POP
Depeche Mode
Sounds Of The Universe (Mute)
***
It's business as usual for Depeche Mode. They remain staggeringly successful, but they're not about to rock their own boat — it's not entirely by accident that the single, Wrong, begins in identical fashion to Personal Jesus. Their twelfth album contains 13 slabs of heaving, stentorian electropop (10 by Martin Gore, three from Dave Gahan) brimming with throbbing adult angst, ranging from the gargantuan opener, In Chains, to the fine ballad Little Soul. So while there's nothing new, they're still an unstoppable force of nature. Good.
JOHN AIZLEWOOD

Asher Roth
Asleep in the Bread Aisle (Island)
****
A rapper with a wholesome upbringing is as rare as one with an economical car, so Jewish Pennsylvanian Asher Roth is something of a novelty before he even opens his mouth. His skin colour means he's already sick of Eminem comparisons, an issue he eloquently addresses on the loping funk of As I Em. He's more accurately anti-50 Cent, his tales of pizza, parties and even ironing making good clean fun in refreshing contrast to tired lines about drugs and murder. There's a carefree, old-school feel to the retro organ of Sour Patch Kids and the leisurely beats of I Love College. He's not quite role model material but he's enjoyably different.
DAVID SMYTH

Noisettes
Wild Young Hearts (Mercury)
***
Noisettes are, on the face of it, an attractive proposition. The London three-piece have a distinctive singer in Shingai Shoniwa and a desire to make accessible pop. Their hit single, Don't Upset the Rhythm, is pleasingly propulsive with enough melodic frills to pass the time entertainingly. The problem is that with repeated listenings, Wild Young Hearts fails to yield any secrets, rather summoning up a feeling of déjà entendu. It's as if they've listened to favourite records by other people and attempted to cobble the best bits into a sound of their own. A little Kate Bush, a dash of Blondie, a smidgeon of Ting Tings. Bright, breezy and hollow.
PETE CLARK

JAZZ
Andy Sheppard
Movements in Colour (ECM)
***
The first moments of this album sound horribly like a trapped CD but that's Andy Sheppard for you. Though gifted with rare fluency and an enviably warm tone, he cannot resist funny noises occasionally — but these are mercifully rare in a concept album inspired by selected modern paintings. An artfully chosen line-up finds two guitarists, John Parricelli and Eivind Aarset, providing the ambient colour while Sheppard's tuneful tenor and soprano saxes ride the airy rhythms of Arild Andersen's bass and Kuljit Bhamara's tablas. The carefully modulated results are ideal for this fastidious label.
JACK MASSARIK

WORLD
Goran Bregovic
Alkohol – Sljivovica & Champagne (Wrasse)
****
“Alkohol”, yells Goran Bregovic to open this album, and a Balkan band fires into action — the sort, with blaring trumpets, baritones, sax and rattling percussion, that drives a Serbian wedding into the early hours. Bregovic, film composer and band leader, is a huge star in eastern Europe and best-known here for his music to movies the Time of the Gypsies and Underground. It's the world of the latter film that this album inhabits, celebrating the crazy excess of Serbia's Guca Festival, where brass-band music, spit-roasted pork and alcohol are consumed to excess.
SIMON BROUGHTON