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

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

Few records will be made this year with such love and devotion, and you'll be able to tell it too. It's delicious.

She has already made pop interesting just as it was declining into irrelevance; now it's time for her to make it great again.

Certainly, it's by far the best album of his career to date--proof that going it alone was a decision that most certainly paid off.

Aficionados may balk at an actor trespassing on sacred ground, but even they'd have to admit, that for a white, middle-class Englishman, Hugh Laurie plays a surprisingly convincing bluesman.

Overall, Smother is brilliant, and a record by a band with a big brain, a generous heart, hungry ears and a permanent erection.

No doubt Helplessness Blues will win Pecknold further fame and success, whether he likes it or not.

To anyone who's felt like they've been along to share even a little bit of that journey, it's an album-of-the-year contender that's bound to do nothing but delight.

It's certainly not Joy Division, but there's a bittersweet, melancholy and intelligent edge here that's worth investigating.

Though there are still moments of eyeball rolling twee, the darker undertones are enough to more than keep us interested.

No, it isn't as good as that, but getting anywhere close is proof that Damon Albarn remains a musical alchemist, turning what could easily have been crude and leaden into something that often gleams like gold.

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.

Recent devotees may be left wondering why there's nothing for them to sing-along to.

Neither a triumph nor a calamity, EUPHORIC HEARTBREAK delivers just enough to make you believe Glasvegas may still have that perfect album in them some day.

More vintage sound than classic album, All You Need Is Now won't revive any careers, theirs or Ronson's.

Femme Fatale is also unevenly paced, overlong (16 tracks in its deluxe version) and burdened with filler like the generic 'I Wanna Go', which tries to find a shortcut to the dancefloor but gets lost en route. But the weaker material is outweighed by the fantastic, from the slamming, techno-tinged 'Trouble For Me' to the glorious bubblegum house of 'Up N' Down'.

Despite the overarching feel of having a bit of the early MGMT's about them (which, to be fair, is hardly a bad thing), there's enough variety within the New Zealanders' debut to prove they're more than just a one-trick, party-starting pony.

While Lasers isn't the equal of its superb predecessors, there's still much here to admire; even though the fact that there isn't quite as much to love is no real surprise.

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.

Far from Noah & The Whale lagging behind their popular folk peers, with Last Night On Earth the band are finally punching above their weight to create a sound that's altogether new and wholly theirs.

Broken hearts litter pop music of course, but the way this 24-year-old almost welcomes desolation into her life is nothing if not fascinating.

Reflecting their influences without becoming burdened under them, their self-titled debut is an impressively varied beast.

Amongst the glam rockers and the tender janglers, it seems that Beady Eye have simply written a Supergrass album. Let's see if Noel has an answer for that.

The album's predominant mood is not glumness, it is togetherness, and it invokes images of storytelling, late nights, campfires, whiskey and beards. The stuff of men with things on their minds.

The truth is, however much or little you enjoy them, Radiohead are one of the few mainstream bands who try not to retrace their steps.

This is an album that's far from complacent and what's most in evidence throughout is they're seeking to challenge themselves as much as their audience.

Computers & Blues doesn't match up to The Streets' visionary early promise, and there are a few songs which sound sketchy and half-hearted. But when it works, it's a reminder of what a tender, articulate and original voice Skinner has been in British pop, and how sorely he will be missed.