1. Taken By Trees, East of Eden
(Victoria Bergsman, former lead singer for The Concretes, is dropping her latest solo exploration with hushed arrangements and an exotic-lullaby mindset)
2. Jay Reatard, Watch Me Fall
(The punk with the unfortunate fake name but the unmistakable gift for hooks, is back with a magnum opus of disheveld garage rock.)
3. Yim Yames, Tribute To EP
(My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James pays tribute to George Harrison, with this odd but ethereal EP of cover tunes. It’s bare bones, without the Phil Spector wall-of-sound in sight. James’ intoxicating voice is especially nice on “My Sweet Lord.”)
4. The xx, xx
(These Brits have a love for R&B, sure, but inject their soft-spoken pop with a darker/sharper edge.)
5. Mew, No More Stories Are Told Today I’m Sorry They Washed Away…
(The Danish prog-rockers are at it again, with an epic dash of polyrythmic power.)
1. Julian Plenti, Julian Plenti Is… Skyscraper
(Do you like the band Interpol, but wish they weren’t always so gloomy and that they occasionally mixed up styles? You’re in luck, because Interpol lead singer Paul Banks has launched this side project with winning results. It’s the voice of Interpol, but a musical sound more like Arcade Fire or The National.)
2. jj, jj n2
(Another electronic act from Sweden. Do these grow on trees over there? I hope so, because jj has manufactured some smart pop with subtle beats. Oh, and a wicked Lil Wayne homage.)
3. Hockey, Mind Chaos
(Buzz buzz buzz. Another “buzz” band, but this one is gifted and capable of delivering the kind of hooky sneer that was all the rage back in 2004. A throwback, but a worthwhile throwback.)
4. Maximo Park, Quicken The Heart
(They may have let their buzz fade, but these UK rockers still give us Phoenix some weighty competition.)
5. Papercuts, You Can Have What You Want
(A one-man band that fuses moody Velvet Undergound/Yo La Tengo vibes with a breezy shine.)
1. Memory Cassette, Call & Response EP and Rewind While Sleepy EP
(A cryptic New Jersey outfit that took the world by surprise with these two delightful and dark EPs. Shoegazey pop with reverb-heavy effects and a fine pop sense.)
2. Wheat, White Ink, Black Ink
(They may have been out of the spotlight for years, but perhaps that’s because this band needed to go back to the drawing board for their fifth LP. With bigger sounds - possibly influenced by acts like Arcade Fire and MGMT - the catchy album has a psychedelic feel that’s new for the band.)
3. The Cave Singers, Welcome Joy
(From the remains of Seattle’s Pretty Girls Make Graves comes this rowdy folk-rock group. A great summertime acoustic-based album.)
4. Moby, Wait For Me
(Supposedly inspired by David Lynch’s meditation advocacy, Moby’s latest is an extremely downtempo trance record. Back are the gospel samples but gone are the dance beats. At first, it sounds like a little oddity, but it will work its way into your subconscious.)
5. Bell X1, Blue Lights On The Runway
(The other Irish rock band named after an old plane, this album is a few months old now, but I recently discovered what a lovely collection of earnest pop/rock it can be.)
1. Guns ‘n’ Roses, Chinese Democracy
(14 years in the making, this album is not worth a wait that long. However, it is a good rock record if not a bit overindulgent. Half of this album is great, classic rock production.)
2. The Fireman, Electric Arguments
(Paul McCartney and Youth reunite for their odd side project. This latest album, though, may be McCartney’s best “solo” work in a decade. Inventive songwriting merges with expansive sounds, to make for trippy cool.)
3. Little Joy, Little Joy
(The drummer from The Strokes starts a new band, and makes a retro-fitted flash of sound that comes across like The Velvet Underground living in Motown.)
4. Arthur Russell, Love Is Overtaking Me
(This deceased disco/cello cult icon gets the appreciation he deserves, with this soft-spoken compilation of obscure acoustic tracks. You won’t really hear the disco or the cello, but you’ll hear the pop.)
5. Coldplay, Prospekt’s March
(Somehow, one of the biggest bands in the world released a new EP that is better than their new LP. If anything, get it to fall in love with “Lost+” which features an unusual but fine Jay-Z cameo under a bewitching hook.)
1. Snow Patrol, A Hundred Million Suns
(These Irish/Scottish rockers make good on the promise of their earlier records with this tuneful and epic new album. Anthemic and powerful.)
2. El Guincho, Alegranza!
(A Spanish producer/songwriter with a devilish knack for party melodies and no energy to spare.)
3. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, Cardinology
(The once over-prolific New York Americana master returns with a sturdy and road-worn rock album.)
4. Secret Machines, Secret Machines
(Splitting their time between Brooklyn and Texas, these pysch-rockers unleash a fury of trippy rock songs, and a few emocore winners.)
5. Kaiser Chiefs, Off With Their Heads
(Liverpool’s mad-hatters kick back with a Mark Ronson produced opus dedicated to wine, women, and song.)
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