An elemental tour-de-force, "The Reminder" could be her Eureka record - an album where almost everything turns to gold.

No doubt the album of her career.

Thee More Shallows' pop fans might yearn for more mellifluous melodies - their hip hop heads for more doctored beats - but in this "Book Of Bad Breaks", they're clearly on the same page.

But the failures are the exception, and what's remarkable about Velocifero is how convincing and cohesive it is.

Exquisitely detailed, you can well believe that this is an album many years in the making and one with twice those years of pain inscribed in its emotionally wracked songs.

It won't usher in a bold new era where boys are boys and bands play guitars, but there is more than enough here to chew over and enjoy.

Tender and loving it might not be, but one of the albums of the year? Definitely.

As a debut album, 'Highly Evolved', for all its faults, can be an energising proposition.

Underpinning the entire record is a delightful pop sensibility that holds this rag-bag of ideas together.

While Popular Songs may contain few surprises for long-term admirers, it is nonetheless a contrary beast in that it demands to be heard in a single, complete sitting.

It would be interesting to see Chase & Status explore this extra dimension further, but--for now--this is a thrilling case of cum on feel the noize.

Happily, In Rainbows is pretty, pretty good.

The influence of recent collaborators like Autechre and Spring Heel Jack is prevalent throughout much of the album as tracks like 'Eros' fuse jazzy, organic instrumentation like marimbas and guitar to colder cut-up beats.

It is only when he tries to really rock-out that goldilocks falters a little.

If Avril Lavigne dealt with her 'issues' by adding whiskey to her skinny latté, bummed about on a Californian beach at sunset and listened to The Go-Gos, this is what she'd sound-like.

"Modern Times" offers further evidence that this man remains more than capable of greatness.

My Maudlin Career offers soul and sophistication in abundance.

They're one of those rare propositions in British Pop - A Great Idea On Paper.... Often, it works, leaping off the page and becoming something you'd actually want to slip into your state of the art entertainment hub at the end of a hard day shredding documents.

For the most part "No Need To Be Downhearted" is a gorgeous record - big music full of small touches.

Like all of Boards Of Canada's wonderful records, the whole seems to add up to far more than the sum of its parts.

There is much to enjoy on this consistently rewarding album; brazen, bonkers and really quite brilliant.

An emotive, often sorrowful work that features his most personal lyrics to date.

Proof once more, that you can be experimental, extreme and eccentric but be excellently hip hop all at the same time.

Crucially, CSS skilfully weave references not only to our OK magazine neurosis but the last few decades of music too, with a sophisticated mash of indie, '80s pop, disco and electro.

This is not an album to listen to casually. It insists on taking over your life for an hour, demands a level of concentration rare in rock, amply repays multiple plays.

An album of two halves, 'Green' has its pop, counterbalanced with its noise-outs but above all, it's a very traditional, straightforward tunesome half hour which slots in effortlessly with its predecessors. A welcome return? Oh yes.

Forget all you know about Christina Aguilera. She's discovered sex, rebellion, rock'n'roll and, at one amazing instant, drum'n'bass.

How does such a rich soup of chromosomes and hired help come together? In a tinkly, whispery trinket that deserves a place on the stereo of every right-thinking beatnik.