Singer/ songwriter/ guitarist Amy Macdonald may still be a teenager but it’s hard to believe her music will ever appeal to her peers. Like Joss Stone, Macdonald has an old voice on her young shoulders. That’s not to say you should dismiss This Is The Life if you’re under 40,...

'Getting it together' in the country has long been the prerogative of musicians. Back in the mists of time Bob Dylan did it, Traffic boogied on the lawn of their cottage and Led Zeppelin went off to Wales to get the whiff of Bron-Yr-Aur up their nostrils. It also proved...

Hands in the air please for the return of Arizona's number one sons. All the tropes are in place... the brushed rattling percusion, the twangero guitar, the open, desert-evoking sound. And yes, the return of the mariachi blare that so suits the writing of Covertino and Burns. After their disappointingly...

Diarmaid is, according to the press release, a three turntable wizard with a flair for Intelligent Dance Music. Or that could just be a play on his name. This 12" has three versions of Just Go on it. Its difficult to work out the speed of the record so I'm playing...

While Madonna, David Bowie and Kylie Minogue embrace emerging or popular sounds, with varying degrees of success and cynicism, others only slightly alter what they do over time. Others like Neil Young, 50 Cent or Elbow. A fourth album from Guy Garvey and chums ushers in an occasionally more cheerful...

When you listen to a record such as this, full of clarity, perfect detail, delight in every instrument and vocal phrase it really begs the question why doesn't every musician want their music to sound like this? Half-speed mastered by Miles Showell, this record really brings Eleanor and her cheerful...

Darlings of this year's SXSW festival and lauded by Mojo as 'America's next great band', this Seattle five-piece describe their music as 'baroque harmonic pop jams'. All the above seems accurate except that it's hard to imagine pop music as perfectly formed as this emerging from a jam session. Lead...

Every so often, Glasgow produces a band, say Primal Scream or Franz Ferdinand, who seem so effortlessly capable of massive success that it makes you wonder why the city isn't the centre of the musical world. To many, Glasvegas are the next heirs to such a crown. Named in...

Four years since his last album – 2003's critically acclaimed Volume 4 – Joe Jackson returns with arguably his most consistent collection yet. Recorded in his adopted hometown of Berlin, Rain represents a career culmination of work – shifting effortlessly between styles, and underpinned by the highest calibre of musicianship....

As if their towering headlining performance at Glastonbury wasn't enough, here comes the Southern-fried quartet's fourth album to prove once and for all that Kings Of Leon are now bona fide world-beaters. In the context of a career arc this level of creativity makes perfect sense. Their sound...