's direction on that record.

He still tinkles the ivories with dazzling skill and his scything comments on breaking-up and the emotionally inept are all too easy to identify with, yet the most enamouring thing is that he manages to do this all without being zany or patronising.

'Wonderland' is magnificent. An album full of cracking tunes, potential singles and a new found lust for life from one of the best bands of the last ten years.

It's not radically new - although the Timbaland and the Trackmasters contributions are genuinely exciting - but it's exactly what a lot of people want to hear from a hip-hop album right now.

'God Hates Us All' signals a return to the marked aggression of their earlier selves.... The only thing that inhibits this album is its one-dimensional pace, as one too many tracks features grinding verse leading into charging chorus, repeat to fade.

Orbital have once again managed to make an album that's precisely what you'd expect from them, while being neither dull nor predictable.

Too many tracks sound like tired Wu cast offs saved from the studio floor to prove that he's capable of doing this in his sleep.

Essentially, 'It's A Wonderful Life', is an equally brilliant and perhaps more cohesive album, mixing an arcane guitar, string and keyboard based atmospheric tilt, with more fast-action, barrelling moments.

Most of the tracks here could be Pavement, so those looking for a diversion will be disappointed. Those looking for another Pavement record for their collection will be less so, but ultimately this sounds like a hurried release and more of an extension of the past than an indication of the future.

Laetitia Sadier's vocal melodies soar, so that even when you get two hints of classical minimalist Steve Reich in the first two tracks, there are still tunes to hum.