It must be difficult attempting to stand out as a female singer/songwriter at the moment, what with Flo Mo stealing the limelight and La Roux and Lady GaGa jostling for position. Taken from her album New Worlds, Alexander has soft plucked guitars, pure ethereal sounding vocals, light tinkling keyboards and a chorus which packs a bit of a punch too. It’s lovely. But that’s just it, you think, “ah, isn’t this lovely”, but then it’s forgotten too easily. A failing which I suspect the rest of her album may fall foul to.

Lostprophets: End Of The World (Visible Noise)

Now I’ve never put myself in the ‘fan’ category of this bunch of Welsh grizzlies. And whilst there’s nothing essentially wrong with the way this track kicks off in its own dirty rock club dancefloor riff way, there’s nothing essentially right with it either. The shouted frat-style “It’s not the end of the world now baby” chorus is just woeful and dated and then there’s a dodgy guitar solo half the way through, plus the rest of it… I mean, is it just me or is this the same track Lostprophets have been releasing since 2000?

Kill It Kid: Heaven Never Seemed So Close (One Little Indian)

The sliding guitars, clapped beats, loud and raucous country-influenced vocals should be about as palatable as salty porridge, but at the start for some unknown reason you start thinking, “no hold on, give it a chance”. But the screechy female harmony, violins and thigh slapping all get a bit much and suddenly the layers and layers of messy instruments and lyrics get upsetting.

Zico Chain: These Birds Will Kill Us All (Degenerate Music)

There’s no light at the tunnel yet kids. This half screamed/half sang wrist slitting rock is all a bit much. I’m sure a lot of people understand the whole vocal chord-stripping thrash genre, but I don’t and I’ll put a disclaimer here for that reason. To me, this is the musical talent equivalent of papering over old crumbling plasterwork to avoid it falling off the walls, instead of just re-plastering the lot. A big fat wall of noise slapped over the top may hide the lack of quality, but sooner or later it’ll become glaringly obvious. Even if its years down the line when someone picks up the CD/decides to rip the wallpaper off and cries, “Oh God what the hell is this I’ve just found?!”

Johnny Foreigner: Criminals (Best Before)

Ah Johnny Foreigner you shine like a diamond in the rough, showing that heavy (ish) doesn’t have to mean Strepsils, gargled TCP and a desperate hunt for a melody. This has all the JF hallmarks – double tapped and insistent guitars, bashed out vicious drum beats, clever pass the parcel style harmonised lyrics and a clever tail of a town which becomes so infiltrated by criminals that it sells itself out and loses its lively club scene. This feels like their most coherent offering to date and bodes well for the next album.

What are the themes and influences behind Turning The Mind?
I took the title from a form of cognitive therapy called Mindfulness, which I got into about thee years ago. The whole album is about mental states and is much more personal than We Can Create was. It’s really about euphoria and what I have seen people go through.

It’s a darker, angrier sounding record than We Can Create…
To be honest that album was made from a whole back catalogue of demos I had made since I was 19 so I had loads to choose from – there wasn’t a cohesive theme there. I’ve recorded Turning The Mind from scratch and I think it really shows where I am at the moment – I really let it all out in the music on this album!

You worked with Tim Holmes from Death In Vegas for the recording, did that have a bearing on the sound, especially as you’ve taken a more electronic direction?
Tim was brilliant. He’s really talented and down to earth and we clicked straight away. The demos I had done in my bedroom this time around were a lot more advanced. Some made it onto the album needing only a bit of brushing up and a bit of sparkle adding, but other tracks had a real overhaul. Nothing was the one that changed the most – before it was a banging techno tune all the way through, but Tim had the idea of starting it with a piano loop and building it layer upon layer.

Going back to your Mercury Music Prize nomination in 2007, do you view it as a bit of a launch pad for your music? Did it put any pressure on you?
The nomination was great I was totally surprised by it at the time. It just got more people listening to my music and helped with sales, but I didn’t really feel any pressure with it.

Which makes it perhaps surprising that after her win, Speech Debelle’s sales haven’t risen too much and the hype hasn’t really materialised yet…
A lot of people see winning the award as a bit of a curse. But with that £20k that would just make me want to would go and make an album that was even better – it would certainly put a rocket up my arse!

Maps: Chameleon

Looking forward to your tour, do you have any idea what you would like people to get out of the gigs?
We have been working really hard so I’m really looking forward to it. Up until now it feels like I’ve been testing the water and it can be quite hard playing new material to people, but hopefully they will have heard Turning The Mind by the time the gigs come around and there will be a good response.

What’s your view on the illegal downloads debate? Does it nark you?
To be honest if people are downloading music, like it and support it by buying the album then it’s fine. But I’m a bit bummed out because all of the illegal downloads of the album are missing out on a sample that’s on there, so I really want people to buy the real one! I must admit have done it though in the past because I’ve been so eager to hear an album, then bought it on CD and iTunes, so as long as the support is there that’s what matters.

Is there anyone you idolise in music?
This is going to sound funny, but Eminem; he’s a Bob Dylan of our time. He releases albums just when I need them. I have had a hard time with addiction over the last couple of years and I’ve got a way to go, but I love his honesty and that’s what really stands out. You always know people are going to slag off his records but he just talks about what he’s been doing.

What are your favourite venues to play and to watch gigs?
I love Brixton Academy for the layout and for the fact it’s sloped so everyone gets a good view. Obviously it would be a dream to play there. Of the festivals I played Latitude was exciting – it has a nice vibe and its size means it is fantastic for being able to easily walk from tent to tent.

Do you have any ideas and dreams for the future of Maps?
I really want this album to do well so I can make a third album. Times are hard in the music world so that is as far as I am looking ahead to at the moment – that and being a success.

In reality, while Hockey are described as new rave soulsters, they have melting pot of styles and influences which occasionally stray over the lines into the territories of the likes of Bob Dylan and Bon Jovi. But it is only when they stick to their original musical definition that they really hit the musical nail on the head.

This touch of negativity perhaps belies the true story. After all, the band has notched up rave reviews in the music press and even at the Bodega, the crowd seemed to be perfectly happy with the gig, showing approval at their more upbeat disco-infiltrated grooves and soulful melodies with wiggling hips and gentle bops.

Yet to honest ears, three or four of the tracks ever so slightly whiffed of clichéd American rock, showing that there are a few flies in the Hockey ointment that could do with being picked out.

Main support, Little Comets prepared the way with a fusion of indie pop which brought a smile to everyone’s faces, as did the blue rope suspended across the stage from which their percussion instruments hung. Then Hockey kicked off with Work, a brooding and soulful track tinged with beats and lyrics which spoke of woe at the daily 9am to 5pm grind. Faint comparisons can and have been drawn with the throb of LCD Soundsystem and the Strokes, because of lead singer Benjamin Grubin’s American drawled vocals – but don’t let that be the measuring stick, because as yet, that bar is set too high.

Launching into Learn To Lose, the mood was still up tempo and Hockey’s funk-punk combo with a peppering of “du du du”s, a catchy guitar solo across the bridge and the sing-a-long chorus of “Oh I’ve got to learn to lose for a while” are inspired – in a roller disco 70s kind of way.

3am Spanish, Curse This City and Wanna Be Black were definitely a bit more appealing on the album Mind Chaos, as the subtlety seemed to be lost live. Nevertheless, all had that same lyrical witticism and danceable, likeable quality about them.

But when Hockey took off their skates and dropped the funk, they lost their initial charm and started to sound like something else, something less individual. On Four Holy Photos, the image of Benjamin sat on a stool in the middle of the stage with an acoustic guitar, harmonica, country-esque harmonies and half-sung half-talked fast paced lyrics was too Bob Dylan for words. His impression was second to none.

Song Away adopted a cringe worthy Bon Jovi style chorus and the slow ballad of Everyone’s The Same Age went down a similar road. Luckily they stepped up a few notches with another of the album’s highlights, Too Fake, with that same effortless purr of the drums, guitars and vocals declaring, “look out, I’ve got too much soul for the world!”

Everything was polished off nicely with Put The Game Down – a tune adding a little more fuel to the fire of comparisons with the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas’ vocals.

Hockey’s Bodega appearance mirrored many a first time experience of seeing a band. At times they impressed, at times they bewildered and down right grated, but nevertheless this was a good gig. It’s what you’d get if you crossed a DJ set from LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy with his disco-tinged grooves, a bit of soul from the likes of James Brown, together with husky softer rock vocals. Which is why on the whole it works well; sometimes it’s even inspired, but occasionally it’s a bit too pedestrian and familiar.

From the outset, Happy Ending naturally seems to split itself into two halves – the first half being infinitely better, adopting an ethereal sound laced with influences across the musical spectrum. Starting with the band’s latest single Bright Grey and running through to the seventh track, A Day In The Sun, the album is a surprisingly good offering from a band which is little known throughout the northern hemisphere.

With an Arcade Fire-esque introduction, Bright Grey is an uplifting eye opener to the Phoenix Foundation. It has carefully crafted beautifully simplistic plodding guitar riffs, xylophone tinkles and the Beach Boys-tinged vocals of Samuel Flynn Scott. Slumber Party is a slow harmony laden track with haunting keyboard riffs and is hugely comparable to Radiohead’s Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box.

Throughout the first seven tracks there are so many great comparisons to be made – Belle & Sebastian sounding rhythms and chords, Air’s All I Need and La Femme d’Argent-style compositions on Gandalf and Bob Dylan lyrical influences. There are even hints of Stone Roses on 40 Years and elements of the Shins generally running throughout the album.

And then tracks eight to twelve happened and gone was the chance of Happy Ending matching the promise of the title.

In came a host of odd western and country guitars and whistful melancholy was replaced by depressed wailing on a track ironically named Pure Joy. Aside from moments of a return to the album’s initial form on the tune Omerta, the remaining tracks dangerously wavered over the easy listening compilation line.

Despite the disappointing latter half, the Phoenix Foundation has pulled together seven really listenable, emotive tracks which are laden with musical talent and would sound perfect in any festival field. Happy Ending is an album of contrasts – contrasting musical influences, vocal sounds, rhythms, instrumental choices, genres and topics. This may explain the overall feeling I got that the band are not totally sure of their musical direction and as a result, it won’t be an album I automatically turn my iPod dial to. But I wouldn’t skip if it appeared on shuffle.