A massive man with massive hands playing a tiny nylon guitar with a machine gun attack, Eric Bachmann can sound as beautiful as a classical trio. He can also, in his Crooked Fingers incarnation, rock hard. Bachmann first reached the world's attention in the early 90s, with the noise pop outfit Archers of Loaf. Crooked Fingers was founded by Bachmann in 2000, and has since explored a tuneful indie vein. Here, on his own label for the first time, he has kept his melodic core thoroughly intact, and the 11 songs are a truly inventive batch. At times the band recall Springsteen, Tom Waits or a harder Talking Heads, but it is on songs like the astonishing Let's Not Pretend (To Be New Men), with its gorgeous gypsy violin refrain, or Phony Revolutions, that Bachmann most impresses. Complemented by a female vocal on songs like Luisa's Bones, this is almost like the album Beirut may make when they've matured a little. If the straight-ahead sub-Boss rockers like album opener What Never Comes were dropped, it would be hard to avoid acclaiming Bachmann as a genius - as it is, they drop the score a notch.

ACE rating 8/10

If The Arcade Fire have always seemed better in theory than in reality to you, Bound Stems may well be your band. A kind of wild, imaginative music that actually fills up your pleasure centres at least as well as it sparks your intellectual synapses. One listen to Clear Water and Concrete should be enough to know whether you'll be listening to this album on repeat for months. The remarkably literate, intelligent and musical album recalls Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea in its breadth - the band bear comparison to quieter, interesting bands like Modest Mouse, or Fiery Furnaces - found sounds and invention elevate simple song ideas to new heights. The Chicago band deliver great rock music when the moment calls for it, but it is an album that seems thoroughly conceived, down to the bar, with sounds and lyrics perfectly placed. Album of the week.

ACE rating 8/10

Oasis have it tough. Compared to themselves, and therefore compared to The Beatles, wouldn't be easy. Every review seems to start with those two themes. Yet Oasis may have turned down the gas a couple of clicks, but so far they haven't turned out an album that didn't have at least a couple of standout songs. If any other band had made Don't Believe The Truth, we'd still be hearing the critics gush. Dig Out Your Soul continues in its vein - the band sound like they care - but it isn't as good. Lead single Shock of The Lightning is this album's standout song - as good a single as they've released in ten years (well, maybe five...). Elsewhere there is a good solid slug of guitar-led rock, some of it thoroughly decent - it is mostly still derived from Oasis's White Album fixation, heavily dosed with Liam Gallagher's great frontman vocals. Dig Out Your Soul may not be as good as its under-rated predecessor, but it does still suggest that Oasis are one of the UK's most consistently great bands.

ACE rating 7/10