In recasting these wilfully off-kilter tunes and investing them with his trademark warm and inviting melancholia, Mark Kozelek need not be modest: Tiny Cities is a big success.

Filled with zesty pop confections, sing along choruses, and plenty of attitude.

The concept is difficult to follow and the music occasionally unpleasant. But the band’s willingness to stretch in new directions is refreshing.

The album has a sonic cohesiveness that makes for a consistently pleasant listening experience.

The one thing that holds the whole record together stylistically, though, is that Shipping News play Very Serious Rock Music.

People tend to like Joan of Arc when they play songs, but get all worked up and annoyed when the band stretches out with the experimental stuff. This record is a bunch of the stuff that would have pissed off that latter group of people had the music been bunched in with So Much Staying Alive...

As long as they continue to compose such memorable material, there is more than enough room for Mono in the post-rock pantheon.

The punk-informed material on Blitzkrieg Pop sounds like the missing link between Ministry's earlier, sensitive electro material and its later and more well-known incarnation as the nihilistic buzz-sawing and bile-spewing industrial unit.

There is some irony in following up a record called We Fight Til Death with one titled (and as vital as) Giving Up The Ghost. However, Windsor For The Derby doesn't sound as if it has succumbed to anything save for its singular atmospheric pop tendencies.

Songs is heavy on romantic longing, but the music is so coy and smart that it rarely feels mushy.

Marrying a knack for hummable melodies to a much-needed dose of sincerity, The Hiss hammers their tunes home with a sense of urgency on par with their classic rock and Brit-pop idols.

If the fifties rocked this hard, we'd be dead now.

Surprisingly, the time frame covered by the collection does not detract from the listening experience, rewarding Cursive-completists with moments of power punk and the angular guitar work the band has come to be known for.

This record is a high-quality package of music that will keep most DM fans happy, but is not exactly earth-shaking in any way.

A buzzing, raw jewel of a record that hints at seemingly limitless possibilities for Beckett's songwriting.