There are only a few music producers in rap who can get away with putting their name on an album and enjoy a bigger spotlight than anyone singing on their tracks. Single-handedly resuscitating the career of Nelly Furtado by turning her into a pop icon, he also created a concept album for Justin Timberlake and has worked with every major artist in today’s market. Timbaland proves here that he is as diverse as a producer can possibly get, collaborating with artistes that range from Miley Cyrus and Daughtry to Justin Timberlake and Drake. Undertow featuring Esthero and The Fray is an alternative venture that works for Timbaland. It’s a catchy tune that very well may be the Apologize of the Shock Value sequel. Morning After Dark reunites Timbaland with Nelly Furtado for another bouncy, electronics heavy song featuring his pounding bass, crispy stick slapping percussion and video game-esque melodies. The album’s least banal songs are grounded in hip-hop and R&B. Ease Off the Liquor is an electro-driven club encounter in which Timbaland bluntly tells a girl, "You had too much." Tim pushes the envelope wide open and experiments with Miley Cyrus in an express package on We Belong to the Music. If you are familiar with the star of Hannah Montana, just imagine Party in the USA done to a high-energy hip-hop beat and you’d be on the right track.

Best track: Morning After Dark

Worst track: Carry Out

Up To Now collects some of the finest moments from Snow Patrol’s lengthy career. The premise of the collection is to look back at the band’s 15-year career with selections from all five studio albums, in addition to some b-sides, three new songs and, somewhat inexplicably, two tracks from vocalist Gary Lightbody’s side project, The Reindeer Section. Disc one opens up with two of the band’s biggest hits to date, Chocolate and Chasing Cars, while Crazy in Love is an interesting cover of the Beyonce original that fans will surely appreciate being included on this compilation. Personally our favourite tracks are the rocking Hands Open, the melodic Making Enemies, and the lullaby Cartwheels, which was actually performed by The Reindeer Section. The majority of their songs are charming and placid, but they have drawn out a few faster, more rock-induced tracks to keep your full attention. Disc two contains a live version of Chasing Cars (from Union Chapel), which is severely dogmatic in comparison to the original. Three new songs are also included, with the slow-building, understated Give Me Strength standing out as one of the band’s strongest tracks in years.`A0A solo rendition of An Olive Grove Facing the Sea is worth the listen, along with Fifteen Minutes Old, a song of 1998’s Songs for Polar Bears that sounds more like Sunny Day Real Estate than Snow Patrol, but in a positive way.

Best track: Chasing Cars

Worst track: Run

LA trio 30 Seconds To Mars have returned with This Is War, an album they spent two years crafting amid a lion’s share of personal and professional turmoil. The album is passionate, rousing and astonishingly focussed. Much like Muse, they always pull off their grand ideas. Accordingly, while their previous album A Beautiful Lie featured its share of over-dramatic moments, this time the band have blasted them into the stratosphere. The record begins with Escape, a track that has minimal vocals but instead builds anticipation for the main attraction with a frantic drumbeat, followed by Night of the Hunter, a promising new-age rock anthem with eager desperation. Their sound has matured immensely, lead single Kings and Queens is smooth and confident, even if Leto does channel Tom DeLonge more than he does Bono. Gone are the scream-filled bridges of The Kill, instead the track floats on an epic verse that adequately complements its chorus and results in a fully formed sound. The production is heavy-handed and fantastic, and the album certainly does feel as if the band has put their heart and soul into it. The Kanye collaboration in Hurricane is, however, disappointing, especially after the track struggles to build-up before crumbling into auto-tuned madness. Title track and Summit has some interesting elements, particularly the fact that more often than not, the backing vocals are supplied by fans. You can actually hear parts that sound exactly what you’d expect at a concert sing-along.

Best track: Kings and Queens

Worst track: Search And Destroy

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