Lady Gaga The Fame Monster ••••½ Polydor With such a secure and almost instant grip on pop music culture, it’s hard to believe that it was just over a year ago that the world at large got its first taste of Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, slightly better known by her alias Lady Gaga. Critics and music lovers alike have been sent into a spin over whether Lady G of The Haus Of Gaga is to be despised, tolerated or worshipped, and even whether she is in fact a he (a debate which can be... Read Full Story

Already released in the States this past summer, young and glamorous French rockers Plastiscines will finally issue their second album About Love in the UK on February 8 through Because Music. Just 21 years old, Louise Basilien, Anaïs Vandevyvere, Marnie Neuilly and lead singer Katty Besnard have already caused quite a stir over in the US and in their native France, and a one-off London show earlier this month suggested that capturing similar affections in the UK ought to be a doddle. Produc... Read Full Story

Portugese singer Mariza brings her latest album Terra (2008) to life early next year with a six-date UK tour. The peerless fadista will be serenading crowds with her phenomenal pipes starting with a two-night stand at London’s Royal Festival Hall on January 25 and 26, winding down on February 9 at The Sage in Gateshead. We’re told that she’s got a live DVD in the works for early next year, to be followed by a new studio album later in 2010. Full list of dates below: 25.01.... Read Full Story

Uncategorisable collective The Imagined Village return on January 11 with their second album Empire & Love. Having settled into a regular membership of ten talented musicians and singers, down from a revolving cast of sixteen, the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winners are a more focused bunch this time around. Rather than focusing on having guest singers like Billy Bragg and Sheila Chandra, almost everything you hear is by the band’s core members, or ‘The Parish Council’ as they like to be know... Read Full Story

Norah Jones The Fall •••½ Blue Note In 2002 you couldn’t draw breath while watching commercial TV without exposure to an advert for Norah Jones’s debut album Come Away With Me. With an interesting back story (she’s the daughter of the world’s most famous sitar player, Ravi Shankar), a mellow pop-jazz sound that offended no one, and a voice that was the aural equivalent of a multi-functional soothing lozenge, she eased her effortless way into dinner party ubiquity like a side salad and a bott... Read Full Story

Thao with The Get Down Stay Down Know Better Learn Faster ••••• Kill Rock Stars Know Better Learn Faster, Thao Nguyen’s third full length release, marks her second album recorded with backing band The Get Down Stay Down (Adam and Willis Thompson) and with producer Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Laura Veirs, Spoon). Fresh off the release of her collaboration with The Portland Cello Project, this album sees an expanding of scope, in terms of both the musical production and the depth of her ... Read Full Story

Sia ‘You’ve Changed’ ‘‘That’s why I’m here, that’s my department. I’m from the ballads department,” said Sia back in March when speaking to Australian newspaper The Herald Sun about her songwriting collaboration with Christina Aguilera, unselfconsciously expressing a self-evident truth. Sia’s three albums to date have been rather heavy on all things down- to mid-tempo, so prepare to be shocked by ‘You’ve Changed’, the fir... Read Full Story

Beach House ‘Norway’ Purveyors of the most dizzyingly dreamy pop music around, organist/singer Victoria Legrand and guitarists Alex Scally are back with another track of breathtakingly fragile beauty, lifted from their ultra-hyped 2010 release Teen Dream. It’s not surprising to discover that ‘Norway’ was written on a long bus journey through the Norwegian mountains – it’s as cinematic and achingly expansive as its namesake. Victoria may sing beguilingly about “the seas... Read Full Story

Sleigh Bells ‘Infinity Guitars’ Christmas is coming, and if the name Sleigh Bells is conjuring up saccharinely festive images of assorted reindeer, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, carol services and liberally strung tinsel, you’re about to be horribly mistaken. Formed of guitarist Derek Miller (formerly of hardcore band Poison The Well) and vocalist Alexis Krauss (once part of twee teen-pop group Rubyblue), Sleigh Bells are as far from pious as it is possible to be. After Pois... Read Full Story

Lissie ‘Everywhere I Go’ Hailing from a blue-collar town perched on the muddy banks of Mississippi, Lissie seems born to be a beguiling singer-songwriter. She is in possession of the kind of wholesome, flaxen-hair-and-freckles good looks rife in troubadouresses, while her Myspace describes her as a “son-of-a-gun in a sundress”, and details nostalgic, sepia-tinted summers of “a thick humidity, fat with mosquitoes” like a lost Steinbeck novel. Thankfully, her... Read Full Story