This is the Lips' fifth album and their slickest yet. It hurtles along with impressive momentum, its 13 songs each under three minutes long

An album packed with tuneful songs that would sound great coming out of radio speakers.

Liars might have moved a little more towards the mainstream, but they're still a long, long way from easy listening.

There are the terrible lyrics and more than a few moments where her one-style-fits-all MCing grates, but there's also the politics that no one else would touch, an intelligence, colour and humour, and the added benefit of centrifugally heavy production. Skip a couple, and you're in for a treat.

This is the sort of album which is destined to be talked about in hushed tones by people who can remember exactly which improbably funky Manfred Mann tune it was that Kieran Hebden once put on a compilation. But it deserves a much wider audience than that.

Roots and Echoes is a brighter, considerably more settled record than previous outings, less inclined to meander skittishly into dub, mariachi and sea shanties.

West produces the bulk again on Finding Forever, and it's his skill in embellishing a sample and his unerring eye for a soulful hook that is consistently bringing the best out of his mentor-turned-protege.

'Cult Status'--just one standout from their joyous debut--sounds like Primal Scream when they were trying to be the Rolling Stones. Even better is 'You Made Me Like It,' their hand-clapping, hip-swivelling calling card.

Probably the most exquisitely integrated single listening experience the Chemical Brothers have yet come up with.

Our Love to Admire fleshes out the dark edges of Interpol's sound to create a polished, muscular-sounding record that teems with life and bristling potency.

At its core, Cross is loud, restless, and daring. A creative tour de force, Justice have unleashed an era-defining album for the children of acid house.

It's a collection of 14 songs that will be instantly recognisable to those who loved them back in the Nineties.

A singularly rousing gem.

So here's what's brilliant about this band: the 11 songs here offer no solution, no way out and very little hope, making We'll Live and Die in These Towns as bleak in its own way as the Manic Street Preachers' The Holy Bible. The songs are brilliant, too.

Easy Tiger is his most rounded creation.

It doesn't stray too far from their original template but it is focused and involving.

Lowe pulls it all together with warmth, wit and searing emotional honesty.

Eight years after his last album, Pharoahe's return doesn't disappoint.

It really shouldn't hang together but somehow does, and effortlessly so, without ever seeming gimmicky.

This is a heavyweight album in every sense of the word.

Homme's ever-catchy formula remains, but the mood is uneasy and brooding, with tracks such as 'Sick, Sick, Sick' revealing a venomous new band that's finally learned to separate business and pleasure.

Someone to Drive You Home is undeniably derivative, and over 12 songs the appeal of Jackson's fruity voice can dim. Still, with its cynical heart and high-octane bite, it's impossible not to warm to its visceral, lusty company.

It's a way more focused album than usual.

Every track contains something to surprise and delight.

Though this is their most vocal-oriented album yet... it's actually the instrumental tracks - 'Child Song' and 'As the Stars Fall' - that have the most depth.

Essential.

Beyonce's superstar status is not in danger, but she should hand her A&R man a copy of this album.

Battles combine the power of hard rock with an experimental aesthetic.