WAS (NOT WAS) Pick of the Litter 1980-2010 [Micro Werks] Don Was (née Fagenson) and David Was (née Weiss) established themselves as critical darlings in the 1980s by marrying clever and often absurdist lyrics to danceable music—a combination that unexpectedly thrust them into the mainstream in 1988 with the irresistible hits “Walk the Dinosaur” and “Spy in the House of Love.” Don Was’ emergence as an in-demand producer helped to... 

BLUE HIGHWAY + Some Day: The Fifteenth Anniversary Collection Formed in the mid-1990s, Blue Highway was a relative latecomer to progressive bluegrass. Although it missed its chance to help define the genre, the group’s consistency over the years has resulted in some of its finest recordings. This collection actually doesn’t pick up till midway through Blue Highway’s career, with its arrival at Rounder Records in 2001. By that time the quintet... 

PATTY GRIFFIN + Downtown Church Patty Griffin is, by her own religious estimation, a lapsed Catholic of no certain faith. So she might seem like an odd duck to be doing a “gospel album”—except that hers is a voice you hope to hear sing not only the phone book but also the Bible, Koran and Bhagavad Gita, if possible. In any case, there’s nothing pat or predictable about the quietly stunning Downtown Church, which finds Griffin focusing on black... 

In This Light and On This Evening After Editors’ stellar U.S. debut in 2006 got overlooked and a self-conscious 2007 follow-up came and went here without much fanfare, the British post-punk band seems to have struck a comfortable balance on its third release. Editors will probably never shake the scorn of those who think the band is merely rehashing influences such as Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen, but this time it doesn’t seem to care.... 

Fall Be Kind The members of Animal Collective started 2009 with the first album of the year worth your buck (Merriweather Post Pavilion) and ended it with an EP that proves once again they’re one mighty trippy bunch. Like the rest of the Brooklyn band’s best work, Fall Be Kind lets us fantasize about the music Brian Wilson might have made in the late 1960s and beyond if the drugs he favored had been even harder and Mike Love’s prohibitively... 

Few bands have worked a winning formula as rigorously as Lifehouse. Roaring out of the box a decade ago with the smash “Hanging By a Moment,” the L.A.-based group hit upon a radio-friendlier version of the grunge aesthetic. Four albums later, Lifehouse continues to work that approach for all it’s worth. “Halfway Gone,” “Had Enough” and “All In” sport anthemic choruses, wall-of-sound guitars and infectious melodies, and are given... 

Ringo Starr Y Not [Hip-O Records/UMe] For most of his solo career, Ringo Starr got by with a little help from his friends—the strength or weakness of his albums tended to rise and fall depending on the caliber of guest songwriters and players on hand, most particularly his former Beatles bandmates. His partnership with producer Mark Hudson changed that beginning in the late 1990s, allowing Starr’s star to shine with or without the aid... 

Mary J Blige For her ninth album, the Queen Of Hip-Hop Soul has rounded up collaborators like Akon, Drake, T.I., The Runners and Rodney Jerkins—but even this show of R&B/hip-hop cred can’t hide the impression that Mary J. Blige is increasingly embracing the pop world. It’s refreshing for a woman who has notoriously played the “woe-is-me” card to offer such an upbeat and happy album, with optimism-drenched grooves that celebrate self-love... 

Jeff Larson and Gerry Beckley Over the past decade or so, Jeff Larson’s consistent string of smart, hooky and alluringly accessible albums have borne clear references to the Southern California sound of the mid-to-late ’70s. So it seems fitting that for the lovely and evocative Heart of the Valley he has collaborated with America’s Gerry Beckley and welcomed appearances from soft-rock stalwarts including America’s other half, Dewey Bunnell,...