Not only does it contain Green Day’s finest songs (and choruses) to date... but it also scratches at the surface of political dissatisfaction with nails sharp enough to leave a nasty scar.

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

Even the vague pointlessness that hangs over this product (some interesting rarities – aside from the not-very-different 'alternate takes' of a few tracks included here – wouldn't have gone amiss) can't detract from the incredible music contained in the first two CDs.

A more disparate and yet strangely coherent collection of moods and styles you will not hear this year outside a supremely eclectic compilation.

The Stones in 2005 sound fresh and re-invigorated.

A frequently astonishing album that combines bruising rock and limp-wristed flourish in almost equal measure.

You may need to spend a little more time getting to know the Fanclub these days, but without any clutter you get closer, deeper, right to the very heart of it all - emotionally and musically.

A nudge in the wrong direction and this would be too saccharine for comfort.

While its thoughtfulness prevents it from getting carried away with itself--he's not exactly doing the can-can here--there is a definite sense of optimism and personal brightness radiating from all four corners of this record. It will be a difficult one to top.

That it is a beautifully realised set of textures and sounds certainly helps, as does the fact that its keenly abstract, exploratory bent makes any attempted comparisons with his debut album practically meaningless.

'Love & Life' suggests "the queen of hip-hop soul" is truly now at the top of her game.

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

What makes these songs really special is their ability to maintain a pop coherency, whilst being genuinely quirky and experimental.

Admittedly, this is bedroom indie, but it's bedroom indie with strong production and songs that are always self-deprecating enough to not be self-pitying.

This is a strange, disturbing, unsettling, compelling album.

By agreeing instead to compromise he's actually found both the quality and integrity he so desires and an album of songs which by anyone's definition sounds like a return to form.

Despite its essentially downbeat lyrical thrust, 'Us' has joy written all over it and repeat-play etched into its grooves.

The songs might be helmed by waves of guitar fuzz (their self-styled 'loose wool' sound) and dissonance, but the gentle orchestration provided by long-time collaborator Padma Newsome and the defiantly tough, robotic drumming of Bryan Devendorf give these songs a warm, phosphorescent glow.

This is not the work of a band prepared to make a song and dance to keep everyone interested, but one happy to build something good from not a lot and hope you like it.

This yet again reveals PJ Harvey to be one of the UK's greatest contemporary songwriters.

This is 'All Killer No Filler' with bells on and 'Does This Look Infected?' will rightly have the Blink 'boys' quaking in their trainers.

She's softened the edges just enough for you to find a way in and it pretty much liberates the whole record. The transformation overall is nothing short of terrific.

Gallows are the sound of this country's rising fury. And people in power need to listen, because if it spills over, there'll be trouble.

As much U2, New Order and Jan Hammer as they are The Field, Harmonia and Black Dice, ultimately F*ck Buttons are in a league of their own--and with Tarot Sport, they just bettered themselves.

It's big, it's shiny, it's unashamedly happy and we wouldn't want it any other way.

The best approach here is to set aside genre delineations (who needs 'em?) and simply surrender.

Overall, the effect is post-punk Cure with swathes of Ride in heady moments and, as overblown and unlistenable as these amassed elements might sound in your head, it's actually fantastic.

"Guero" proves that the old, post-modern magic still works.

Minor gripes aside, however, Jose Gonzalez has crafted a fine album of rare beauty that seamlessly blends righteous indignation with delicate musical panache; a tough balancing act, to be sure, but one that negates the need of a safety net.

It is an important leap forward for one of the few American metal bands left who care about the form's emotional evolution.

Obviously nobody would pay attention to her smart lyrics if the music didn't compete, but, largely, it does.

Panda Bear has created one of the most unusual and beautifully strange statements of the avant-garde.

With this ramshackle spread of spiked beats and filthy-fingered funk he's produced easily his best work.... An intoxicating, headstorming brew of desire and despair 'Bow Down To The Exit Sign' is the first great album of the millennium.

Heartfelt, honest and compelling, "Cassadaga" is garnished with melodies so lush that Bright Eyes' ascent to the next level of recognition is absolutely assured.

Few debuts are as intriguingly addictive, physically compelling or effortlessly hip as this.

Every genre needs its defining record, its high watermark, and this 66-minute tantrum is nu-metal's gift to history. A classic, terrifyingly.

Another riotously entertaining record.

This debut sets the newcomers head and shoulders above the neo-Britpop pack.

Quite simply, "The Drift" is unlike any other record on Earth.

An entirely satisfying sophomore effort.

A perfectly contemporary hip-hop release rescued from the ashes of independent hip-hop cliche.

If not quite the cohesive, brilliant whole it should be, Wild Young Hearts is an impressive sum of beautifully executed parts.

Tapping in to our fearful collective unconscious, Liars have conjured a darkly mesmeric, thrillingly full-blooded, paranoid drama of ritual and occultism built from twitchy electronica, shrieking vintage synths, punk noise and unsettlingly twisted hip hop.

It may not be his best album but it ranks as one of his most important.

This Is It... is an incredible leap forward as a result. She was already good. Now she's awesome.

Maccabees have not just merely avoided a sophomore goring with Wall Of Arms' bar-raising pop. They have got the crowd firmly back on their side in doing so.

Given that Sigur Ros seem to be going to increasing lengths with each record to seem less abstract and more human, a collection that unbinds itself from those constraints is, it turns out, a justifiable and often awe-inspiring exercise.

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

Enchanting, celestially lovely and as effective at lifting you out of yourself for forty-five minutes as an early evening cruise in a space shuttle.

With Truelove's Gutter, Hawley stands at the other side of his beloved city's bridge, leading the charge for the welcome return of pop that demands your full attention to get the best out of it.

It’s pretty much all fantastic.

Strong contender for party album of the year, anyone looking for their next fix of dancefloor heaven will say yes, yes, yes if this rehab is anything to go by.

Sounds Of The Universe also happens to throb with sonic originality and dark, complex humanity, and is a fine addition to one of the richest, most intriguing back catalogues in pop.

Be assured, this is a genuinely spectacular album: the most stunning aspect being that there's clearly better to come.

And if the production is not as sumptuous as a Furry’s album – although it’s by no means lo-fi – thematically it’s business as usual.

This is much more than a retrenchment, and it certainly isn't a retreat.

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

'I Might Be Wrong' is Radiohead trashing the notion that 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac' were difficult and sterile studio bound affairs.

Sophie's chart positions may have dropped, but there's no dip in the quality pop on offer here.

We Started Nothing sounds exuberant and chiefly concerned with pleasing itself. Which--as is always the way--only makes it more pleasing to others.

At its best, 'We Love Life' features some of the finest British rock music of recent years.

As ever though, Liars emerge with their own sonic identity intact - you can 'hear' LA in the chaos, disquiet and vast, starving spaces of these songs, but they remain a band that don't surrender easily to their surroundings.

As tear-soaked and gorgeous as we ever might have hoped.

Overall, 'Road Rock Vol 1' is a tad sloppy and definitely no match for 'Live Rust', still Young's finest live album. That said, it's crudely compelling and with the exception of disappointing newie 'Fool For Your Love', further affirmation that this grizzled vet remains at the pinnacle of his considerable powers.

A gorgeous and ambitious melding of classic soul structures and values to hyper-modern production technique.

The aching sensitivity of many of these lonely acoustic compositions is balanced against an inventive backdrop of instrumentation.

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.

"Contraband" is "Appetite For Destruction" for grown-ups.

All We Could Do Was Sing does exactly what it say on the tin - an astonishing album, rich in storytelling and fables; woven with 11 brilliant songs by a band apparently driven by nothing more than the sheer love of performing.

Perfect Symmetry is often an exhilarating and unexpected pop record from a band you'd have thought incapable of either, and there's something genuinely life-affirming about that.

An intelligent step forward from a unique and prolific troubadour.

It’s Manuva’s startling honesty which first impresses.

It's likely to be a defining point in their career even if it's not their definitive release.

Goes on a bit, predictably (20 tracks!), but only Jay-Z can match its highlights for party soundtrack of the year.

And though the influences/peers - Stooges, Velvet Underground, Krautrock, Spiritualized, Primal Scream - remain the same, this exceptional collection of visionary psychedelia is more ethereal and somewhat bereft of the cloaked fug of death threats, serial killers or "eggs bearing insects hatching in my mind" that made 'Contino' such a brain-damaged future Goth classic.

Whilst “Some Cities” has less radio-friendly singles than “The Last Broadcast”, it is perhaps a more cohesive piece of work.

Despite its branding as work-out music, 45:33 feels more like an amazing club DJ set than something to quicken one's pace on the treadmill. [Review of UK release]

It's rather a genuinely exuberant, joyously infectious and sheerly celebratory affair, its tribal drums, parping keyboards and rippling, brassy guitars offset by sweet vocal harmonies and reverb-laden solos, with Koenig's witty and literate lyrics marking out their crucial difference.

Musically and vocally, there's few surprises but at least lyrically he's moved on from clever-ish wordplay and inane love songs, to tell tales of being generally screwed-up at the hands of the multi-million dollar pop machine.

Reliably odd, then, but unexpectedly moving, too: the best Tom Waits album, all told, since 1992’s “Bone Machine”.

Overall, it’s a suppler record than its older brother, largely avoiding the skittish tempos of "Turn On..." tracks like "Roland" in favour of elegant curves and harmonies... though the road-honed likes of "Slow Hands" and "Not Even Jail" still hit bruisingly hard.

She's melded the two sides of her history much more seamlessly; four-to-the-floor pop belters mix with touches of electronic and lyrical darkness to make one of the pop albums of the year.

Show[s] that the early chapters of the Staton story may not match the later commercial success, but trump the four-to-the-floor stuff with grit-in-the-grooves southern soul.

The Lemonheads 2006 may not be breaking any new creative ground, but they couldn't sound in ruder health.

It's not a perfect record, but "The Cure" does achieve something quite remarkable and unexpected. It leaves you looking forward to their next one.

By narrowing their range and increasing their focus, and by wearing their hearts on their sleeves and not smirks on their faces, they may just have released their first, confidently Hot Chip record. And that turns out to be something rather wonderful.

Towards the end, Herren's love of the glitch tentatively tries to reassert itself, but poetry and seductiveness manage to pacify it for the duration.

The result is the best end-to-end Wu-Tang Clan album since their debut, 15 years ago.

For every misfire, the band hit their target twice.

Breathlessly exciting and enormously sexy, "The Witching Hour" is just the soundtrack for your next S&M session.

Justice essentially have two modes: funky techno built with filthy overdriven synth sounds and gleefully daft disco/'80s pastiche so shiny as to be almost reflective. Both are held together with a studio rigour that makes the record bounce out of the speakers so forcefully that the moments of synthesis, where the sound coheres into its trademark elastic groove, become utterly addictive.

Don't be fooled into thinking it's the big American names that are carrying this record, because her lyrical wit, seductive soul vocals and Brit charm offensive prove she is strong enough to punch above her weight.

Contrary to the way he's been perceived, Shadow has never been anything other than passionate about hip hop, and "The Outsider" is his love letter to the genre, revelling in all its myriad excesses.

It would be thrilling to hear a Silversun Pickups record which finally shakes off all their influences and creates something entirely their own. Swoon isn't quite that record, but it takes them closer to that goal, and is a seductive, intricate thing of beauty in itself.

Nine Types Of Light is an album that manages to blend experimentation with a welcoming accessibility that proves pop music can still be bold this far down the line.

Despite the overbearing subject matter of war, morality and protest "Trampin'" doesn't feel like a particularly heavy album.

"America's Sweetheart" is a thrilling record. Held together by that extraordinary voice, which sounds even more shredded than it did in the days of "Dick Nail" and "Pretty On The Inside", she can still deliver.