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Listen to anything remotely resembling pop music these days and you will always find a trace of the formulaic about it. If nothing else, the 21st century has refined pop music into something of a formulaic commodity. Mind you, there are some would argue Mickey Most was doing the same thing back in 1973...

Santogold's debut does contain some ambitions to meet some kind of blueprint. Upon first hearing I found it utterly generic - a record in search of a hit, if you like. The sound is clean and somewhat calculated.

Then after a few plays the thing reveals something of a little more substance. This may be slightly formulaic, ticking the electro-indie pop of "LES Girls" to the bouncy thrash pop of "Say Aha" or the elctro funk of "Creator" (which has a whiff of M.I.A.) about it. Suddely it starts to assert some individuality. Not something which instanly grabs you by the throat, yet turns out to be pretty satisfying.

This is a modern pop album, shifting through the genres gently morphing into some its interesting peers. After a few plays the record does reveal its better nature. Worth giving it the time to grow - not something we do in this modern age. This is one formula that is good.

I'm a longtime fan of Eva Cassidy's wonderful voice and style. I think I have all her albums and those albums provide a lot of the background music for my life. Her all-too-soon death took a marvelous talent from this world.

That said, though, I found this album a bit disappointing. I think that with every now-deceased beloved artist, there exists a file somewhere of recorded songs that were considered for earlier albums and put aside because they weren't quite good enough. Then, when the artist dies, there's a scramble to unearth these items and create an album from them. It doesn't always work: those songs were filed away for good reason.

And while I find this album enjoyable, that seems to be the case here. I don't find it nearly as good as her earlier offerings.

Got my copy two days ago and what can I say? Not one 'duff' track on the whole album! Andrews beautiful rendition of Claptons 'Tears In Heaven' is just so moving the way he sings it. An Abba track, a Lennon track and a Lloyd Webber track has just got to make this the best selling classical album of this year! I hope we get a Christmas album from this lad? Good luck Andrew!

it's a great album,can someone perhaps explain why it was put out as a 2 disc set when it would easily been fitted on one CD..williet

Elbow have written and performed some of the best music this century (IMO). Beautiful ballads & catchy tunes,

Favourite Tracks: Fugitive Motel & Grace Under Pressure

Friendly Fires has to be one of the albums of the year. It's not been a great year for fresh stuff. Just roll out dreary old Oasis with the same old same old and then FF appear. It's not anything new but it is exciting for today. You can see that they love what they do. There are not any poor songs on the album so I'll have to discuss the outstanding ones. How about "Paris"? Forward thinking, future going to be great fun stuff! "On Board" fun. Right, forget all this reviewing stuff!! They are great songs that you will want to sing and dance to. End of! Go on, buy it!

Yep. Track 21 (The World is Not Enough) is performed by someone called Garbage and talk about living up to one's name... How did someone who has no voice wind up singing a Bond song? *shakes head in disbelief* Actually, after kd lang's sublime performance of Surrender, the rest of the CD is not worth listening to. Before that, however, it's a lovely trip down memory lane listening to good sings sung by singers who can, well, sing.....

I feel that the album is actually better overall than the single - tho can only be pleased that the single brought attention. It is a considerable accolade to say that the sound reminds me of one of the best indie bands for many years - Neutral Milk Hotel.