TENNIS Cape Dory [Fat Possum] The debut album by husband-and-wife duo Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley is a surf-pop treasure spawned by an eight-month sailing journey up the East Coast. Everything goes swimmingly on the surface of Cape Dory (named after the boat’s manufacturer), but a stream of melancholy lurks beneath the waves. The best songs are like wistful glances back towards the shore: “Marathon” rides along on a terrific bass line and... 

JOHN VANDERSLICE White Wilderness [Dead Oceans] There’s always been an orchestral sensibility to John Vanderslice’s music. This time he makes it official by teaming with San Francisco’s Magik*Magik Orchestra on nine new tunes featuring Minna Choi’s subtle, skillful arrangements of strings, horns, woodwinds and more traditional rock toys like piano and pedal steel guitar. Sleek strings race crosswise across the contrapuntal groaning of wind... 

WIRE Red Barked Tree [Pink Flag] Wire’s angular omnipresence has long lurked in the deep corners of the English rock psyche. Morphing from the most art-damaged of the early punks to the most punk-damaged of the post-punk art-rockers, the band has spent 30 years off and on watching half-shed shards of its DNA pop up at intervals, and now even their descendants in the Feelies or the Pixies are old enough to go on reunion tours. While crashers like... 

DAVID LOWERY The Palace Guards [429 Records/Savoy] It’s taken San Antonio’s David Lowery nearly three decades to succumb to the urge of recording a solo album, although he was always the dominant creative force in his bands Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker. As it stands, close your eyes and The Palace Guards morphs into a very good Cracker album. The nine songs here veer between country cornpone and blazing rock, with Lowery’s signature wit... 

THE DIRTBOMBS Party Store [In the Red] Garage rock and soul are both unavoidable influences for any Detroit band reared on the local drinking water. The Dirtbombs love their Motown and Stooges, but they also know the city didn’t stop producing good music in the ’70s. Here the band explores a more obscure era of hometown history, covering a series of innovative techno singles from the ’80s and ’90s. The originals were recorded with drum machines... 

DESTROYER Kaputt [Merge] Dan Bejar has done lo-fi, he’s tried symphonic and now he goes for a super-glossy hi-fi sound on the latest from his band Destroyer. Kaputt is like the soundtrack for a Bryan Ferry biopic from an alternate reality—full of atmospheric synthesizers, effects-treated guitars, crisp drums and sleek, airless bass. The alto saxophone meandering through some of the songs is also part of the wistful mood of the record—all late... 

THE GADDABOUTS The Gaddabouts [Racecarlotta] While it’s only natural to mistake the Gaddabouts’ self-titled debut for another Edie Brickell album—perhaps a companion piece to the eponymous effort she released in January—that assumption misses the mark. This is an all-star assemblage, with Brickell being but one of the headliners alongside veteran drummer Steve Gadd, Who bassist Pino Palladino and British guitarist Andy Fairweather-Low. Gadd,... 

GANG OF FOUR Content [Yep Roc] Gang of Four roared out of the chute more than three decades ago with Entertainment!, one of the post-punk era’s finest albums. A prime influence on the alternative-rock crowd, the British quartet framed punk’s subversive spirit in jagged rhythms and shards of staccato riffs. Remarkably, the group’s first album of new material since reuniting in 2004 picks up right where its early work left off. Armed with sturdy... 

CARRIE RODRIGUEZ AND BEN KYLE We Still Love Our Country [Ninth Street Opus] Carrie Rodriguez, who began her career as part of a duo with Chip Taylor, finds a new collaborator on this duets album with Ben Kyle from the Minneapolis band Romantica. On this eight-song set the two travel some familiar Americana territory, covering Townes Van Zandt (“If I Needed You”), John Prine (“Unwed Fathers”), George Jones (“You’re Still On My Mind”)... 

JOE LOVANO/US FIVE Bird Songs [Blue Note] When Joe Lovano decided to record an album interpreting the songs of Charlie Parker, he knew the best approach he could take was to not pretend to be Parker himself. And why should he? Lovano has been one of the most consistently inventive saxophonists in jazz for more than two decades. The melodies and chordal shifts may be as familiar as bebop itself, but Bird Songs sounds and feels like what it is: a Joe... 

NICOLE ATKINS Mondo Amore [Razor & Tie] Four years ago in “Brooklyn’s On Fire!” Nicole Atkins sang about a city in flames while sounding too wrapped up in a magical, boy-crazy dream to really care. Her second album fast-forwards to a point where love-induced blindness has lost some of its power and where a conflict has arisen between our need to move on and our desire to keep what’s in front of us. When Atkins isn’t sticking up for... 

TALIB KWELI Gutter Rainbows [Javotti Media/3D] The latest from Talib Kweli is largely a DIY affair: The rapper recorded and released it outside the major-label system, and no big-name producers or big-shot guests were involved. It’s just Kweli with a handful of collaborators, dropping rhymes that veer toward the socially conscious over neo-soul beats. In other words, it’s not all that different from what the New York MC has been doing all along.... 

PJ HARVEY Let England Shake [Vagrant] After years of making love songs sound like declarations of war, PJ Harvey is flipping the script. Let England Shake is a blunt indictment of her country’s past and present militarism, and while the lyrics range from mournful to venomous, the music is steady and restrained. Part of that is due to instrumentation: Harvey wrote these songs on autoharp, an instrument that doesn’t exactly lend itself to hardcore... 

RADIOHEAD The King of Limbs [TBD Records] There are two Radioheads, and there have been for some time now. One is a five-piece rock band from Oxfordshire, England, that is responsible for relatively straightforward modern classics like “Creep” and “Karma Police.” The other is a six-piece studio collective (including producer Nigel Godrich, an essential part of the team since 1997’s landmark OK Computer) that assembles complex, surreal sonic... 

BOB REA Ragged Choir bobreamusic.com Rea’s songs can come across ragged at times, but they’re also very easy to like. An old school raconteur with a stylistic similarity to the likes of Guy Clark, Waylon Jennings and Rodney Crowell, Rea demonstrates a surefooted take on the Everyman perspective.  Read More →

MICK RHODES ’Til I Am Dust myspace.com/mickrhodesmusic Mick Rhodes jumps genres like a kangaroo navigating the Outback, yet consistently cranks out great tunes. Whether it’s the pop spark of “Back to the 909,” the Americana revelry of “It’s Too Late” or the backwoods stomp of “Brown and Blue,” Rhodes rocks with conviction.  Read More →

KEVENS We Are One kevens.com Reggae has splintered into several subgenres over the years, but Kevens takes a traditional tack that would likely find Bob Marley nodding his approval. Opening track “HalleluJAH” echoes Marley’s spiritual side, while songs like “Open Your Eyes and “Breakdown the Walls” offer further affirmation. Kevens maintains a rock steady rhythm throughout.  Read More →

BIRDSONG AT MORNING Annals of My Glass House birdsongatmorning.com A lovely compendium combining Birdsong At Morning’s four EPs, Annals of My Glass House finds the chamber folk trio gently ruminating on matters of the heart. Nick Drake’s influence is obvious, but hushed covers of Blondie’s “Dreaming” and the Rolling Stones’ “Moonlight Mile” also prove revelatory.  Read More →

AUDITORIUM Be Brave auditoriummusic.com You’d expect a musician who brands himself Auditorium to go for theatrics, but the man behind this curtain, Spencer Berger, keeps the drama to a minimum. There’s delicacy in his deft approach, with his sweeping vocals and ornate acoustic settings rekindling memories of Mike Love and the Beach Boys.  Read More →

PATRICK WILLIAMS Aurora patrickwilliamsmusic.com While known mainly as a film and television composer, Grammy and Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Patrick Williams is also an accomplished jazz arranger whose work with Frank Sinatra, Tom Scott and clarinetist Eddie Daniels has earned him acclaim throughout his 50-year career. Aurora reunites Williams with Scott and Daniels and also includes other ace players like Hubert Laws, Arturo Sandoval, Chuck Findley... 

TIM LEE 3 Raucous Americanus timleethree.com After winning over rock fans in Let’s Active and the dubiously dubbed Windbreakers, Tim Lee has been soaking up the sounds of the South while touring what he and his wife, bass player Susan Bauer Lee, call the “pulled pork circuit.” The accurately titled, sprawling double disc Raucous Americanus emphasizes the gritty, no-nonsense MO that’s become the Tim Lee 3’s stock in trade. With drummer Matt... 

DARDEN SMITH Marathon dardensmith.com While Darden Smith’s Austin upbringing might lead some to tag him as just another Texas troubadour, his recent efforts have shown some distance from his homegrown roots. While he is known to dabble in pop, Marathon reflects a darker side to his musical persona, given a set of songs united by a sense of hushed introspection. The album maintains a consistent conceptual feel that connects the steadfast sway of... 

BRIAN RAY This Way Up brianray.com Although Brian Ray honed his chops backing Etta James, Smokey Robinson and French heartthrob Johnny Hallyday, since 2002 he has been perhaps best known as a member of Paul McCartney’s backing band. Not surprisingly, Ray’s second solo effort reflects a pop sensibility honed by experience and enhanced by long-term exposure to McCartney. Yet his fondness for big beats, vibrant hooks and catchy choruses doesn’t... 

MINI MANSIONS Mini Mansions minimansionsmusic.com Mini Mansions’ ambitious and complex sound draws equally from pop and prog-rock. Their appealing melodies aim for accessibility, and radiant textures and breezy harmonies make Mini Mansions feel spacious. At times the L.A.-based band’s members seem intent on proving their skill at shaping soundscapes, especially on songs like “Monk” and “The Room Outside.” That comes with the territory,... 

THE JIGSAW SEEN Bananas Foster thejigsawseen.com Given to elaborate arrangements that incorporate a staunchly retro feel, the Jigsaw Seen remains one of the more accomplished power-pop outfits to have emerged from L.A.’s 1980s paisley underground. Their music veers from exuberant and embracing to precious and precocious, giving songs like “David Hart’s Name of Song,” “Fruitbasket Upset” and “Melancholy Morning” a consistent sound that’s... 

KATE JACOBS Home Game katejacobsmusic.com Kate Jacobs’ sly, childlike vocals generally tread the divide between innocence and whimsy, but Home Game finds her cloaked in a blanket of domesticity. With two toddlers keeping her occupied, she sings of being drawn to the hearth although tempted by the tug of the road. The sentiments are simple, but Jacobs’ alluring delivery makes even the wistfully dreamy “Time for Bed” seem like a sumptuous delight.... 

GARY HUSBAND Dirty & Beautiful Volume 1 garyhusband.com Drummer and keyboardist Gary Husband’s résumé is peppered with albums by famous musicians, Jeff Beck, Jack Bruce, Robin Trower and John McLaughlin among them. Several notables contribute here—McLaughlin, Trower, Steve Hackett and Allan Holdsworth included—but Dirty & Beautiful isn’t a mere exercise in superstar indulgence. Rather, it’s a showcase for Husband’s talents as... 

JEFF FINLIN The Tao of Motor Oil jefffinlin.com Singer and songwriter Jeff Finlin’s latest offering is a study in tone and temperament, ranging from the sobering pronouncements of “Barefoot in the Snow,” “Hands Off the Wheel” and “La Luna” to the steadfastly determined “East by West” and “Stones Must Roll.” The Tao of Motor Oil (a title Finlin said refers to his hope for a smoothly running life) maintains an unwavering resolve... 

STACIE COLLINS Sometimes Ya Gotta… staciecollins.com Stacie Collins represents a refreshing break from the shy, retiring types that seem to dominate Austin and Nashville these days. Opening track “Hey Mister” emphasizes that point by tossing out the typecasting so prevalent in commercial country music these days. “Hey mister, listen to the radio playin’/Another shooting star/But they ain’t got a damn thing to say.” Collins isn’t so... 

ERIC BRACE & PETER COOPER Master Sessions redbeetrecords.com Inspired by a shared admiration for a pair of iconic instrumentalists—Dobro legend Mike Auldridge and pedal steel master Lloyd Green—Peter Cooper and Last Train Home’s Eric Brace opted to celebrate their legacies by actually enlisting these veteran virtuosos themselves. With additional support from Nashville’s finest session players, the performances are flawless—and the material... 

BLEU Four bleutopia.com Bleu—also known as singer, songwriter and instrumentalist William James McAuley III—boasts a power-pop sound that embraces rousing anthems, outsized arrangements and the kind of insistent singalongs that might give the E Street Band a run for their money. After taking honors in Boston’s annual Battle of the Bands competition, McAuley joined L.E.O., a group that shared members with Chicago, Hanson and Jellyfish while... 

Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)? [Lorber Films] DVD Harry Nilsson was a one-of-a-kind character: an immensely talented songwriter whose biggest hits were covers; an ebullient soul fueled by a terror of abandonment; an ambitious striver who seemed determined to wreck his career; a man with the voice of an angel and a devilish sense of humor; a lover of life who often appeared to have a death wish; a onetime multimillionaire... 

ROCK BAND 3 [Harmonix] GUITAR HERO: WARRIORS OF ROCK [Activision] VIDEO GAMES The music game genre has grown crowded quickly over the last few years, but the essential battle at its core remains that between the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises. The latest iteration of each demonstrates the very different ways in which the games have evolved. The Guitar Hero series is on its sixth major incarnation, not counting seemingly endless variants like... 

GUITAR HERO: WARRIORS OF ROCK [Activision] ROCK BAND 3 [Harmonix] VIDEO GAMES The music game genre has grown crowded quickly over the last few years, but the essential battle at its core remains that between the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises. The latest iteration of each demonstrates the very different ways in which the games have evolved. The Guitar Hero series is on its sixth major incarnation, not counting seemingly endless variants like... 

JIMI HENDRIX West Coast Seattle Boy: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology [Experience Hendrix/Sony Legacy] BOX SET At some point the world resigned itself to the idea that every scrap of tape left behind by musical giants like Miles Davis and John Coltrane was worth hearing—that every alternate version was at least a little revealing, and even a seconds-long take that broke down before getting started offered a glimpse into the creative process. It’s... 

CAREY OTT Human Heart [DiscoverRock.com] On his second full-length solo album, Ott again displays the understated melodicism of his previous work as well as a winsome voice reminiscent of Freedy Johnston. On the punchy “Wish I Could,” Ott voices his eternal optimism with pithy lines like “I want to talk and communicate with everyone.” That theme continues on the oughta-be-a-hit “Be Honest,” where he croons, “A little more courtesy, empathy/All... 

KAT MASLICH-BODE The Road Of 6 [Mishara Music] A decade ago, Kat Maslich-Bode (then just Maslich) was half of the buzzed-about Los Angeles-based acoustic duo eastmountainsouth with Peter Bradley Adams. They released an album and toured with folks like Lucinda Williams and Nelly Furtado before breaking up in 2004. The alluring EP The Road of 6 is the at-long-last solo debut for the now Nashville-based singer-songwriter. The opening track, “March,”... 

VIOLENS Amoral [Friendly Fire/Static Recital] Producer and multi-instrumentalist Jorge Elbrecht digs everything from black metal and hardcore punk to ’90s dance music, but he has the ’80s on the brain with Amoral, the debut album from his Brooklyn trio Violens. Elbrecht’s is a different sort of nostalgia. Rather than referencing indie-rock faves like New Order or Gary Numan, he aims for the high-gloss Top 40 pop of the decade’s latter half;... 

THE STRING CHEESE INCIDENT Rhythm of the Road, Vol. One: Incident in Atlanta [SCI Fidelity] This 2000 show in Atlanta has achieved legendary status among String Cheese Incident fans, capturing a moment at which the veteran jam band reached a new plateau as a performing unit. And what a treat it is for Cheeseheads: over three hours of the group’s trademark stew of bluegrass, funk and jazz with oodles of interplay among the members. The group quickly... 

THE VOLEBEATS The Volebeats [Rainbow Quartz] The Volebeats have been putting records out sporadically and without much fanfare since 1989 without attracting a great deal of attention. The band has displayed an unwavering adherence to a ’60s British Invasion sound, particularly in its R&B permutations (the Stones’ Out of Our Heads would be an appropriate touchstone), strained through a country sensibility and throwing in various dollops of... 

SOUTHERN CULTURE ON THE SKIDS The Kudzu Ranch [Kudzu] Southern Culture on the Skids has been providing its own particular perspective on the lowbrow side of the South for more than two decades now, from dirt-track dates to banana pudding, all set to a raucous, party-ready amalgam of rockabilly, blues, surf music and whatever else crosses its members’ minds. The band’s 13th album is a brisk race through hick-rock character sketch (“My Neighbor... 

THE PIPETTES Earth vs. the Pipettes [Polka Dot Sounds/Fortuna Pop] After delving into the sound of classic early-’60s girls groups on 2006’s We Are the Pipettes, the Brit indie act’s follow-up takes the next logical step by diving into disco. Maybe they should have stuck with the girl-group thing. Now a duo after near-constant lineup changes over the past four years, the Pipettes approach disco head-on with glossy songs packed full of candy-colored... 

ERIC JOHNSON Up Close [Vortexan Music] While it’s been 20 years since Eric Johnson had his closest brush with fame with the landmark Ah Via Musicom, the joyful noise that is his signature remains completely intact. At times, his entire multi-decade discography feels like it could have been cut in one long session in any given year. For its part, Up Close lacks anything quite as breakneck as “Zap” or as hummable as “Cliffs of Dover,” but... 

EDIE BRICKELL Edie Brickell [Redeye] Before adult-contemporary audiences could get the wah-wah guitar of her debut hit “What I Am” out of their heads, media-shy Edie Brickell had already grown disaffected with show business. Because her career since the ’80s has been modest by choice, it’s a feel-good shock to hear her sounding so comfortable on just her sixth album in 23 years. “Give It Another Day” starts out sounding like Laura Nyro... 

STEREOLAB Not Music [Drag City] Sadly, this new release does not signal an end to Stereolab’s recently begun hiatus. The 13 songs on Not Music were recorded in 2007 alongside the 17 that made it onto the following year’s Chemical Chords. This new batch shares much in common with the first, while building on ideas the London collective has been cooking up since the early ’90s. As always, Stereolab makes music for situationist cocktail parties—soirees... 

DEADMAU5 4×4=12 [Ultra] Canadian electro producer Deadmau5 (pronounced “deadmouse”) has appeared at the 2010 Winter Olympics, won a slew of electronic music awards and spun on national TV during the MTV Video Music Awards, but he demonstrates on his new album that building laptop beats and wearing a surreal costume on stage does not make one Daft Punk. His third album is a wide-ranging collection of dance tracks, with pumping rhythm on “Some... 

CHARLIE WILSON Just Charlie [Jive] As long as there has been popular music, its focus has remained on love and all it entails—from yearning and desire to courtship, contentment and/or heartbreak. Former Gap Band singer Charlie Wilson doesn’t nudge those parameters on the aptly titled Just Charlie, but his smooth croon and penchant for bedroom ballads make them seem less constrictive. Capping a productive decade-long solo career, this offering... 

STEVE WYNN & THE MIRACLE 3 Northern Aggression [Yep Roc] Steve Wynn still is whipping up a sonic storm nearly three decades after he first piloted the Dream Syndicate on its critically acclaimed debut, The Days of Wine and Roses. With his current band, the muscular and visceral Miracle 3 (guitarist Jason Victor, drummer Linda Pitmon and bassist Dave DeCastro), he careens through a blistering set of psychedelic-dosed rock on Northern Aggression.... 

CRYSTAL BOWERSOX Farmer’s Daughter [19 Recordings/Jive] American Idol contestants are often accused of oversinging, pseudo-dramatics and the like—and on her high-spirited debut, former Idol runner-up Crystal Bowersox sometimes stands guilty of these musical crimes. Still, she explores her own path often enough on Farmer’s Daughter to stake a claim to a promising recording career. After a feisty opener, the top-down roadhouse rocker “Ridin’... 

YNGWIE MALMSTEEN Relentless [Rising Force] If guitarists were paid by the note, Yngwie Malmsteen would be a gazillionaire. For 30 years the Swedish six-stringer has shredded with a scorched-earth vengeance, delivering flying-fingered arpeggios and whammy bar acrobatics that at times defy credulity. By that measure, his latest album ranks among his best. Framed by pile-driving percussion, medieval choral flourishes and portentous lyrical themes, Malmsteen...