WHAT are the qualities and credentials you expect from a music reviewer?

A modicum of musical knowledge, perhaps? A finger on the pulse of current musical trends in addition to an appreciation of the history of popular music?

Sounds reasonable to me so perhaps I should begin by admitting I possess none of these attributes.

Yes, I like music and listen to it often but I can't pretend to know much about the subject.

The problem is, of course, I sometimes (often, actually) have to review an artist I've never heard of. Thank goodness for the internet and Wikipedia.

My research, unfortunately, often exposes further gaps in my knowledge, especially when it comes to musical genres. I can just about cope with the broad categories of blues, rock, jazz and soul but I'm completely flummoxed by terms such as 'Americana' and 'Alternative'.

Is Americana simply anything that comes from America? As for Alternative ... alternative to what?

Anyway, this was the problem I faced when reviewing these four albums, with only very limited knowledge of any of the artists or their respective genres.

I'm betting though that you, dear reader, are probably in the same boat, so join me on a voyage of discovery as we attempt to navigate the treacherous sea that is modern pop music.

Martha - Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart

I hadn't, of course, come across Martha before so I immediately Googled the name to find out who she is.

It turns out that Martha is in fact a four piece emo punk band from a small village called Pity Me in the North East of England. They apparently named the band after a pigeon called Martha.

This immediately set me off on another couple of searches because I hadn't a clue what 'emo' means and I didn't really believe there was such a place as Pity Me.

There is indeed a suburban village of Durham called Pity Me and it's apparently quite a hotbed for emo punk talent like Martha.

How times change. When I was young County Durham was known for producing great footballers such as Bobby Robson and the World Cup winning Charlton brothers rather than emo punks.

Emo punk, by the way, is a musical genre characterised by 'expressive and often confessional lyrics that emerged from the hardcore punk of the 1980s', according to Wikipedia.

That makes perfect sense because the first thing that struck me on listening to Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart was the quality of the lyrics, sung in what I assume is the local twang.

I soon discovered that the album title I liked so much is a line from one of the standout tracks, Ice Cream And Sunscreen. There are lots of other neat and clever phrases in the eleven tracks that made me smile.

The bouncy, infectious guitar based tunes to which the words are set also added to the positive impression I got from the very first play.

The tunes made me think that it would be good fun to see the band play live. I will be keeping an eye open to see if they venture this far south to play local venues like The Robin.

I read that Martha's 2014 debut album, Courting Strong, was about growing up as a punk in a small village and that this second release continues the story, being based on what it's like to be an adult punk in a small village. I hope we don't have to wait until they are middle aged punks in a small village before hearing more from Martha.

I like this album a lot and I'm sure it will be well received by emo punks everywhere. I recommend it to even non-emo punks as a very listenable album of short, catchy, to the point, pop tunes with well above average lyrics.

A definite 8/10.

Nahko & Medicine For The People - Hoka

Nahko & Medicine for the People is another band with whom I'm unfamiliar but the name immediately sparked my curiosity along with some very nice artwork on the CD packaging.

My internet search suggested that they are a 'world music collective', whatever that means.

According to the Cambridge dictionary, world music is popular music that has been influenced by the music of traditional cultures. Doesn't that just about cover everything?

It seems that the term was originally intended to promote non-western music but is it a necessary or particularly helpful label? I think not, especially when the band in question here originates from Oregon, USA. In fact, some might argue that the term could even be discriminatory.

The collective is led by Nahko Bear, born in Portland, Oregon with a mixed ethnic heritage that includes Apache, Puerto Rican and Filipino. Their music has attracted the world music label because it is said to be a fusion of these various cultural influences.

Nahko's Apache influence is immediately apparent on the title track, Hoka, that sounds as if has been plucked from the soundtrack of an old Western film.

What follows, however, sounds to my uneducated ears to be pretty standard pop music with perhaps the occasional nod to Native American drum beats or chants and Latin rhythms. I was a little disappointed that the album wasn't more extreme in its fusion of these diverse influences.

That said, I did enjoy the album's melodic, often anthemic, songs that I could imagine going down well with a summer festival crowd who would soon be singing along with the catchy hooks of tracks like All Can Be Done. It is a very listenable album indeed and I liked it a lot in spite of finding it pretentious in parts.

On the band's website they publish their 'mission', which is basically to save the world. You are invited to join their tribe and follow the call to action. The message is reinforced throughout the album by words spoken between tracks as well as many of the lyrics. Just a little pretentious, perhaps? Alternatively, I could just be an old cynic.

This is a decent 7/10. Don't let the world music label and the possible pretentiousness put you off giving it a listen.

Bat For Lashes - The Bride

Here's a revelation. I've actually heard of Bat For Lashes. That, however, is just about as far as my knowledge goes so I still had to do the internet search thing to find out what I was about to listen to.

Whilst Martha proved to be a band that sounds as if it should be a woman, Bat For Lashes is a woman with a stage name that suggests a band. As if I wasn't confused enough!

Bat For Lashes is the English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Natasha Khan and The Bride is her fourth album under this name.

Her Wikipedia entry lists her genres as, wait for it, indie pop/dream pop/baroque pop/art pop/folktronica/synth pop. Helpful? Got the general idea? No, me neither. If you haven't come across Natasha Khan before, think of her in the same mould as artists such as Kate Bush, Björk, and Tori Amos.

It's best, I think, to simply play the CD and I'm glad I did because The Bride is a quite breathtakingly beautiful album.

The Bride tells the story of a woman left at the alter - not because her fiancé has developed cold feet but because he gets killed in a car crash on the way to the wedding.

Think of the twelve songs as forming the soundtrack to an imagined film about how the Bride finds herself alone on her own honeymoon, grieving the loss of her true love and trying to find the strength to piece together the rest of her life. Khan's beautiful soprano voice provides all the drama and emotion required of such a heartbreaking story.

There is, however, an upside to this sad tale during the second half of the album when Khan suggests that the absence of physical love doesn't necessarily mean the end of a romantic relationship and that it can in fact become even stronger through celebration and remembrance.

Khan tackles the theme of eternal love without any of the clichés that can often hinder such concept albums and produces a beguiling piece of pop music.

I liked this album enormously and will play it a lot, probably on repeat. That's surely worth a 9/10.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Getaway

Finally, we come to an album from a band I'm actually familiar with - but not too familiar, you will be relieved to know.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, from Los Angeles, were formed in 1983 when I was already in my late thirties and convinced that music had ceased to exist with the tragic death of John Bonham and the resultant demise of Led Zeppelin.

It wasn't until the end of the nineties, by which time I had realised that music was still alive and well, that the Peppers came into my consciousness through their Californication album.

It appears that in middle age I suddenly developed a taste for funk rock. Yes, yet another musical label and one that I'm not even going to attempt to describe or define. Let's just say that the uninitiated will know it when they hear it!

I was, then, looking forward to playing The Getaway, the Pepper's eleventh studio album, and getting some funk back into these old bones of mine. I have to say that I was disappointed.

The Getaway is pleasant enough listening but it is mainly low key, mid-tempo stuff without much in the way of passion or melodies that really grabbed me in the same way as when I first discovered the band. The album has, in my view, a distinct lack of the energy, raw edge and ... well, funk ... that I remember.

The mainstays of the band, vocalist Anthony Kiedis and bassist Michael 'Flea' Balzary, are now both into their fifties and perhaps the more mellow, lush feel of this album reflects this fact. It is also likely to be related to a change in the band's production team.

Kiedis' vocals are still rapped out in characteristic staccato style and Flea's bass lines still impress but for me the magic is missing. A very average 6/10 at best.

GKH