GOO GOO DOLLS

Something For The Rest Of Us

Warner Brothers Records

As a three piece starting out in Buffalo, Goo Goo Dolls shared the punk spirit and knack for a melody of early records by The Replacements.

MOGWAI

Special Moves Burning

Spunk/EMI

Scotland post-rock darlings Mogwai are not the type of band who feel that they could release a best of album.

DANKO JONES

Below The Belt

Bad Taste Records

Now 14 years into his relentless career, Canadian hero Danko Jones and his eponymous band laid down two of the best rock albums of the decade in We Sweat Blood (2003) and Sleep Is The Enemy (2006).

SEABELLIES

By Limbo Lake

Albert Productions

By Limbo Lake, the debut album from Seabellies, features rustic and yearning vocals, euphoric harmonies, wiggly guitar leads, warm keyboards, clattering percussion and a there’s even strings, horns and glockenspiel to be found.

ROSE ELINOR DOUGALL

Without Why

Scarlett Music

Emerging from a band modelled on the ‘60s school of hit-making where no individual member is more important than the collective, to then carve out your own identity as a solo artist is undoubtedly a tricky proposition.

SIANNA LEE

Phoenix Propeller

Enchanted Recordings/Shock

Four years on from the tumultuous dissolution of her former band, Sydney-based rock outfit Love Outside Andromeda, Sianna Lee has risen from the ashes with debut solo album, Phoenix Propeller.

RAY LAMONTAGNE

God Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise

RCA/Sony Music

The New Hampshire rambler had turned his back on becoming a musician thanks to the upbringing presented by his own abusive musician father, but upon hearing Steven Stills on the radio, he packed in his job in a shoe factory and gave this songwriting lark a go.

SUFJAN STEVENS

All Delighted People

Asthmatic Kitty

What have we had from literary indie-pop god Sufjan Stevens since 2006’s Illinoise?

MURDERDOLLS

Women And Children Last

Roadrunner Records

Murderdoll’s 2002  debut record Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls saw vocalist Wednesday 13 and Slipknot’s Joey Jordinson  constantly taking the piss out of themselves and the shock/horror rock vein they were mining at the same time, with the result being a stupidly good album simply because it was so damn stupid.

ZOLA JESUS

Stridulum EP

Sacred Bone Records/Midheaven

For an artist that has admittedly struggled with the limelight, Stridulum is a document that leaves Nika Roza Danilova – otherwise known as Zola Jesus– naked.

KATY PERRY

Teenage Dream

Capitol/EMI

The daughter of Christian pastors and former gospel singer, Katy Perry may have had a few false starts in her journey to becoming a recording artist but her persistence paid handsome dividends with her massively successful pop debut One Of The Boys.

EELS

Tomorrow Morning

E Works/Shock

Best known for chronicling personal tragedies with directness and tempered honesty, singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett tries something different on the third Eels album in less than two years: embracing joy.

THE BLACK CROWES

Croweology

Silver Arrow Records/Warner

The Black Crowes have sold over 30 million albums and claimed the title of ‘most rock’n’roll rock’n’roll band in the world’ along the way.

MILES AWAY

Endless Roads

Resist/Shock

There’s no two ways about it: Endless Roads, the third full-length from Perth’s Miles Away, has yet again set the benchmark at an international standard.

LOOSE UNIT

House Of Piper Laurie

Independent/Firestarter

Long-time dark horses of the Perth rock’n’roll scene, Loose Unit have dropped album #1, a non-stop bullshit-tight slab of desert rock.

ISOBEL CAMPBELL & MARK LANEGAN

Hawk

Vanguard Records/Shock

Twee chanteuse Isobel Campbell, the one-time cellist in the artfully arch Belle & Sebastian, has come up against a lot of ‘beauty meets the beast’ clichés since embarking on an archaeological retrieval of the ghosts of Americana with the drug-damaged dark star of Screaming Trees and Queens Of The Stone Age, Mark Lanegan, five years ago.

DISTURBED

Asylum

Reprise Records

It almost seems hard to believe Disturbed’s debut The Sickness sold something like four million copies in 2000.

THE MISSION IN MOTION

Somewhere Safe

Taperjean/Shock

With two EPs already under their belt, Sydney’s The Mission In Motion have been able to build themselves a solid reputation that has seen them become regulars of the Australian alternative scene.

PIRANHA 3D

Water Slaughter

Directed by Alexandre Aja
Starring Elisabeth Shue, Steven R. McQueen, Jerry O’Connell, Ving Rhames, Christopher Lloyd, Kelly Brook

Eros and Thanatos. Sex and death. Tits and gore.

KATIE UNDERWOOD

Ain’t Nobody’s Baby

Empire Records
MGM

Before reality TV had hit its prime, the first series of Popstars brought together young singers together to form flash in the pan outfit Bardot.