When I was 15 I would have bought the new EP by Karn8 based on the cover alone, featuring as it does, lead singer Kirst all wide-eyed and cleavage covered in cake [don't look like cake to me Steve -ed]. As an adult my standards are, hopefully, a little higher. This fourth EP by Reading based three-piece Karn8 is a four track affair of widely differing tracks.

It would be impossible to review Craig Finn's first solo album ‘Clear Heart Full Eyes' without comparing it to the music of his "other" band. Since splitting with first band Lifter Puller, he has been frontman of The Hold Steady (since 2004), enjoying major success with their credible indie-punk-rock sound. So what does Finn has to offer as a solo artist that can't be found listening to his band? Well... he has removed the usual "gravelly" edge from his voice and slowed the tempo right down; which fits well with his newly found downbeat, reflective style.

This writer has never listened to a Therapy? album before. True story. Not out of any inherent dislike of them, they're just one of those bands that I was aware of but had absolutely no desire or reason to listen to and just passed me by. With that said, 20 years and 13 albums into a career of highs and lows - from magazine poster boys to revolving line-ups - is this a good album to start with? I can only judge this album on its own merits and not the legacy the band has carved for itself over years of touring and releases.

Grouplove's sound is totally uplifting - we mean it - truthfully. Some music fans might be quick to label them as "hippies" and dismiss them but that would be unfair, because Grouplove completely and utterly rock the iconic Fibbers York venue to its rafters tonight, and they do it with a sound that falls halfway between Britpop and good ol' American alt-rock music, one big beard, a bunch of baggy tops and an abundance of long hair. This is Grouplove, they are a family of globe-trotting friends, multi-instrumentalists (with glowsticks for drumsticks...), and this is their life (and ours...) through music, documented at its absolute best.