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Emmylou Harris - All I Intended To Be

AFTER a string of excellently edgy albums, 61 year-old Emmylou Harris returns to her roots, compiling a sublime singer-songwriter setlist that plays to her strengths. Read

Sara Bareilles - Little Voice

CALIFORNIAN songbird Bareilles is being hailed as this year’s big breakthrough after Love Song broke iTunes download records and went double platinum. Read

The Music - Strength in Numbers

WHEN a band’s taken a three year break between albums, you expect the jaw-dropping new direction, the big new sound – perhaps they’ve even gone acoustic. Read

Sigur Ros - Meo Suo I Eyrum Vio Spilum Endalaust

SPURRED by the acoustic half of last year’s ambitious Heima set, the Icelandic experimentalists streamline their trademark washes of sound and come up with what sound dangerously like songs. Read

White Denim - Workout Holiday

ONE of the joys of being a reviewer is the moment that a new band completely blows you away, when you’re excited rather than enthused, shaken AND stirred. Read

Seth Lakeman - Poor Man's Heaven

WEST Country singer-songwriter Seth Lakeman has made traditional folk the new rock and roll, dragging the finger in the ear brigade screaming into the stadium spotlight. Read

Where did they get those names?

The secrets of some of the most famous names in rock... Read

Keith LeBlanc - Chess Moves

SUGARHILL session skinsman Keith Leblanc delves back into the Chess blues and soul archives, and drags classic cuts screaming into the 21st century with drum and bass remixes. Read

Aimee Mann - @#%&! Smilers

AFTER the detours of 2005 concept album The Forgotten Arm and the 2006 Christmas set, singersongwriter Mann returns to what she does best - warmly sung songs of emotional maturity. Read

Thea Gilmore - Liejacker

"MIDLAND singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore is a survivor. Read

Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs

"THE Stateside indie heroes ditch polished perfection for an organic rock recording that sounds as if it was made in a bedsit, complete with feedback squalls and buzzing basslines. Read

Don McLean - Tapestry

This was Don Mclean's first album, recorded and released in 1968, when he was virtually unknown. He titled his debut LP Tapestry a full year before Carole King's identically named Grammy award-winning classic album. Read

Various Fabulous Flips Volumes 2 & 3

AS a kid most of my pocket money got spent on buying records. Every week I would buy three or four singles from my local record shop in Hall Green, Birmingham, cycle home and play them over and over again on my Dansette. Read

Alanis Morissette - Flavors Of Entanglement

"ANGST-ridden Alanis returns to the studio for the first time in four years, doubtless to exorcise the demons of another failed relationship after her fiancee walked out. Read

Coldplay - Viva La Vida

"IF there's something wrong in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call? Brian Eno. Read

Gavin Rossdale - Wanderlust

"ROSSDALE'S grunge-gravel vocal helped power Brit band Bush to American success, eclipsing the likes of Oasis and Blur, while remaining a cult attraction back home. Read

The Knack - Get The Knack/But The Little Girls Understand

ON my radio programme I often feature one-hit wonders, and The Knack, from California, had one of the biggest one-hit wonders of all time in 1979 with that splendid rocker My Sharona” Amazing how they wrote and recorded such a classic as that, yet could never come up with anything nearly as good again. Read

Joan As Policewoman - To Survive

DOWN at Birmingham’s Glee Club, promoter Markus Sargent has championed some sensational songbirds in his time, Imogen Heap, Regina Spektor and Carina Round among them. Read

Flight Of The Conchords - Flight Of The Conchords

BRET McKenzie and Jermaine Clement introduce themselves as “New Zealand’s fourth most popular folk parody act” but that’s not half the story. Read

The Pigeon Detectives - Emergency

RELEASED two days shy of a year since acclaimed debut Wait For Me, the Pigeons aren’t waiting for the indie backlash to shoot them down. Read

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