LINDA DRAPER Edgewise lindadraper.net On the latest from this New York singer-songwriter, the name of the game is motion. On “Glass Palace,” Draper contemplates leaving a lover and perhaps even passing into the great beyond, while “Right on Time” and “Hollow” find her “running down Bergen Avenue” and racing against the tide of tediousness threatening to overtake her life. With all of these songs—pop-rock sparklers informed by the... 

PARIS COMBO 5 pariscombo.com Few musical terms can be more terrifying than “jazz fusion.” When supremely talented players go all crazy chemist and start mixing genres, things can get ugly fast. But that’s not the case with Paris Combo. The French five-piece hit big during the ’90s swing revival, but then, as now, they refused to be fitted for standard-issue zoot suits. On 5, their first album since 2004, these wily Parisians throw a fantasy... 

THE BLACK LILLIES Runaway Freeway Blues theblacklillies.com Born of heartache—Cruz Contreras formed the group after the 2007 dissolution of his marriage, which also busted up his previous band—the Black Lillies are no longer strictly a vehicle for catharsis. On its third album, this seriously fierce trad-country outfit indulges in musical joyrides (see the sublime “Smokestack Lady”) and offers heartfelt character studies of Vietnam soldiers,... 

NAKIA Drown in the Crimson Tide nakia.net Singer, songwriter, actor and reality TV veteran Nakia Reynoso is a one-man variety show—a retro-sounding, thoroughly modern all-around entertainer for his time and place. In 2011, The Voice judge Cee Lo Green was sufficiently smitten to make him a quarterfinalist, and one spin through this six-song EP reveals why. Like Green, Nakia makes heavily varnished pop rooted in—but not slavishly indebted to—classic... 

CATHY Swimsuit Season cathymusic.com The latest in a long line of unassuming indie bands to have discovered the perfect ratio of wounded-dude sincerity to left-of-the-dial irreverence, Cathy makes record-geek rock everyone can get behind. Here, the Brooklyn foursome honors saints ranging from Alex Chilton to J Mascis, channeling their love and respect into punky power-pop jams and rousing alt-country sidesteps. There are even a few ballads, closer... 

GWEN SEBASTIAN Gwen Sebastian gwensebastian.com Thanks to The Voice—and judge Blake Shelton—this North Dakota singer-songwriter got her name out to the masses. Thanks to her voice—unusually tart and twangy—she skirts a pop-country pitfall or two, infusing this slick disc with a bit of old-school grit and genuine character.    Read More →

BAD PILGRIM Bad Pilgrim badpilgrim.com Good students of Operation Ivy, Less Than Jake and maybe even early Elvis Costello, Bad Pilgrim prove that poppy punk and breakneck ska can be sweet and juvenile without bouncing into goofball territory. Spin “Don’t Leave Me Alone” and spend a glorious 1:20 with your teenage self.    Read More →

JIMBEAU HINSON Strong Medicine jimbeauhinson.com Forgive Hinson if he’s feeling reflective. HIV-positive since the early ’80s, the hit-making country songwriter is glad to be alive, and on these earnest folk-rock tunes, he’s not shy about saying so. His calm, soulful delivery is as listenable as it is admirable.    Read More →

THE ORANGE PEELS Sun Moon theorangepeels.com On their fifth album, these Northern California tunesmiths rejigger the lineup and, by their estimation, get a bit experimental. Should they open for Muse, they’ll have a couple of grand arena-esque jams to pick from, but their focus remains sweet orchestral indie pop, complex yet light.    Read More →

STANDISH/CARLYON Deleted Scenes facebook.com/standishcarlyon Back in the day, this album might have facilitated romance between Bauhaus and Wham! fans. Today, its spacey, minimalist, gothed-out lover-man R&B feels universal, natural—even inevitable. It has something to do with the internet, as well as the sensual songcraft of this Aussie duo.    Read More →

KIM RICHEY On her latest effort, the acclaimed singer-songwriter highlights harmonies    Kim Richey has been on the move—Colorado, Boston, Washington, South America, Europe and London, where she spent three years. She returned to Nashville for the third time last summer to make her new album, Thorn in My Heart. Richey’s first venture to Music City after college included a stint as a cook at the famed Bluebird Café where she glimpsed singer-songwriters... 

AMY SPEACE How to Sleep in a Stormy Boat amyspeace.com In the lead-up to her latest, Amy Speace lost some things—love, judging from the lyrics, and also her voice, thanks to a bout with acute laryngitis. Still, by virtue of being alive and having the friends, family and emotional toughness to muddle on, for better or worse, this Nashville-based singer-songwriter considers herself among the “Fortunate Ones” she sings about on the leadoff track.... 

CERAMIC DOG Your Turn marcribot.com Best known for working with two of the greatest lyricists and most distinctive vocalists of our time—Tom Waits and Elvis Costello—guitarist Marc Ribot doesn’t need to say a word. He sings plenty on this, the second album by his trio Ceramic Dog, and railing against Mother Nature (“Lies My Body Told Me”) and freeloading MP3 downloaders (“Masters of the Internet”), he’s got some interesting things... 

JOHN MURRY The Graceless Age johnmurry.com On one level, there’s a shuffling, off-the-cuff feel to John Murry’s music. Singing songs about heartache and heroin addiction, he’s got the laid-back strum and rough, jaded delivery of a been-there, took-that, lived-to-tell troubadour. But there’s nothing casual about The Graceless Age, an album of dense, meticulous sonic collages masquerading as alt-country tunes. Murry’s backstory is as cluttered—or... 

THE SHARP THINGS Green Is Good thesharpthings.com After six years away, these Brooklyn pop experimentalists emerge from their laboratory flush with new music. This is the first installment of Dogs of Bushwick, a four-album set, and on the series’ title track, singer Perry Serpa describes his need to write songs. “There’s a radio station alive in my head,” he sings. “There’s a radio station that’s driving me mad.” At least the DJs have... 

CHARLES WALKER & THE DYNAMITES Love Is Only Everything thedynamites.net Pair a 70-something soul survivor with a pack of reverent young virtuosos, and you’ve got a couple of options. One is to make gritty, lo-fi recordings slavishly indebted to some romanticized past. The other is to admit the times have changed and go slightly more modern, and that’s what Nashville’s Dynamites and their veteran frontman do here. Walker was buds with James... 

KING DJANGO Anywhere I Roam kingdjango.com For two decades, Stubborn Records founder Jeff “King Django” Baker has kept the East Coast safe for ska and traditional Jamaican music. Here, the singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist pulls together a dozen tracks cut with friends and associates, and while all feature variations of the island’s distinctive offbeat bounce, Django keeps things as diverse as possible. In addition to swift,... 

SANDERS BOHLKE Ghost Boy sandersbohlke.com No amount of sonic ambiance—not amplifier hiccups, feedback blasts, cello hums or eerily childlike piano tinkling—can distract from the sentiments driving Sanders Bohlke’s music. On his first album in seven years, this 21st century Southern folkie threads together songs of love and Armageddon, promising, “I’ll rip your heart out like you want me to” on one track, then observing, “The devil is... 

JELLO BIAFRA White People and the Damage Done alternativetentacles.com No surprises here: “Werewolves of Wall Street,” “Mid-East Peace Process,” and the title track are about exactly what their titles suggest, and as anyone familiar with Biafra’s oeuvre might guess, these and others are irreverent hardcore ragers informed by pop, surf rock and even circus music. Biafra has been flinging these goofball grenades since the ’70s, when he was... 

PALENKE SOULTRIBE MAR palenkesoultribe.com There’s a tune here called “This Song Is for Whoever Feels Lonely,” and those eight words might preface any of the dozen tracks on this album. On the second part in a planned trilogy, this Colombian-born, L.A.-based electronic duo aims for inclusiveness at the risk of abrasiveness, honoring Old World traditions by completely uprooting them. Hip-hop, pop and EDM fans will dig the synthetic squiggles,... 

THE REV. JIMMIE BRATCHER Secretly Famous jimmiebratcher.com The God-versus-devil dynamic one might expect from a Midwestern preacher who’s also an ace blues guitarist doesn’t really come into play here, and that’s fine—there are plenty of conflicted souls making the rounds, exorcising demons through music. Bratcher is mostly upbeat on these dozen tunes, and even when he’s not—”When I Fall Apart,” “Nowhere to Go but Down”—he’s... 

TARMAC ADAM The History Effect tarmacadam.com.au That Tarmac Adam can reform after a decade away and pick up where they left off speaks volumes about their music. Warm, well crafted and slightly adventurous, theirs is a timeless sound reminiscent of ’60s pop, ’70s folk-rock and jangly ’80s indie—and of fellow Aussie rockers Crowded House. In fact, that band’s Nick Seymour sits in on bass, reprising his role from Tarmac’s 2003 debut, but... 

THE SO SO GLOS Blowout thesosoglos.com Better known for running (and living in) a series of DIY music venues than for making records, these Brooklyn punks know all about late-night parties, next-day cleanup and the cost-benefit calculation that makes it all worthwhile. And the costs can be high. “It’s never been such a crime to be free,” they holler on “Speakeasy,” a tune about getting hassled by police. While they occasionally tangle with... 

STAN KILLIAN Evoke stankillian.com On his second set with this quartet, the NYC-via-Texas tenor saxophonist soundtracks his surroundings. The piano on “Kirby” is a mile-a-minute subway chatterer, while guitarist Mike Moreno’s liquid-cool playing is consistently harried and elegant. Killian adds melodic flourish, beauty amid the hustle-bustle.    Read More →

GUNSLINGER Breaking Through thelastgunslinger.com The two DJs—one Californian, the other Portuguese—behind this “rocktronica” act have better taste in electronica than they do in rock, but that’s cool. Slick, mainstream alt-rock pairs nicely with electro-bombast, and if any Soundgarden fans are still unsure about EDM, this is a way in.    Read More →

KENNY ROBY Memories & Birds kennyroby.net On this terrific disc of country-soul laments, Roby battles a host of beastly creatures, some metaphors for love and prejudice, others ugly sides of himself. “The Monster,” meanwhile, might actually be about something lurking in the woods. Scary stuff—but he sings so pretty.    Read More →

ANDY POXON Tomorrow andypoxon.com Pay no mind to the ginger afro: Poxon is a serious singer, songwriter, guitarist and arranger. Just 18, he’s absorbed blues, classic R&B and Jerry Lee Lewis rock ’n’ roll. The references scream yesterday, but Tomorrow introduces a guy with a future.    Read More →

THE COPPER GAMINS Los Ninos de Cobre facebook.com/thecoppergamins Whether it’s because Spanish is their first language or lucidity isn’t their principal concern, this pair of Mexican junk-punk bluesmen create songs that are as lyrically dreamlike—often in a jarringly romantic way—as they are musically fierce. The White Stripes meet Gabriel Garcia Marquez.    Read More →

THE WATERBOYS An Appointment With Mr. Yeats mikescottwaterboys.com Had he come along a century later, Ireland’s greatest poet might have been its greatest rock ’n’ roll frontman. Such is the idea behind this, the first Waterboys album in five years, a set of 14 songs adapted from poems by W.B. Yeats. Mike Scott, long the singer and driving force behind this Scottish-born band, makes subtle changes to Yeats’ texts, repeating certain lines and... 

TOM BRISLIN Hurry Up and Smell the Roses tombrislin.com Filled with smart, grown-up pop songs written and performed by a man making sense of the modern world, the debut album from this New Jersey-born, Nashville-based multi-instrumentalist is “adult contemporary” in the truest sense. Brislin has played keyboards for the likes of Yes, Meat Loaf and Debbie Harry, and here, amid classical-informed piano figures, unapologetically proggy ’80s synths,... 

GURF MORLIX Finds the Present Tense gurfmorlix.com On the cover of his first album in four years, this country-folk lifer sits in front of a time bomb, head in hands. Listening to these 10 tracks, one suspects he’s longing for the boom, hoping a quick blast will save him from life’s interminable creep. No such luck. “I done some things of which I ain’t proud,” Morlix sings on “Series of Closin’ Doors,” adding, “Nothing I really wanna... 

AFTER SUNDAY After Sunday aftersundayband.com Take this as gospel: The Christian rock that stands the best chance of actually changing lives needs to stand on its own as rock music. That means good hooks, punchy guitars and urgent lyrics, all of which floweth over on this six-song EP. Frontman Mike Ross leaves no ambiguity about his subject matter—he’s singing for Jesus—but “Today” and “Plain Jane” could be popular Train or Bryan Adams... 

BETH HART Bang Bang Boom Boom bethhart.com While not requisite reading, Beth Hart’s bio complements this record nicely, helping to explain the heft of the lyrics and gutsy jumps from brassy jazz to broken-down blues to chest-thumping soul. Taken out of context, these songs suggest an Americana Adele or Amy Winehouse, but Hart has earned her Billie Holiday affectations and bold stylistic leaps. A would-be star who squandered her shot in the ’90s,... 

SUSIE GLAZE & THE HILONESOME BAND White Swan susieglaze.com If Susie Glaze were a newscaster, this crazy world would be a lot easier to take. On grisly murder ballads and carefree romps alike, the Tennessee native sings smooth and sweet, her voice like buttermilk pie. Having appeared on Broadway, Glaze has a knack for theatrics, and that serves her well on “Fair Ellender,” “Evangeline” and “The Dark Eileen,” three of this album’s... 

T.V. MIKE & THE SCARECROWES Weeks to Days bravescarecrow.com Among urban rustics, there’s a tendency toward dourness and musical purism. Witness all those bearded dudes in flannel shirts singing murder ballads. Led by three Indiana transplants, this San Francisco group does the opposite. They’ve got a slide guitar and banjo and harmonies to boot, but their second album veers off the wagon trail and lands someplace—get this—fun. The most... 

CARMEN VILLAIN Sleeper myspace.com/carmenvillain Even pretty people get the blues. Such is the message, evident in both the bummed-out lyrics and washed-out music, of this former model’s debut album. Villain—a half-Mexican, half-Norwegian beauty who has graced such magazines as Glamour and Vogue—plays guitar, bass, keyboards and drum machines, and she approaches them all in much the same way. The instruments coalesce into a disorienting fog... 

WHITE BLUSH White Blush whiteblushh.com On her website, L.A. synth-pop spellbinder Carol Rhyu, aka White Blush, offers up a mixtape of favorite songs. The collection spans gloomy post-punk godheads Joy Division to Julee Cruise—director David Lynch’s go-to artist for nightmarishly beautiful pop songs—with Desire’s Drive soundtrack cut “Under Your Spell” thrown in for good measure. All three inform Rhyu’s debut EP, though her experimental... 

RICKY BYRD Lifer rickybyrd.com Flip on a classic rock station anywhere in America, and you’ll hear Ricky Byrd. This NYC native supplied the chunky, eternally air-guitar-inspiring power chords on Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll,” and while that song is hardly his sole accomplishment—he’s toured with Mott the Hoople’s Ian Hunter and Roger Daltrey, among others—it’s a good summation of his life. So is Lifer, his solo debut, a... 

THE DEER TRACKS The Archer Trilogy Pt. 3 thedeertracksmusic.com On the final installment of their Archer Trilogy—two albums and an EP culled from sessions held in a remote Swedish cabin—David Lehnberg and Elin Lindfors wig out on elfin electronica, a twitchy, glitchy mix of nightclub gloss and return-to-nature freakiness. Deer Tracks could easily stick to one or the other—the heavier dance bits are positively triumphant, suggesting glow-stick... 

PARQUET COURTS Light Up Gold parquetcourts.wordpress.com Why did three-fourths of this band’s lineup move to New York City from the Lone Star State? “As for Texas, donuts only,” frontman Andrew Savage sings on the aptly named “Donuts Only.” “You cannot find bagels here.” As their debut album makes clear, they didn’t just come for the baked goods. Light Up Gold is the work of wordy young strummers obsessed with Gotham greats the Ramones,... 

ELEPHANT STONE Elephant Stone elephantstonemusic.com Even when these Montreal psych rockers break out the sitar—a signature instrument for singer Rishi Dhir—they keep it sweet and poppy, putting drive behind the drone. Elsewhere, it’s all mystical jingle-jangle with the odd blast of fuzz or backward guitar—reverent, sure, but also refreshing.    Read More →

ROBERT “TOP” THOMAS The Town Crier wildrootsrecords.com With his gruff, mush-mouth drawl and sure-handed riffing, Thomas again earns the title of “swamp blues master.” Amid ruminations on freight trains, treacherous women and the healing powers of “blues grass,” he shares the spotlight with harmonica ace Stephen Kampa, a candidate for MVP.    Read More →

DUMBO GETS MAD Quantum Leap dumbogetsmad.com If “Tahiti Hungry Jungle,” a gnawing, grooving psych-rock take on rapper Azealia Banks’ “Liquorice,” were the most inspired moment, album two from these Italian experimentalists would warrant obsessive listening. Rap beats, surf riffs, detuned guitars and ’70s-soul flutes seal the deal—and only begin to tell the story.    Read More →

NEW AMERICAN FARMERS Brand New Day newamericanfarmers.org Paul Knowles and Nicole Storto don’t need help—these insightful folkie rockers hold a mirror to America as well as anyone—but Tom Waits trumpeter Ara Anderson and the Real Vocal String Quartet drop by anyway, making this rich and unique disc that much stronger.    Read More →

NICHOLAS ALTOBELLI Without a Home nicholasaltobelli.com A Dallas-based acoustic folkie heads back to his birthplace, Southern California, and makes a textured electric record indebted to the Byrds, Tom Petty and other sunshine strummers. That some of the songs are bum-outs hardly matters as Altobelli’s voice soothes, and this stuff is sublime.    Read More →

LYDIA SALNIKOVA The former Bering Strait vocalist does it all to keep the music playing   Born and raised in Obninsk, Russia, Lydia Salnikova grew up idolizing American music. The classically trained pianist wasn’t alone, and joined five other like-minded local musicians to form Bering Strait. It was an unusual grouping—a band of Russian teens obsessed with American bluegrass and country, in a city 60 miles outside Moscow. But over the next... 

HOLLY WILLIAMS Back on the highway and serving notice that she’s here to stay    It can be tough to live up to family legacies—and Holly Williams carries one monster pedigree. Her grandfather was legendary Hank Williams. Her father, Hank Williams Jr., is also a country giant, and her half-brother, cow punkster Hank III, has broken his own barriers. Is the long shadow of such success intimidating? “If anything, it’s been kind of a challenge,”... 

SALLY SHAPIRO Somewhere Else johanagebjorn.info/sally.html Relative to modern EDM, the ’80s-born sound known as Italo disco is more suave and sophisticated than it is sweaty, though the goal is still to make bodies move. On their third album, the Swedish duo of singer Sally Shapiro and producer Johan Agebjörn venture beyond the subgenre, making successful forays into lush, drowsy synth-pop. They occasionally get back to their roots but even when... 

OVERMOUNTAIN MEN The Next Best Thing overmountainmen.com The past has much to teach us, and whether exploring U.S. history (“Alexander Hamilton”) or the lives of regular folks, Overmountain Men are eager students. They’re also schooled in traditional American music, though Avett Brothers bassist Bob Crawford and singer-songwriter David Childers aren’t dogged bluegrass re-enactors. The standout title track is a dark, smoldering thing, and trading... 

GLISS Langsom Dans officialgliss.wordpress.com This L.A. trio’s song titles are telling. “Blur” describes the guitars—gorgeously bleak and distorted—while “Waves” sums up those wonderful washes of bittersweet synth. “Weight of Love” is the thematic centerpiece, a measurement not easily calculated. Like sometime tour mates the Raveonettes, Gliss makes music that’s both heavy and weightless, filled with big sounds yet fitted with...