Combine Modeselektor’s grimy, pirate radio sounding music with Apparat’s elegant minimalism and you get a slightly schizophrenic line-up called Moderat. Easily one of the best albums of 2009, Moderat is a nice fusion of seemingly opposing aural aesthetics. And you really have to give it more than one listen to appreciate the dark layers and graceful subtlety in the background.

The release of Screamadelica in 1991 brought decadence and hedonism crashing into the pop charts. With Andrew Weatherall (of Two Lone Swordsmen fame) at the controls, Primal Scream transformed from a bluesy rock band into sonic pioneers of beautiful noise that you could rock and dance to.

While “Come Together” and “Loaded” probably received the most air play, I’d rate “Higher Than The Sun” and the 13th Floor Elevators’ cover, “Slip Inside This House” as the best tracks on this album. I remember reading a review back in the day that said that this album was ‘of its time, and yet timeless’ — there’s probably no better way to describe this ’90s classic.

For more than four weeks, I have been listening non-stop to the new Kasabian album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. This, my friends, is my album of the year so far. Thick, fuzzy beats and dirty synths make this album a very addictive listen, despite the occasional aggro ‘ladrock’ lyric. This is like Primal Scream’s XTRMNTR with all the energy and production values but without the political leanings and manic intensity.

One major disappointment has to be the album cover photography and the inlay art. On a conceptual level, the photography works but dressing up the band and shooting them almost feels like an easy way out. The art direction on the inlay is nothing to write (or type) home about either. Not bad, but graphically not great enough for an outstanding album.

Coming off Underworld’s 1999 Beaucoup Fish album, King of Snake is such a strong track that no remix could ever make it bad. The single spawned some sparkling remixes (and a quirky video), the pick of which for me is the Barking Mix.

I actually bought the boxed set a couple of years ago, which contains the King of Snake, Push Upstairs and Jumbo singles (Jedis Sugar Hit mix is pure genius). It’s a great collection, though not complete, as there are some weird omissions like Ashley Beedle’s Save Our Discos Re-Edit. All said, it all still sounds refreshingly wicked ten years on and miles better than some of Underworld’s recent output.

After Karen O and Co’s awesome Show Your Bones, you would do well not to be too overwhelmed with the new album, It’s Blitz. Throbbing, pulsing disco synths sugar coat the music to the point where you will get instant tooth decay (as if it were). Save for the unexpected transition from great guitar rock to synthesizer dependent sonority, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs completely bring the house down with great melodies and Karen O’s voice. One of the highlights has to be “Heads Will Roll“, an absolutely infectious song that’s destined for the dancefloor.

The SOS collective of Desyn Masiello, DJ Demi and Omid 16B took on the 13th installment of the Balance compilation series and ended up with a quite hefty 3 CD set.

And what a piece of work it is. Featuring beautiful mixes of tracks from the likes of Aphex Twin, Speedy J, Aeroplane, Cocteau Twins and a whole bunch more of surprising and refreshing selections, all three discs contain a wide selection of music and finely crafted mixes.

I am usually very apprehensive about remixes of old classics but SOS’s rework of The Cure’s Lullaby is just beautiful. This compilation, my friends, is the noughties’ answer to the pretty awesome 90s Northern Exposure series.

For those of you who don’t know them, Phoenix are a French rock band who sing (mostly) in English and are masters of the retro-rock sound. United was their debut album and the track ‘If I Ever Feel Better‘ was the only reason that made me buy this record a couple of years ago. I am not a big fan of bands with pansy/effete vocalists but for this bittersweet beauty of a song, I am glad I can make exceptions.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have been quite a rabid U2 fan ever since I bought Achtung Baby in 1992. The alarming enthusiasm I had for U2 started ebbing away with All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Here I am nine years later, struggling to locate my fan pulse with No Line On The Horizon.

U2 are still excellent musicians and the production values for this album are not bad. But with the songwriting, Bono seems a spent force. Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois are credited with writing some of the material and Bono, once the poet, is now singing about OS X (“Force quit! Move to trash” is an actual lyric) and reflecting on ATM machines.

There were days when people discussed about other bands trying to be like U2. With this album (including the album photography), U2 seem to be trying to be like themselves from their glorious Achtung days. They are some good tracks (Magnificent lives up to its title) and some great moments on No Line On the Horizon but the sophisticated songwriting is just nowhere to be seen.

As my once favourite lyricist penned many years ago — “Look, I gotta go, yeah I’m running outta change / There’s a lot of things if I could I’d rearrange”.

If you thought Take Me Out from Franz Ferdinand’s self-titled debut album was awesome, the first single off their new album, Ulysses, might just blow you away. It’s a great return to form for the Scottish rockers after their disappointing sophomore album. This album is just brilliant on headphones — a lot of small sonic details and the electronica-infused grit will start tickling your ears. Their lyrics might make you cringe now and then, but these boys definitely know how to make a good tune (f)or two.

Do not mistake this for some run-of-the-mill Ibiza ‘chillout’ album. Nu Balearica, mixed by one half of Lemon Jelly, is an absolute gem. Warm melodies, dreamy synths, down tempo disco (if such a thing can even exist) and the beautiful packaging & artwork makes this a highly recommended compilation album. You know that Repeat Album function on your music player? It was designed for albums like this one.

A couple of days ago, I did something which I hadn’t done since I was a 17 year old teenager — I went out and bought a new Guns N’ Roses album. Chinese Democracy went through 14 studios, burnt millions of dollars in production and was made over a total of 13 years.

Axl Rose’s voice is as piercing as ever and he sounds in stunning form throughout the album. The album sounds pretty polished and the production quality is just great.

But the album is a complete let-down. The album art is stunningly bland, despite the fact that Axl Rose had more than a decade to figure out how the cover could look like. The music sounds badly, badly dated: hair metal is dead, grunge has come and gone, nu metal/rap rock pushed some boundaries but Guns N’ Roses were probably in some kind of deep frozen stasis mode to even notice.

And for a hard rock album, the tempo is just horrid. There are just no fast-paced tracks to be found; just ballads and other pieces of cheesy, passable music that have minimal melody and are completely hook-free. After listening to the album almost 10 times, I still can’t remember enough to hum a damn tune from this album that was made by the band which brought us classics like Paradise City.

No, wait… the ‘band’ is now just Axl Rose and a bunch of contract musicians. This band should really have been called Hired Guns N’ Axl Rose. And they should have put this album out in 1996, not 2008.

Math rock band Battles‘ Mirrored album is not going to be the most accesible piece of music you will ever hear. While Tonto is a nice track and has a sweet video accompanying it, the Four Tet remix of Tonto that’s on this Tonto+ single is simply magnificent. It is one of those rare instances when the remixer successfully locates the lifeblood of a track and re-builds everything around that singular source of vitality. This remix alone is worth the sticker price of this single. Awesome work, Mr Kieran Hebden.

Iambic 5 Poetry is the standout track from this 1999 mini masterpiece from Tom Jenkinson. This record is also from his jazzy, saccharine sweet phase, complete with soft pianos and tinkling ting-tings. The whacky and the weird rhythms and the pointless, insular ramblings are still there, they’re just eveloped by a nicer, newer combination of digital and organic music.

This is only the second Coldplay record I have in my possession. Someone gifted me the sappy, moody but not-really-that-bad Parachutes album many years ago, and I bought Viva La Vida, Or Death and All His Friends because the cover invoked a bizarre feeling of optimism in me. Even more bizarrely, I also bought it, despite not really liking Coldplay, because I wanted to see if there was any new musical reason to like Chris Martin and Co.

Sadly, I have to say that they still sound like they want to be U2. The guitars sound like a homage to The Edge, and the epic atmospherics of the album sound very Joshua Tree-like. They have Brian Eno as a producer which probably doesn’t help. I’m sure there are definitely U2 fans out there who dig Coldplay but I obviously am not one of them.

My theory is that Coldplay figured that since they were incapable of rivaling the cutting edge Radiohead stuff, they might as well try and fill be the biggest stadium rock band mould created by U2.

As a consolation, thanks to Coldplay’s massive fan base, at least I know I can get a good price at Cash Converters for this CD next week.

The weird, ridiculous lyrics and John McCrea’s lazy, deadpan delivery are why many people dislike Fashion Nugget, and CAKE’s music in general. The weird, ridiculous lyrics and John McCrea’s lazy, deadpan delivery are exactly why I absolutely love this album, on top of the excellent and wide ranging influences and ability this band has. This album spawned two radio hits (The Distance and the cover of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive) for this alternative rock band from Sacramento and it’s very high on my list of albums I hope to somehow have in my possession if I find myself marooned on a deserted island. (It goes without saying that I must have a CD player on hand if I find myself marooned on the said deserted island, but I digress…)