Where Kraftwerk, MC5, and Miles Davis used to tempt them to excess, here the production unites their diverse influences, every track attacking the speakers like an angry lunatic thrashing against the walls of a poorly soundproofed room.

This is the best hip-hop album I will never love.

If, 18 minutes into this album, you are not ready to proclaim these two London-via-Leeds hedonists the most exciting thing in dance music, you need your feet examined.

Unlike most of her peers, she knows that fun is really the fifth element of hip-hop, and she keeps finding thrilling new ways to make this music danceable and fun.

We Are Science is striking, very bold, and very sexy.

[Oberst] infuses his figurative laments with a melancholy earnestness, communicating a more gut-wrenching breed of angst than the Limp Bizkits and Eminems of the world could ever hope to.

The measured use of electronics recalls nothing so much as OK Computer, and in some ways Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots sounds like that album might have if Thom Yorke believed in God.

Universal Truths and Cycles has got something for everyone who's ever liked Guided By Voices even a little.

Buy this album and hold it dear, because you won't hear a better one any time soon.

The reason to get excited about this release, the reason to wake the kids and call the neighbors, is the second disc, Mono.

Ridiculously catchy melodies, driving synths, sharp, snapping drums, and super lo-fi bass and guitars churn out straight up dirty rock'n'roll, some twisted pop, and the occasional ethereal mid-tempo composition.

All in all, a really great debut for this quintet.

Rings Around the World flows extraordinarily well, making it all the more powerful.

Every song contains four or five things that will just whip your head around in disbelief.

It's the sound of musicians realizing how good they are at what they do. And then doing it.

Howdy! is made up of everything you'd expect from Teenage Fanclub: warm and inviting acoustic pop, fluid melodies, rich harmonies, and head-nodding rhythms.

Whilst Daft Punk's elaborate practical joke of an album, Discovery, reeked of childish trying-too-hard elitism, Felix's party is both exclusive and enjoyable, sharing a sense of humour and musical ethos with Scouse synthesiser aficionados Ladytron.

I've smiled and whistled right through every listen. But I haven't felt overwhelmed even once.

Elbow understand how to make an album flow without sacrificing the unexpected turns any good record should have.

A coming-out party for one of the most important artists of our time.

It's a kaleidoscopic ode to the joy of music, and it's the most exciting debut album since Mos Def's Black on Both Sides.

This is really a leap forward.

They've locked themselves in a room for a year, learned to play 11 songs in one style, and counted on the singer to come up with a couple of ace-card tunes. Result.

What makes this album special is that it's a big wet kiss to music.

The aged authenticity of these songs comes so easily that you'd be forgiven for thinking that they discovered the formula.

Groove Armada have a knack for producing fantastic underground dance tracks, in a variety of tempos, and packing them full of hooks.

Wonderland is a modern pop classic that combines all the best things about this band, spikes the mix with ace tunes, and keeps the concoction coming.

A completely out-of-control garage-folk-psych-pop record that is always in control and is neither garagey nor folky nor psychedelic nor pop.