Corinne Bailey Rae: Corinne Bailey Rae

Although Corinne received a lot of press at the beginning of the year proclaiming her to be the new sound of 2006, the album is actually a timeless soul and jazz classic that could really have been released in any of the last 50 or next 50 years without sounding out of place. Beautiful sad, lonely, and passionate. Most reviewers’ favourite comparison is with Billie Holiday and I probably wouldn’t argue too much.

Thom Yorke: The Eraser

Thom Yorke seems to be completely incapable of coming up with an instantly likeable sing-along, catchy pop tune. Instead he forces us to work hard to tune into his psyche with countless listening before you start to get an idea of what he’s up to. The album lacks Radiohead’s intricate guitar work normally provided by Jonny Greenwood and seems instead to rely on a heady discord of blips, pips and electronic farts. I’ve spoken to a few people who really love it, but I’m still working on it.

Gnarls Barkley: St. Elsewhere

I got this album on the strength of the single “Crazy” which has been a well played theme this year. Maybe I need to get more familiar with rest of the album before judging but it seems to me that without “Crazy” propping up the album it wouldn’t have made it into this list.

Razorlight: Razorlight

It’s been 2 years since Razorlight’s million selling debut album during which time they have come up with their self titled sequel. The opening track “In The Morning” has a familiar sound that I can’t quite put my finger on, is it INXS or is it the “Heart Of Glass” style guitar reverb. One the main focal points of the album is “America”, a sort of wishy washy Springsteen tribute in reverse. There’s some fairly good pop songs on hear but they lack the certain spark of the first album.

Kylie: Fever

I have to confess that Kylie's last single, "Can't get you out of head" is just a smidgen catchy. I keep finding myself humming the damn thing, and short of whacking myself on the head with a large mallet, I can't think of anyway other way of dislodging it. Anyway, the sassy little Australian midget seems to be doing quite nicely in the record sales department at the moment, so I thought I would pander to those Kylie fans out there and do my best to write a fair an unbiased review of "Fever". The opening track "more more more" has a great solid dance beat and the only really annoying part of the song is the sound effect that sounds exactly like the ring tone of my mobile. Infact the first time I heard it, I started frantically fumbling around in my coat pocket for my phone. My daughter is particularly keen on "Can't get you out of my head" and she loves dancing around the lounge, bouncing off the walls singing along to it, however, as she's only 5, she is much closer to the target audience than me. The album continues all the way through in the same jolly vein. "Dancefloor" is yet another example of this uncomplicated but entrancing beat and its title is a very unsubtle suggestion of where it is best suited. I don't want to be too unkind to this album because knocking it would be like having a go at cup-a-soup, i.e. its fine in its right place, however I'm afraid the right place is not on my stereo.