Life on Marsden

The thing is...

Despite the occasional, brief moment of class – the African-flavoured guitar intro to "Pull Me Back to Earth", the liquid ambience of "Helpless" – Friendly Fires' follow-up to their Mercury-nominated debut is a huge disappointment.

As promised several weeks ago, Damon Albarn, Jamie Hewlett and some of their regular Gorillaz co-conspirators – Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Bobby Womack – delivered a new album on Christmas day.

No sooner has the ceasesless hype machine of the music industry served up 'the hottest new acts' than it has another half-dozen to replace them. Can anyone hope to keep up? Larry Ryan crawls out from beneath a pile of CDs to find out...

Klaxons are back – but has the nu-rave crowd moved on?

CD sales are declining and music is, increasingly, bought online. So why do bands still bother so much about album art? Gillian Orr discovers that some are making more interesting covers than ever

The curse of the Mercury Prize strikes again!

Arcade Fire took three years between albums – and they're not the worst culprits. Fans can forget you, warns Elisa Bray

A dash of wit, a slice of politics and a garnish of art-school style – the Pet Shop Boys' synth-pop formula just gets better and better

Rory McIlroy stood on the sunlit first tee yesterday afternoon as a young man on top of the world, and apparently without a care in it.

"Well, you've definitely still got it, that's for sure," Jamie Reynolds breathlessly informs his audience. Hold on, aren't we meant to be the ones making that judgement about Klaxons? It's been three years since their debut album, Myths of the Near Future, rode the crest of nu rave to small-time era-defining status, and next month, their sophomore effort Surfing the Void arrives.