PHEW! Steamy or what? Even Caleb Followill the band's charming frontman admits he's a little nervous about singing this one live.

TYPICALLY meandering post-rock fret-bothering from the Glaswegian five piece.

There's at least six moments in the lengthy near-three-minute build-up to the song's dramatic three-minute crescendo and fade-out when you dare to think something might actually happen: perhaps a voice might emerge from beneath the plodding rock chords, or a lyric filter through the crunching distortion?

BRITISH folk has not been screaming, or politely gesturing, with such young talent for many a long year.

With the sweetly accessible Noah and the Whale breaking into the mainstream with single Five Years Time at one end, and the exceptionally gifted and eloquent Laura Marling into the world of critical adoration with her Mercury Music Award nomination at the other it has quietly insinuated itself into the outskirts of the mainstream with the same respectability a vicar enters his country chapel.

IT'S an odd juxtaposition. An eye-opening, rockular epiphany it was when I first saw Woomble fronting Idlewild at my first ever gig 11 years ago when I was 13, and here he is producing forlorn, autumnal music with folkies Drever and McCusker with the same skill he whipped the crowd up on that riotous night.

Scaled down and mellowed out of course, it displays insight with sympathy, and it fits the melancholic mood of this depressingly dreary summer with foresight and accuracy.

TOUCH My Body may not have been the best single to launch the brilliant E=MC2, but this soulful sure-fire hit more than makes up for it.

With an old skool backing and wonderfully rich vocals (but not overdone) this is Mariah at her very best.

IT might be a shameless opportunity to cash in on the rising profile of Freemasons (and consecutively the declining profile of Moby), but their remix of Moby's chilled-out disco record will either leave you horrified or horny.

Because this is part-ay music - the aural equivalent of turning the dowdy school girl in a Hollywood teen flick into the prom's hottest babe.

WITH Estelle wowing the States and the UK with her mix of funk, Rn'B and rap, here is another wannabe, ready to steal her limelight.

Vocally Nia has got it going on and she knows how to deliver the killer chorus. Shame then that the arrangement sounds distinctly dated.

FOLLOWING the return of Take That, Spice Girls and um.... Boyzone, we now welcome the return of the ultimate American boyband, NKOTB.

Times may have changed since they last had the 'right stuff' but this new single sees them stuck in a time-warp.

IF you miss the days when there was more to music than a good hook and a crashing guitar, Royworld give you all of this and then some.

Brakes contains more drama and feeling in three minutes, than you are likely to find in many of today's indie albums. Following their support slots alongside the likes of the equally brilliant Guillemots, watch their mini symphonies catch fire.

WHEN Jason Pierce came back from the brink - quite literally, he nearly lost the fight to double pneumonia in 2005 - to make Songs In A&E, critics expected more of an epiphany than an album.

That the record was more of a logical stop along a line that Spiritualized were already travelling along (and up to that point been lauded for) somehow didn't seem enough any more.

THIS Danish six piece's new single is a radio-friendly blast of wacky pop that gets tiresome quickly.

This is the kind of track that might have had you dancing occasionally, but after you've heard it one too many times it becomes merely irritating.

EVEN though he has supported Amy Winehouse, Adele and Mary J Blige, Bryn Christopher has not stormed the charts with the force of a hurricane, despite his superb voice.

Smilin' may change that as it is an above average track.

CITYLIFE is still surveying the scene for the hows and whys to explain how The Darkness made it OK to be committed to the cause of Eighties cock rock outside the confines of your local boozer.

Their mantra is spreading and major labels have got the message that throwing everything from Europe to Slayer into your sound could get you a big hit.

IT'S a comparison he's furiously objected to all along, but just listen to Oberst sing "like dry ice in the summer time" and try not to imagine Bob Dylan, perched on a stool under a ten-gallon Stetson.

Souled Out is rootsy folk rock more straightforward than Oberst produced in some time that spectularly blows apart Oberst's usual refusal to embrace repetition and choruses.

THIS is Feeder’s 31st single release on Echo records and it feels like it!  Fresh from playing the Reading /Leeds festival, Feeder release Tracing Lines from the band’s new album Silent Cry.

In typical Feeder style, the single is another radio-friendly pop-rock anthem.

PERHAPS it was because the subject matter was so close to my own heart, but a year or so on from my first listen to Daddy's Gone (back then, on an independent wax release) and it still makes me shiver.

The love song dynamic has been explored from every angle - even odes like this to absent parents are out there - but it's the chilling power of James Allen's Glaswegian brogue that delivers the fatal body punch to the heart.

THE Scandinavian sensation has been making quite a splash with the music press recently, and with good reason. 

On 'Breaking It Up' Lykke Li's stunning, otherworldly vocals combined with producer/co-writer Bjorn Yttling's carefully structured arrangement of piano, keyboard and creative percussion makes for simple class and an original style.

'DNA' is the first single from the debut album of Manda Rin, formerly the singer with nineties indie band Bis.

Rin's breathless vocals are backed by modern electronic influences that make for relentless energy and extremely catchy hooks.

LONDON rapper Sway and R&B singer Lemar team up here, managing to turn Cherelle and Alexander O'Neill's '80s duet 'Saturday Love', into a fairly run of the mill example of R'n'B enthused rap. 

Saturday Love's' dull recital of the days of the week has been kept as a hook, supported by samples of the original, and interspersed with Sway's rapping.

FOLLOWING support slots with the likes of Beverley Knight and Jay Z, David Jordan is really making a name for himself.

This single follows in the same vein of his previous efforts.

Mixing the sublime sound of Terence Trent D'arby (when he was good!) and the hip swivelling vibe of Prince means that you have all the ingredients for a Soul hit.

IT used to just be the bawdy nature of The Fratellis flapper-girl-rock that conjured up images of bawdy gangs of lads with their half-supped cans of lager aloft chanting Jon Fratelli's unfathomable tales like they were religious scriptures.

But, under their own productive stream, even the soaked pace of the band's drunken delivery sounds like its six beers past its best.

BLOC Party records, apparently, are like a fine wine; give them time to breath, to swill around your palette, and you'll eventually find a hidden depth.

If there's hidden depths to Mercury, it'd take a tunnel to the earth's core to uncover it.

SINCE the jaunty Oh Girl and - to a lesser extent - Still Fond pricked people’s senses a few months back, all eyes have been firmly trained on this memorably named outfit.

Their first release on a major sees the Kiwi quartet further enhance their Anglophile credentials, harnessing a sound that surely belongs in the heart of Camden (think Look See Proof, in particular), while still managing to hold onto their antipodean roots via a particularly grubby riff.

THE problem with the Delays is that they don’t actually keep it simple, they struggle to reign in their exhaustingly epic style.

More worryingly they sound not dissimilar to the resurgent Take That (who have probably done more good songs) in a boyband/indie crossover sort of way.

DEBUTING for one of the country's coolest labels?

Take some cues from Esser, who's slimmed down Headlock by half from its hedonistically leftfield original incarnation and turned it into a three-minute bonanza of fun that could only be topped on the barometer of excitement by a midnight raid on the Woolworths pick 'n' mix with Jamie-T and Beck.

WHAT is it with organ solos this week? First Teddy Thompson and now this from Bluetones front man Mark Morriss.

The last good organ solo was on Procul Harem’s A Whiter Shade of Pale and that was over 40 years ago in the days of black and white television.

THIS latest musical offering from the Leeds four-piece The Music is the second track to be taken from their third studio album ‘Strength In Numbers’.

The lads have kept to the same old familiar formula with this song, which can be seen in their other triumphs like ‘The People’ and ‘Breakin’… but that isn’t a negative thing…stick to what you know, and more importantly what works.

NOT the most prolific band on the circuit, Southampton’s Thomas Tantrum comfortably make up for their lack of quantity (this is their third single in a little under two years) by making sure each tune is peppered with off-kilter melodies and completely unexpected hooks.

IN all honesty when listening for the first time to the track ‘Graves’ by Canadian four-piece Tokyo Police Club, I was left with my behind perching on the fence.

The song is the third track taken from the band's second album, ‘Elephant Shell’ which has been warmly received by such music connoisseurs as Zane Lowe and Colin Murray, and the lads are banging out the tracks seen as though they have only been together for just three years.

HEARTBEAT is the newest single from the youthful four-piece Late Of The Pier, and it’s an indie-disco classic that can be put up on your dusty old shelf next to the Klaxons.

The single includes a heavy resemblance to Gary Numan and also Muse… so if you like these then you’re onto a winner.

WHISTLING at the start of a song is always a winner… it’s an art form in itself, so this song has already grabbed hold of my mediocre attention span.

I’M not sure if Knowen is actually a real word these days, but judging from the doom-laden content of this epic ep from Last Harbour I presume that when you conjunct it with Foe it carries a tremendous amount of morbid weight, more so even than if a dodgy Middle Eastern regime struck oil, but refused to sell it to George W.

For like a folk story dredged up from olde times this is a dark, dark offering full of words like sinner, fallen, justice, blood and honour.

THE Raid clearly like to project themselves as the sort of brash desperados who break into people’s house at night just to play with their conservative dreams, push over their Smeg fridges, and run foul of authority.

But are they all trouser and no action?

BEN Gibbard loves a lovelorn character.

He's a man with a poetic gift who finds beauty in misery and paints people you want to take in a comforting embrace.

BORN from the pen of David McAlmont, Kennington is indelibly marked with his penchant for indulgently jazzy blues.

Former session singer Natasha is a confident vocalist, but one who's overdoing the Joplin-like rasping and Roberta Flack's breathless warble to give herself a distinctive sound in the cramped singer-songwriter market.

A CHARACTERISTICALLY charismatic, direct title from Martha here.

Never one to shy away from confrontation, rather obviously You Cheated Me recounts a tale of infidelity with anger and disbelief in a perversely poppy upbeat manner throwing insults and hypothetical questions at the mysterious tryst-ers.

ADOPT an angle about 45 degrees from the speakers and pelt your face with a really high speed fan to shape an expression somewhere between surprised and enduring G-force and you've about recreated a physical interpretation of Hadouken's latest offering.

Yes, it's another glistening nugget in their often incoherent brand of obnoxious digital noise, garage beats and hip-hop patter, but this time there's something oddly right about it.

MADONNA is a canny pop star. Her Hard Candy received mixed reviews but the odd track was not met with derision and this is one of them.

Give It 2 Me is also the fan's favourite so, here it is remixed and ready to fill dancefloors.

SOUNDING like the love child of Pulp and Joy Division, 'Stilettos' captures the best of both Jarvis’ edgy vocal commentary style and Joy Divisions’ echoey guitar riffs.

It’s safe to say this is probably the best song about shoes I’ve ever heard.

THE Feeling release this third single from Join With Us and they sound more like Supertramp than they ever did, but crossed with a few riffs from ELO.

Turn It Up is so radio friendly that it will keep them in royalties for a while yet.

THE beginning of this track is all a bit strange.

However, when the beat kicks in it becomes something glorious. A desperate yet hopeful commentary of life in the suburbs of London.

ALL You Really Have To Do has made a long journey to get here.

Released from a dirty garage and set loose like a bull in a china shop it smashes through clattering drum solos, hypnotic wah-wah guitar riffs, psychedelic Indian freak-outs, and staggering, soulful James Brown wailing to be reined in at a poultry 2 minutes 18 seconds.

THERE is no doubt that we are very lucky to be experiencing the current musical climate.

Scratch just beneath the mainstream surface, and there is a staggering amount of diversity and quality to be found that is richer than Ronald McDonald.

THE selling point of this band is that precocious prodigious teenagers, all aged 13 or 14, are turning out taut, well-crafted guitar tracks that make them standout from the crowd.

The question you have to answer is whether this reflects the blossoming of great talent, or the puerile, stagnant nature of mainstream British indie.