Everyone's favourite left-leaning alternative troubadour spirited funkster has struggled for direction a touch since his breakthrough, Odelay. Midnite Vultures was a poor attempt at a Prince album, and Sea Change was often too miserable for its own good. Guero, however, reunites him with the producers of Odelay, and again it is a massive success, with amazing punch, vitality and invention. It is an up to date Odelay, if anything - great melodies, latin and rock rhythm, and songs so fresh that you wonder where on earth someone could have dreamt them up. Importantly, it is an album with real depth that is also listenable on many levels - with some introspective Paul Simon meets Steely Dan on top of some Loser-era Mellow Gold. While there is no doubt that this is an attractive return to form, the album does slightly run out of steam towards the end. Makes a perfect iPod album.

ACE rating 8/10

Bands who can drift from Radiohead to Crazy Horse via Pink Floyd don't come around every week. Even more seldom do bands pull off something decent in mixing and matching styles. Here, Decibully, from Milwaukee don't quite hit the heights of any of those bands, but they are never less than interesting and entertaining. An inventive seven piece band, they make Mercury Rev seem overblown and ordinary, driven with a rock rhythm and perfect use of instrumentation like banjo and accordion. Better when going straight ahead than when they meander through spacey material, Sing Out America! works best when it gets close to Elvis Costello invective rock or Jayhawks' like country-rock. So varied is the approach that the album sounds like a good half hour on alternative radio. Maybe a little focus might help, but for now, they could go in pretty much any direction.

ACE rating 7/10

Punky power pop has had a few pretenders in the more-mainstream-and-poppy-than-Green-Day Sum 41/ Blink 182 field. Me Too is Farrah's second album, and a breezy, summery slice of new wave pop punk this is. An album for everyone who misses Squeeze's heyday, the pop is melodic, effortlessly arranged and delightfully short (in a good way; most songs here come in at a sweet 3 minutes), with nods to ska, Weezer and the kind of sunny rock that graces shows like the O.C. Although the lyrics take the odd swipe at easy targets like daytime TV, the songs work better when they work on the kind of interpersonal politics covered by their influences. A real highlight of the album is a splendid reworking of Joe Jackson's It's Different For Girls, which positions the band a little way away from possible Busted clone accusations.

ACE rating 7/10