Green Day have long broken the 'punk' mould they began with, by crafting literate, melodic rock that just happens to have a snotty, angry attitude - more Undertones than Sex Pistols. Like half of America's voters and many others outside the US, they seem concerned about the country's leadership, and the dumbing down of US media - American Idiot attacks it all head-on. That it is also one of their best albums helps - the tunes are there with the driving power chords. This is their most ambitious album to date - a couple of 9-minute pieces taking the form of 5 or 6 piece mini-epics. These work extraordinarily well, as the 2-minute punk song is what they do so perfectly. Green Day have always aced thoughtful and acoustic (think Good Riddance), and there is enough shade here to make the light work perfectly.

ACE rating 9/10

For a while, I thought someone had messed up and slipped a forgotten Jeff Buckley album into the wrong box, so tuneful, rangey and perfect is much of the music here, combined with an astonishing soft, almost feminine voice. Like Buckley, there is real ambition and reach in the songwriting, a bittersweet melancholy pervading everything, and wonderfully appropriate instrumentation (violin, Hammond organ, pump organ on some tracks). On this, his fourth, Harcourt has matured a lot, and feels happier in the beauty of the melody, with elegant, fantasy lyrics mixed in with humour and rock, as in Born in the 70s. More listenable than Tom McRae, more palatable than Elvis Costello, and a match for Jacob Golden, Harcourt is one of the most consistently excellent British singer-songwriters. This is an album that you will fall in love with by the second listen.

ACE rating 9/10

Garage or blues-rock shows no sign of slowing down, and thank goodness for that when there is music like this out there. Rooted firmly in the blues, but with a sound at turns like the Hives, White Stripes, the Doors, the Violent Femmes and the Who, there is an addictive momentum to the music. The guitars kick up a squall like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the drums echo like Pink Floyd, and the whole brash thing is put together with astonishing reassurance for a debut studio album. While musical references abound, the 22-20s deliver by keeping the rawness that served all their peers so well. This album is a blast in the way that Definitely Maybe was a blast, dripping with small club sweat and dirt. We should be grateful that there are bands who still develop their trade on the stage before they venture into the studio.

ACE rating 8/10