9. Eminem - Recovery

Today, my Mum came back from Tesco with Eminem's latest album - Recovery, which saved me having to think about what I was going to listen to today.

First thing I noticed: there's a much more serious feel to this than his early work, nay all his previous work. There's nothing as light-hearted as My Name Is, Without Me or We Made You to be found, and no comedy skits or public service announcements. The random celebrity references still raise a smile, but they're thrown in amongst a darker collection of tracks.

Not that this is a bad thing, if anything I welcome the way the heightened themes of regret, hope and determination result in a more sombre, yet still uplifting feel, particularly in Love The Way You Lie and my personal favourite Space Bound - both have quite fantastic choruses to complement the naturally brilliant lyricism of the verses.

One of the best things about the album is the variety amongst the samples and collaborating artists that appear on it. Most of them work - the Black Sabbath reference on Going Through Changes especially, and even the Pink collaboration is allright.

Just to keep things fair and balanced, I must admit that not every song is a standout (so it's not quite worth a perfect score), but a hell of a lot of them are.

4.5/5 - Probably won't yield as many hits as his previous work, but as an album I loved (almost) every minute of it.

8. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke

First up, my apologies for the intense lack of posts over the last two weeks. I've been mildly busy some of the time, but me 'ceebing' has also had a lot to do with it. However, my listening desires have been reinvigorated, so I'm hoping I can get the one-per-day routine up and running again.

Today it was the turn of the talented singer and multi-instrumentalist Ladyhawke to attempt to wow me, with her debut self-titled album. And she did. Sort of.

Now, I wasn't very clued up on who she actually was before hearing it. For anyone not in the know, her's is a very 80s influenced synth-pop album. But chances are about 40 seconds into the opening track Magic, you'll realise you've heard it before, as I did.

The album was a strange one. There's nothing outstanding on it, and yet all the tracks stand out. Each one tends to go down the catchy-but-repetitive chorus route, meaning they're all memorable if a bit samey. Despite this, I enjoyed the album from start to finish, which is the most important thing.

3.5/5 - Enjoyable and consistent electro-pop stuff, but could do with some more variation.

7. Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

So I've been wanting to get into Nine Inch Nails for a while now, and since their latest album is available for free off their official website, I decided to fill my boots. I don't think I've heard anything like it before.

There's a strong distorted feel to the whole album, guitars and the insdustrial-sounding synths in particular, which complement the powerful basslines and raw drum beats. Trent Reznor's vocals I find very unique, in that he can scream and keep perfect control of his voice, giving them an energetic yet melodic quality. I also hadn't realised he was the only official member of NIN, holy crap the man is talented.

The album itself gets progressively quieter, more downtempo and atmospheric as it goes on. The quick-paced 1,000,000 and Letting You are probably the tracks that stand out most, but the rest are still great to chill out to, especially Corona Radiata and The Four Of Us Are Dying, which form a 12-minute build up to the album's climax Demon Seed. This follows the soft, piano-led Lights In The Sky, so plenty of variation.

3.5/5 - Diverse and original, I'll certainly be exploring more of NIN's back catalogue in future.

6. The Prodigy - The Fat Of The Land

Okay so I know it looks like I've completely dingied this idea, but fear not, I've just had a busy week. So I intend to make up for that with a beastly 7 [SEVEN] albums today. Yeah... we'll see how that goes.

I have listened to one though, and that is The Fat Of The Land by The Prodigy, from when they were at the peak of their power. And I'd be surprised if any of the next six can top it.

Obviously I'd heard Smack My Bitch Up, Breathe and Firestarter before - three of the band's greatest songs. I won't dwell too much on them, they're awesome and that's all you really need to know. Great examples of The Prodigy's most punk-influenced phase, with Maxim Reality's gnarly vocals leading the latter two.

That's not to say it's all punk and random samples though. There are some atmospheric synths reminiscent of their early rave days (such as on Climbatize), a style advanced by the eerie female vocals in Smack My Bitch Up and the choral singing in 9-minute epic Narayan. Indeed, there's also an obvious drum 'n' bass influence in the fast-paced finale Fuel My Fire, to complement the band's traditional breakbeats.

4.5/5 - Possibly the band's best moment. I highly recommend it.

5. Röyksopp - Melody A.M.

I was in the mood for something quiet tonight. Nothing that would require any effort to take in, just something I could lie on the sofa and relax to. Melody A.M. turned out to be just that and, luckily, it's also bloody good.

It's a lot less bouncy-synth-pop-ish than Junior, their most recent album, which has the brilliant Happy Up Here, the song which got me into Röyksopp. In fact, it's so relaxing for the most part that it would probably have put me to sleep if it weren't so compelling.

The more ambient style means that few of the tracks stand out on there own, but listening to the album in full is a rather rewarding and beautiful experience. The tracks compliment each other nicely when played together, and whether it's the blippy, almost dreamy synth rhythm of Eple, the ominous and exhilarating climax of Röyksopp's Night Out, or the album's ghostly conclusion 40 Years Back Come, there's plenty of variation.

4/5 - Can't really find a lot of fault with this. Not groundbreaking, but still a greatly diverse and compelling listen.

4. Deadmau5 - For Lack Of A Better Name

Well I've got 16 minutes left to keep this thing going, so I'll keep it quick. Having predictably come across Deadmau5 through Ghosts 'N' Stuff, which features Rob Swire of Pendulum on vocals, I gave probably his most well-known album, For Lack Of A Better Name, a listen tonight.

I wasn't quite sure what I'd make of it, not having had much experience of house music, but I quite enjoyed it. It began with some intruiging wobbly basslines on FML, before the interesting Moar Ghosts 'N' Stuff leads into the rather brilliant Ghosts 'N' Stuff. If you've never heard it, go and hear it now. A brilliant feel-good tune.

That's about as mainstream as the album goes, and the rest is filled with blippy synths and that traditional continuous house drum-beat. It's all good chill out stuff, if unmemorable. The epic ten minute finale Strobe is probably the only standout from the album's second half.

3/5 - A couple of belters on here. House probably isn't my favourite genre of dance, but this ain't half bad.

3. Stone Sour - Come What(ever) May

Having never really found the little I've heard of Slipknot to be to my taste, I thought it might be worth checking out vocalist Corey Taylor's other band, Stone Sour, to see if I fared any better. And I did.

I still wasn't overly impressed with Come What(ever) May, but there are a few gems on there. Through Glass, though I had heard it before, was by far my personal highlight, although the somewhat out of place, almost piano-ballad-like Zzyzx Rd showed that the band can still convey their emotion in an accessible manner, minus the security of their grungey riffs.

That might suggest that I wasn't impressed with the rest of the album, and to a certain degree that is the case. It's not so much that I disliked the post-grunge, alternative-metal sound, but I can't help thinking there are artists out there that do it better. For the most part, it felt like once I'd heard one song on the album, I'd heard them all.

The exceptions to that, as well as the two I mentioned above, are the highly listenable Made Of Scars, as well as Hell & Consequences and Your God, which bring some nice distorted guitar solos into the equation, something I'd have liked to have heard more of on the album.

2.5/5 - A slightly samey album, on which the few moments of diversity provide the only real stand-outs.