Somehow due to a lack of teenage hoards I doubt this will get the attention Cobian and Nirvana got with Nevermind, but musically it is as confident and as superbly written. There are many stand-outs for different reasons but the choruses are so massive they reach beyond cliche and are actually big fat rock monsters. The mark of a great album is whether it stands up in 10 years time and this album I doubt will ever sound ridiculous or of a time, it will forever sound like the classic Serge and Tom promised us. Look out for 'Empire' (obviously), Shoot The Runner, Stuntman, British Legion and Doberman.

I have no doubt that a few people who own James Blunt records which quite frankly is just poortaste. However for the music lovers out there, who think thattheyare too cool for this. You'd be wrong. I caught my sisterplaying the album and aprt from the radio-friendly 'Last request' this album does suggest songwriting talent behind the buttery vocals. The opener is an absolute stormer and the rest of the album does show he hasnt been listening to some of the dodgy influences Blunty sites. So for those who dread buying into the next dreadful Blunt-esque singer/songwrier, its OK the first single isnt a joke.

Any music lover will know that Americana was trauled and re-trauled to great success by The Band [Bob Dylan's band]. Conjuring up all those images of the deep south might seem a bit old hat now but Two Gallants have more bristle than a stiff brush and carry it off well.

'Las Cruces Jail'is a shameless soundtrack to a spaghetti western, but 'Steady Rollin', 'Long Summer Day' and 'The Prodigal Son', harp back but still manage to remain as relevant as Bright Eyes' political rambling.

Whereas Soledad Brothers manage to stay out there in their own league, this bluesy act somehow crosses over into the arty domain of compatriots such as The Strokes or Yeah Yeah Yeahs, without ever sounding all New Yorker chic. The NME jumping on board might help this image but Two Gallants can stand alone without press and I imagine they would sell records.

Stand out tracks: Las Cruces Jail, Long Summer Day, Age Of Assasins

The Mercury music prize is sometimes laughed at. Sometimes there's politics involved in the winner but whether there was a better album than Bring It On in 1998 is irrelevant because this is an album entirley worthy of any award.

Move away from the plaudits and you find an album with the same type of quality running through it as The La's. A bredth of influence that has produced a quite sublime look at lazy suburban living in a psychedelic context.

There are many unsung albums like this and it's nice to think that people will stumble upon this in record shops or on amazon and proclaim it to be as great as it actually is. So if you read this review and like The La's, Badly Drawn Boy, Supergrass or The Bees, have absolutely no hesitation in purchasing.

This is a great little album. Not spectacular but there's some solid tunes here with that kind of energy suggested in the title.

Young for Eternity is so easy to like, and I suppose it doesn't test you like a real quality punk/rock album. But there's something refreshing about a three piece that has gone into a studio and crashed and banged their way to a decent effort worthy of most record collections.

All those main stream influences are there like Nirvana, and whether they know it or not theres the pop sensibility of The Buzzcocks. There's a few acoustic tracks on here that bring through the personality of frontman Billy Lunn. Mary is a stand out track for me but the singles are little indie anthems that will get kids dancing down the inde disco. There may not be from that urchin culture, but give me this lot over dreary yesterday's news rockers The Paddingtons. Buy it you'll like it.

I hate to give 5 stars to albums because 5 stars should be given to great albums like 'Dark Side Of The Moon'. I'm not going to tell you this is 'Dark Side Of The Moon' but in all honesty I couldn't in my heart of hearts give this 4 stars.

Damon Gough and his alter-ego BDB is part of an essential trinity of British indie/rock/alternative music. Yes, they all hale from Manchester and I'm biased but who would doubt the quality of BDB, Doves and Elbow.

On this showing Mr Gough with the help of Beck's producer Tim Rothrock (Yes the same Beck and Rothrock that concieved the brilliant Odelay)has managed to tame the wild imagination and progressive ideas of first album 'The Hour of The Bewilderbeast' to give us a truly great album. This is an album that in my mind will always go down as an unsung classic, much like Doves' 'Some Cities' or Elbow's 'Cast Of Thousands'. Though many may never own this album I'm willing to bet if they buy any of these three albums in retrospect they may already own albums that are heavily influenced by these three masterpieces.

Many artists have made the LA album, few have managed the heights of 'Hotel California'. BDB never tried to match some of these albums he just wrote an album with massive strings, and wonderfully melodic tunes with great unprentetious lyrics gently placed on top.

Singles 'All Possiblities' and 'You Were Right' are in a set of songs that starts with the former and ends in possibly one of the finest songs I've heard since 'Bittersweet Symphony', namely 'How?'. But aside from the magnitude and ambition of this album in it's mid-section, those who found the first album unfulfilling due to Gough's raw talent, in songs like 'Born Again', '40 Days, 40 Fights' and 'What Is It Now?' you might find BDB is a more pallatable proposition.

I haven't raved as much as I wanted about this album but for it's current price this is like buying a Turner from a Boot Sale

Why release this on the same day as Arctic Monkeys, wonderful social poet showpiece? This has some very good songs on it, most noteable are singles 'Sofa Song, 'Eddie's Gun' and 'You Don't Love Me'.

That however is in no way a reflection on the other songs, anyone could be a single in fact, but familiarity has bread my initial praise for this trio of good indie tracks. This year's Zutons? Definately, if you like The Zutons you will like this. But give both bands credit because they are sufficiently unique to get mention in any brief history of British Rock in the last three years.

No this is not Kasabian or Arctic Monkeys, they are not so cool you swagger when you listen on your iPod but they are defintely songs that you catch yourself humming all day. More than that however The Kooks are one of a number of bands currently at large in the UK industry that seem to show the kind of confidence in their sound that may spark the type of longevity and body of work that lacked in bands of recent past. The Libertines being the primary culprit for the fashion of peaking and then falling, probably stoned, back into the music wilderness.

As a side issue, all members of The Libertines have promising new ventures. Babyshambles most obviously, but check out Yeti and Dirty Pretty Things.

Let's not over egg the talents of the late great artist Elliott Smith. Unfortunately his truly unique sound has been ceased upon by those who enjoy the legend of genius that was so cruelly taken. He isn't Cobain or Buckley he is simply Smith.

If you own this album you won't need me to tell you its one of those albums that not enough people get, if you do get into Smith you'll enjoy his incomplete masterpiece 'From a Basement on the Hill'.

For those that don't own this, many bands have tried Smith's jingle jangle acoustic guitar such as Turin Brakes on the opening track of their debut, but few have sounded as doubtful of the ground they stood on as Smith does on opening/title track 'Roman Candle'.

Moving crisply through the reportoire of Smith, Roman Candle is full of regret and the kind of social snobbery we all experience from time to time "Everyone has gone/ Home to oblivion" he crackles on No Name #3 (used on the Good Will Hunting Soundtrack). Highlights are hard to pick because this is a complete body of work not a collection of sound bites.

If you want Cobain or Curtis to come crashing into your living room with an acoustic guitar don't buy this album. If want a unique acoustic sound, then the man to start with is Elliott Smith and the album to start with Roman Candle.

This is an album of boundless talent. A four piece that for one brief moment achieved something that is treasured by many, and I am proud to be one of that happy band.
An unbelieveably haunting start with 'I Wanna Be Adored' makes way for to reveal the hybrid dance rhthym section that make the Roses relevant now and forever. 'She Bangs the Drums' and 'Waterfall' are such precocious efforts to fulfil their own
philospohy "If you don't think you can make music as good as Lennon then why bother". I'm not entering that debate but it says alot that some people would enter it on the side of the Timperley four piece.
I could go on and on about tracks like 'Bye Bye Badman' and 'Shoot You Down' but its just wasting words when I could tell you that 'I am the Ressurection' is still unrivalled as an end to an album, Street Spirit from The Bends would have to improve ten fold and that is the nearest comparible track. It took 3 days to work out that mid-section, and it took me 3 weeks to take it off repeat on my CD player.
Not strictly Mancs but I'm claiming them as our own.

When I listened to 'Push the Button' this year I knew my favourite music of Rock and Roll was going to have a lean year but I didn't think there would be such a blatant assault on the old fella.
Bare in mind when you look at the 4 stars that only Blue Lines, Mezzanine (from Massive Attack) and Dig your Own Hole (from Chemical Brothers) have achieved 5. These are beats you could drop anywhere and there would be a number of chins on the floor with the baseline.
Otto's Journey is a stand out, but its the overall theme carried in 'Destroy Rock and Roll' and 'Rikki' that just keep your head nodding and your toe tapping. Along with Push the Button this guy is going to take over this summer.

By the way don't try and make your voice go as high as the computerised vocal on 'Under the Pressure'.