Serious fans of talk-show host Conan O'Brien's humour will really enjoy this DVD that documents the period between O'Brien's loss of "The Tonight Show" and the start of his latest show "Conan", on TBS. It details the process of putting together a 44-date North American live comedy tour that took place in mid-2010. Conan, sidekick Andy Richter and O'Brien's writing staff are shown working through the process of putting together a 90-minute show. Conan's wife and children make brief appearances, along with comedians Jim Carrey, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Anyone familiar with Conan's staff will enjoy seeing O'Brien's loyal and beautiful assistant Sona, writers Deon Cole, Mike Sweeney and Aaron Bleyeart and producer Jeff Ross. Conan has a relaxed and playful rapport with his staff, but they do have to put up with his many moods. Conan can get a bit petulant and self-absorbed at times, but he balances it out nicely with self-deprecating humour. The DVD contains a lot of quality extras including a post-tour interview with O'Brien. The picture and sound quality are both excellent. Highly recommended.

Melody Gardot's third album "The Absence" was inspired by her travels to Portugal, Morocco and Brazil. She not only travelled to these locales, she immersed herself in the cultures, learning new languages, both linguistic and musical. These influences find their way into many of the album's eleven tracks. "Mira", "Iemanja" and especially "Lisboa" are the best of these exotic tracks. There's also a three-song stretch of film noir-tinged music - "Impossible Love", "If I Tell You I Love You" and the album's stand-out cut "Goodbye" where Gardot's versatile voice simulates a baritone sax as she growls out the chorus. Because of Melody's 2003 accident, the songs again are mostly quiet in nature. This is most evident in the opening few tracks which I found a bit sleepy. The album as a whole, apart from the production, does not seem of this time. Gardot has a unique way of making her compositions sound like they're long-lost tracks from the Great American Songbook. Adventurous, joyous and romantic, "The Absence" is a perfect late-night listen.

Carrie Underwood''s fourth album "'Blown Away"' is rock solid from beginning to end. It is a complete triumph and a huge leap forward for Carrie on all fronts. Vocally, lyrically and creatively, this is the emergence of Carrie Underwood 2.0 - The Artist.

Contained within its 14 diverse tracks are styles ranging from classic country ('Wine After Whiskey', 'Cupid's Got a Shotgun') to calypso ('One Way Ticket') to progressive country ('Blown Away', 'Two Black Cadillacs) all handled with vocal aplomb by Carrie, whose star has never shone brighter.

Previous albums 'Some Hearts', 'Carnival Ride' and 'Play On' are chock full of hits, but some songs seemed a bit too fussed over and formulaic. Many of the lesser cuts had a girlishness about them, with subject matters seemingly pulled from the pages of teen diaries. No more.

'Blown Away' is the work of a mature young woman. Throughout the album, Carrie is confident, completely in command and firing on all cylinders. With vivid lyrics and expansive production by long-time producer Mark Bright, 'Blown Away' has the goods to go the distance, taking down everything in its path on its march to glory at the CMAs, ACMs and Grammys, where it will most definitely represent country music as an Album of the Year nominee.

Two tracks in particular stand head and shoulders above the pack: "'Two Black Cadillacs'" and "'Wine After Whiskey"', both co-written by Underwood. The former tells the tale of a wife and mistress conspiring to do away with the man who betrayed them both, while the latter is a classic country weeper about a new relationship that pales in comparison to what came before. Against a cinematic backdrop of tinkling piano, rolling drums and edgy strings, Carrie brings '"Cadillac"' to life, infusing the chorus with gospel-tinged vocals: "''and the preacher said he was a good man, and his brother said he was a good friend".'' Tense, muscular and assured, Carrie's delivery is stellar. This is a shining example of progressive country music. "'Wine After Whiskey"' is pure heartbreak in the classic country tradition. Carrie effortlessly conveys the emptiness felt by a lover who discovers her new flame can't possibly compare to the one true love that has left and moved on. Carrie's vocal is tender and nuanced during the verses, crying out in hurtful longing during the heartbreaking chorus: '"Once you've tasted a love so strong, you can't go back and you can't settle on anything less, and that's what gets me, it's like having Wine After Whiskey".'

"'Blown Away"' contains other strong cuts like the dramatic title track, where Carrie's vocal matches the power of the twister at the center of a tale about a daughter's revenge on a drunken, abusive father. '"Cupid''s Got a Shotgun"', a fast-paced redneck rave-up fits Underwood like a glove as she sings of being pursued by a suitor armed with a "'sawed-off double-barrel, trigger-happy as can be".' A lively fiddle solo is followed by the twangy guitar runs of guest Brad Paisley. "'One Way Ticket'" is a breezy, calypso-styled ditty where Carrie substitutes steel drums with intentionally off-key whistling. It's a hoot, and one of the few moments of levity on the album. In song after song, Underwood''s vocals are warm, natural and unforced. Having listened to Adele last year, she's learned to reign in her tendency to unleash the glory notes, opting instead for restraint, subtlety and vocal detail, best exemplified in the spare and beautiful "'Forever Changed".

A new chapter in Carrie Underwood''s career is beginning. With international tours planned, the world will finally hear what many in North America have always known: Carrie is the finest singer of our generation. Let there be no doubt.

The Corrs debut album "Forgiven Not Forgotten" is one of the finest commercial pop releases of the last 20 years. The Dublin-based Corrs are a group of three sisters and one brother, all of whom sing and play instruments. Lead singer Andrea has a lovely voice, most evident on the waltz-time "Runaway", one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded. The Corrs exceptional vocal harmonies come to the fore on standouts "Love to Love You", "Closer", "The Right Time" and the title track. Celtic instrumentation abounds. Tin whistle, bodhran and fiddle combine with rock instruments to create an effective hybrid. There are six instrumental pieces that fit nicely into the flow, acting as intros and outros to the other nine cuts. The highlight is the Corrs version of "Toss the Feathers", a traditional Irish folk tune, given an expansive, drum-heavy treatment. A five-star record, docked one star for occasionally awkward lyrics.

To fully embrace Radiohead's "OK Computer" you need to be fans of both the Sex Pistols and Pink Floyd in equal measure. Echoes of The Floyd pop up in the pristine "Subterranean Homesick Alien", closing track "The Tourist" and especially "Lucky" which has a distinctive "Dark Side of the Moon" vibe. The Pistols influence appears in "Paranoid Android" and "Airbag" where Tom Yorke yelps the tuneless line "In an interstellar burst, I'm back to save the universe". "Climbing Up the Walls" and "Electioneering" are venomous Brit-Pop tunes given the raw Johnny Rotten treatment by singer Yorke. It can take up to ten spins to find your way into the record, but it does reveal many rewards if you give it time. Best tracks: "Subterranean..", "Let Down", "Lucky" and "Airbag".

Neko Case, part-time member of the art-pop band New Pornographers has released five full-length solo albums since the late nineties. "Middle Cyclone" (2009) is her very best. Case's style is hard to define. It's part Americana, part film-noir and part kitsch. Lyrically obscure, "Cyclone's" central subjects are half-remembered dreams, connections to nature and recollectons of childhood. It's a very organic album, recorded at her farm in Vermont and in rural Ontario, Canada. Her band is in fine form, but Neko is the stand-out, adding new shading and nuance to her already formidable voice. Highlights include the noir-ish "Prison Girls", the ominous "Red Tide" and the lovely title-track, where Case sings with emotion and purity over a strummed guitar and cranked music-box. "Middle Cyclone" is Case's most commercially successful record to date, reaching number 3 on the Billboard 200. Highly recommended for the adventurous listener.

"In Rainbows" is a thing of beauty. For the first time, a Radiohead album can be described as 'warm'. For a someone wanting to sample the band for the first time, this is the one to buy. Frontman Thom Yorke sings with real feeling and even uses a fine falsetto voice on the gorgeous 'Nude' and the equally stunning 'Reckoner'. The whole recording sounds live off-the-floor (you can even hear the close-miked stick-work of drummer Phil Selway and the ring of his closed high-hat cymbals). The obsessive-love song 'All I Need' starts quietly, driven by a bass synth line. At the three-minute mark, the percussion bursts forth in a flurry of crashing cymbals, the music rises to a crescendo and Yorke repeatedly cries out "It's all wrong, it's all right" over an accompanying piano figure - riding the wave to the song's end. Spine-tingling stuff. Radiohead is in a class by itself and this record proves it in spades.

"Jaggedland" is a huge disappointment. In the lead-up to its release, this CD was being touted as Marshall Crenshaw's return to the glory days of "Field Day" or his 1982 self-titled debut. (Both of those are pure-pop classics, by the way). Instead, "Jaggedland" is a collection of half-baked song ideas, meandering, unfocused lyrics and dull arrangements. There's the odd flash of the true Crenshaw sound from time to time, but it's never sustained for long. MC's voice is still one of pop's very best and he's a talented guitarist, but his first two CD's (plus "Miracle of Science" and "The 9-Volt Years") are the ones to buy to discover the master of pure pop.

Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" is a modern-day pop masterpiece that greatly expands the band's scope and ambition. After a few spins, I couldn't help but think that AF is on the verge of becoming the new Beatles, in that they write songs that are infused with love, have universal appeal and are at the creative forefront of modern pop music - all the while keeping the songs melodic, interesting and accessible. Stand-outs include the eerie and thunderous "Rococo", the gorgeous, pulsating "Half Light I", the Beatlesque "Deep Blue" and the ode to a not-so-distant past "We Used to Wait", wherein frontman Win Butler sings "hope that something pure can last". Well "The Suburbs" is about as pure as it gets. Highly recommended.

I'm a long-time R.E.M. fan, having bought "Murmur" back in 1983 - one of their classic early records. I've since acquired all of their albums, with the exception of 2004's "Around the Sun". Their latest release is a solid, if unoriginal effort that sounds somewhat like 90's-era R.E.M. ("Out of Time"/"Automatic For the People") but without the sense that they are breaking new ground. Still, there are three standout tracks: "All the Best" - a near-perfect up-tempo rocker, the lovely, piano-based "Walk it Back" with singer Michael Stipe at his best, and "Alligator, Aviator, Autopilot, Antimatter", a loose, fun, punk-rocker. Overall, "Collapse" echoes many of R.E.M.'s previous releases, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just that after roaring back to form with 2008's "Accelerate" (containing the classic "Hollow Man"), this latest work is a bit of a let-down.