Massive Attack -- 100th Window

In a world of throwaway Pop Idols, where celebrity is more important than making original music, it's with open arms we welcome back Bristol's Massive Attack.

Five years on from the last album, Mezzanine, the band hook-up with Sinead O'Connor, who performs vocals on three of the nine tracks.

The heavy bass lines that dominated their last album are very much in evidence but the whole album has a distinct Eastern feel.

Butterfly Caught and Antistar are real pearls in what really is a gem of an album. Five songs clock in at over seven minutes but none over stay their welcome.

If music was a chocolate bar this would undoubtedly be a Turkish Delight -- an album full of Eastern Promise from the West Country musicians (out Monday).

Graham Scaife

T.A.T.U -- 200 km/h In The Wrong Lane

I'm pretty sure you've seen the video to their debut single All The Things She Said by now.

Two teenage girls dressed in a school uniform kissing in the rain, to a song about self-discovery and experimentation.

The Russian duo are certainly causing a stir, but putting the visual imagery aside, T.AT.U. are an extraordinary record company product.

Like Daphne and Celeste and Shampoo before them, the general brief seems to be, let 'em run riot and be as subversive as possible.

The album is surprisingly credible, with the single taking a leaf out of the sought-after Sugababes sound, with compelling ballads and a cover of The Smiths, How Soon Is Now?

This is astonishingly good and leads me to believe there could be more to these girls than meets the eye.

Manufactured pop with a twist. Could this be the new rock 'n' roll?

James Heward

Echoboy -- Giraffe

Echoboy are Richard Warren and no one else. Giraffe is his fourth album and this is the poppiest of the lot.

Starting with the driving bass melody of Automatic Eyes and swerving from joy to cold, dark beauty, it's an interesting ride.

The musical net Warren casts is wide and for those of you with a penchant for the twisted world of electronica (think shades of Depeche Mode) this is the bag you've been trying to get into.

Repetition is always a good thing and there are interesting bleeps and background noises aplenty.

A good album should always finish with the best track and with Nearly All The Time, Echoboy has created a distorted, unsettling stormer.

Antony Silson

Halo--- Lunatic Ride

Just guessing from the title of Halo's debut album, you have a sneaking suspicion that this band is simply trying too hard to be different.

Look a little further; take in their dark oh-so-tortured artwork and wailing operatic rock, and you will discover that Halo are anything but.

Rather than riding the crest of the new-rock wave, Halo seem to be content with floating beneath the surface, their relentless falsetto vocals and pseudo-metal riffs result in them sounding like a fourth rate Muse.

The glossy production makes the whole thing sound even more lacklustre, and to quote frontman Graeme Moncrieff's own lyric -- "we're left with nothing but monotony, and nothing left to say".

James Sills