Smith's trademark combination of breathy - almost whispered - vocals, deceptively resilient acoustic melodies, and sombrely introspective lyrics, is shown off to sufficiently good advantage here to make New Moon a worthy companion piece to 1995's Elliott Smith and 1997's Either/Or.

Despite its complexity, every twist and turn of The Drift is absolutely compelling.

Veckatimest's only down side is a touch of preciousness, a need for refinement that, unchecked, might nudge Grizzly Bear towards the polite rather than imaginative. It's a small quibble. For now, this is almost perfect.

Their seventh album remembers to add tunes, and is thus less baffling than before.

Not just a dignified salute to an absent friend, but a cracking album in its own right.

It's brainy and brawny: Springsteen and E Street Band comparisions valid.

Ys is an exceptional piece of art in the broadest sense - give it the chance to grow on you.

This might just be their best record in a decade.

Like a futuristic remake of "The Wicker Man," it is all splintered beats and frosty light-night soul, and at best, as on 'Pity Dance,' quite remarkable.

The Letting Go's marvellously grandiose taster single, 'Cursed Sleep', suggested that this would be the album to finally reward our patience. And so it is, though not always in the way that might have been expected.

Inevitably, Vieux Farka Toure is not in the same league as his father. But he has still managed to make a very impressive and enjoyable debut album.

Wry, understated and occasionally heroically sorry for itself, his fourth--and best--album mixes folk, pop, country and rock to superb effect.

The heart of Two Dancers lies in these seemingly jarring juxtapositions. The individual ingredients may be a decidedly mixed bag, but the final product is both coherent and very satisfying.

His piano versions of standards such as Winin' Boy Blues show that the funk was always in the Big Easy's blood.

His orchestral Kanye-meets-Nas muse lacks originality.

Love vindicates the Beatles' status as master musicians and conceptualists.

Still challenging preconceptions (with son Sean and Cornelius joining the band), and tender with it, too. Easily the best LP to be released by a 76-year-old this month.

While Britain and the US are succumbing to a very retro take on the US's R&B heritage, the original queen of neo-soul has taken a giant leap forward.

You know, deep down, that the These New Puritans set is the one that you'll be listening to in a decade, enjoying the fact that you can never quite decipher its codes, and probably being amazed at how many more commercially successful records it inspired.

This is mostly a brutal-sounding, and often brutally funny, record full of odd surprises.

Terius "The Dream" Nash is the song-writer behind Rihanna's Umbrella and other more intriguing than average R&B hits. His second album continues the theme, with assistance from Kanye West.

For all American Gangster's conceptual flair, the purest joy comes from 'Success', a tune which could have slotted into any Jay-Z album.

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.

Profound and intense, they had reached a level of interaction most bands can only dream of. Svensson's loss goes deep.

A truly original, innovative, heavy-as-hell, interesting heavy metal record that you can listen to more than twice without wanting to smash it to a million pieces with an axe.

Overpowered's bubbling, sensual, and soulful glitterball gems effortlessly tap into the perennial glory of feeling lost and lonely at the disco at the end of the world.

It's most beguiling when the eastern influences are to the fore.

Virtually every song sounds like a leave-taking, though the overall mood is reflective and restrained, in places almost easy-going.