Memphis is a late-night delight.

[Tales from Terra Firm] ought to be the one that separates the Oxford quartet from the indie-folk bandwagon and kicks them a few steps up the ladder to being Mumfords-sized.

The occasional familiar, Carpenters-esque track aside, it makes for an exhilarating musical progression--even as his lyrical style remains unchanged.

It's on close personal terms with magnificence.

If Mala wasn't conceived as Devendra Banhart's Europhile album, it's doing a damn fine impression of one.

Effortlessly mixing traditional instrumentation with samples, this varied yet cohesive album has an angular funkiness and a soulful pop edge.

He sets his bruised but unbowed soul against a stark musical backing and rediscovers the power of keeping it simple. Beautiful.

Some might call it Kylie for hipsters, but it's quite lovely for that.

The result is an album of solid country virtue.

David Bowie's perpetual predicament is that he can't escape David Bowie's past. In that respect, he's just like the rest of us: we can't escape David Bowie's past either. The Next Day leaves you wondering why you'd ever want to.

It induces a heady sense of perpetual forward motion, whether graceful or full pelt. Stunning.

It's a bright, optimistic, emotive world, Heidi's, and well suited to the neutral "roots" pop sound which frames it.

Though some of the good-girl-gone-bad shtick has been sacrificed on the altar of go-for-it jangly pop, she's still as good as it gets when she finally opens her pipes on "Dallas".

As long as you don't ask too much of it, it's good knockabout rowdy fun.

They have now cracked out the synths, ramped up the drum machines, and found their calling in giddy, lovelorn electro-pop.

There are 36 performances, most of them evincing a spumey "aaaargh, Jim-lad" recreational vibe.

This is heartfelt, sweetly sincere and as good an album as BPB has made for some time.

Squelchy synths, down-and-dirty basslines, and vocodered vocals stay just the right side of Jamiroquai.

PTSA may never stare you in the face, but you'd be a fool to turn your back on it. It's carrying a knife.

It is absolutely beautiful.

Everything is great.

For the most part it works well, provided you can live with Dawn's butter-wouldn't-melt ingenue phrasing and tone.

Whether this Blue Note debut featuring Robert Glasper is better than his two albums with Brownswood is moot, but the best tracks--"Trouble", "Heaven on the Ground", "Do You Feel"--are very good indeed.

Redemption by plucked string. Buddy Miller produces analogically.

In spite of the self-conscious effort to create something "beautiful", the songs slowly reveal themselves to be things of real beauty.

If this isn't Foals' pop classic or their art masterpiece, they're having a huge amount of fun squaring that circle.

MBV leaves all other post-rock experimentalists looking like trivial dilettantes. If jet engines could sing, these would be their hymns.

They're back now, all troubles set aside, and the results are good.