The Pretenders -
Break Up The Concrete
Artist First

Dungen -
4
Kemado

Metallica -
Death Magnetic
Warner Bros. Records

Cold War Kids -
Loyalty To Loyalty
Downtown Records

Thanks be to the rock gods for The Pretenders and their new album, Break Up The Concrete. The album, the ninth in the band's illustrious career and its first in 6 years, has bandleader Chrissie Hynde collaborating with a new group of musicians. Recorded in 10 days, the result is a stripped down roots album, pure and raw, which highlights Hynde's timeless vocal sound. Backing up Hynde on the album is a band that has no problems conjuring the true spirit of rock's earliest days. And of course there are a couple of instant classics in "Boots of Chinese Plastic" and "Almost Perfect."

Dungen's fourth studio album extends the acclaimed Swedish outfit's sound past psychedelia into something far more rare. Moving beyond mere stylistic concerns, 4 finds Gustav Ejstes' focus on the extremes of Dungen's sound separating into two entities. Blazing, raw guitar workouts have their own time and place, but now, so do stirringly orchestrated, jazz-cooled compositions with cinematic undertones.

Metallica has constantly defined and re-defined what makes a great metal band. Sure, they jumped the shark with that movie and St. Anger, but even on that record they were on a mission to do something different. And denying ...And Justice For All and The Black Album just makes you look like a pinhead. Death Magnetic, though, finds the band going full-circle. You loved them, you set them free, and now they're back with their best record in (quite possibly) over a decade.

Loyalty to Loyalty is the sophomore follow up album to the acclaimed Robbers & Cowards from 2006.   While staying true to its bluesy roots, Loyalty To Loyalty marks a huge musical progression for the band - and with it, the Long Beach, CA, 4-piece have created something of a masterpiece: a 13 track album brimming with the poignant, intimate narratives and brooding atmospherics they're famed for.

Old Crow Medicine Show -
Tennessee Pusher
Nettwerk

Joseph Arthur & The Lonely Astronauts -
Temporary People
Lonely Astronaut/MRI

Tricky -
Knowle West Boy
Domino Recording Co.

Jenny Lewis -
Acid Tongue
Warner Bros. Records

From busking in the streets of Nashville to headlining the historic Ryman Auditorium, Old Crow Medicine Show (OCMS) have come full circle playing their own brand of American roots music with a rock and roll attitude. They've even inspired The Village Voice to predict, "Fame will soon lift her skirt for the band." And with its new album, Tennessee Pusher, it looks like she's about to give those boys said golden view.

For his entire, decade-long recording career, Joseph Arthur has been consistent only in his disdain for "Writer's Block." For those of you who follow Arthur's work, then the sound of Temporary People may fall in line with this prodigious artist's recent output. But if you're only casually familiar with Arthur, then plan on losing yourself in a blend of spiritual confessionals mixed with the rock swagger of his band, The Lonely Astronauts.

Knowle West Boy is the album that sums up everything that Tricky has accomplished since his 1995 Maxinquaye debut. From the sardonic bar-room blues of "Puppy Toy" to the haunting quasi-classicism of "Joseph" and the twisted Specials-worshipping punk of "Council Estate" to the bereft torchery of "Past Mistake" and  the Roxy Music's The Bogus Man-at-the-dancehall art-stomp of "Bacative," Knowle West Boy sees our misunderstood hero twisting it all into surreal Tricky shapes.

Mere weeks after the finishing her world tour in support of Rilo Kiley's Under The Blacklight, Jenny Lewis announced the coming of a brand new solo album - the follow-up to 2006's wonderful Rabbit Fur Coat. It's called Acid Tongue. Chock full of family and high-profile friends (ahem: Elvis Costello), the album's tracks, disparate as they are, share a sparkling vitality; Lewis' voice has never sounded so expressive and the narratives have never been so hard-hitting and acerbic. Gorgeous!

Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson -
Ratlin' Bones
Sugar Hill

JEM -
Down To Earth
ATO Records

Amanda Palmer -
Who Killed Amanda Palmer?
Roadrunner Records

Ani DiFranco -
Red Letter Year
Righteous Babe Records

From the moment you hear those opening lines of Rattlin' Bones, the first song that husband-and-wife team Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson wrote together, you know you are in the presence of something special. The voices join and rise in a meeting as pure and as natural as a country morning. This is premium-grade alt country, an album that can sit proudly on the shelf beside classics from the likes of Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch.

Jem's latest album, Down To Earth, reflects the singer/songwriters far-ranging influences. This approach delivers the plenty of sweet moments like the Brazilian percussion on the title track, the hip-shaking beats and funky banjos of "Crazy", the tempestuous Latin-Flavored track "I Want You To...", a dance-pop tune "Acilid!" (sung in Japanese, no less), and a moving collaboration with South African singer-songwriter and poet-activist Vusi Mahlasela on the track "You Will Make It." Down To Earth represents Jem as a true global citizen committed to bringing the best of the world to your speakers. You can thank her by taking this home.

The Brazilian Girls third record looks for a good time all the time... And succeeds.The idea was a simple one:  songs for the piano and voice, recorded in one week in a bedroom, just to get them down on tape.  But like all things surrounding The Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer, simplicity is not an easy thing to come by.  Her small idea snowballed into something grand, exciting and nothing short of brilliant in the form of her debut solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer... Produced by Ben "Mother Freakin'" Folds!

"I've got myself a new mantra," Ani DiFranco shares on her new studio album. "It says `Don't forget to have a good time.'" This attitude has clearly influenced the dozen tunes on Red Letter Year, which celebrate existence, profess love and tackle thorny political issues with an infectious sense of glee. It's one of Ani's (who, we might add, is a new mom) most joyous records to date. And it has been a long time coming.

Dead Confederate -
Wrecking Ball
Razor & Tie

Shearwater -
Rook
Matador Records

Margot and The Nuclear So & So's -
Not Animal!
Epic

Oasis -
Dig Out Your Soul
Reprise

The music of Athens, GA's, Dead Confederate is intense - a lumbering, Southern psychedelic grizzly that reveals itself like fireworks in slow motion.  The songs build before they burst into either giant melodic overtures or a shimmering cascade of saturated squalor... or both. Wrecking Ball capitalizes on the success of its self-titled E.P. by launching the band into the rock firmament. This is one of the year's best records - and you need it.

The follow-up to the impossibly beautiful Palo Santo,  Shearwater's Rook takes the band into realms both richer and stranger. Though a similarly haunted, elegiac mood - punctuated by flashes of dread and menace - pervades the album, Rook is its own animal, at once more accessible and more accomplished than its predecessor, with a depth and grandeur that seem improbably packed into the album's tidy 35 minutes. Rook is unlike any other album you'll hear this year - or any year.

When the time came to record the follow-up to their debut album The Dust of Retreat at the end of 2007, the eight members of Indianapolis' art-pop collective Margot and the Nuclear So & So's traveled to Chicago to camp out in the studio of their new producer Brian Deck. The group worked in shifts, with band members recording their parts around the clock. This went on for three straight months... As a result they made not one record, but two: And Not Animal! is first up to bat.

The fights. The accents. The blow. Oh: And the music. All of these things are quintessentially Oasis. And if you're still mad for it - but not like that Canadian fan that recently pushed Brother Noel into the stage monitors last month - then you're gonna love Dig Out Your Soul. More driving and hypnotic than any other record in the band's history, it's the sound of and band searching out new ground. You're gonna like what they found.

Joshua Radin -
Simple Times
Mom & Pop/ RED INK

Plain White T's -
Big Bad World
Hollywood Records

Thievery Corporation -
Radio Retaliation
ESL Music

James -
Hey Ma
DECCA

Joshua Radin worked with producer Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith) on Simple Times to create a sound that stays true to the integrity of his past work, but adds percussion and other instrumental elements to give the new music an edgier kick. The twist on Radin's trademark "whisper rock" is particularly apparent on the uncharacteristically up-tempo "I'd Rather Be With You." Losing one's innocence rarely sounds so sweet.

There's plenty of heart on Plain White T's Big Bad World.  To that end, the band only used gear or instruments made before 1970, recorded it live, and learned to live with imperfections. Of course aiming high means nothing without good songs. Fortunately, coming off a smash hit like "Hey There Delilah," singer/songwriter Tom Higgenson felt inspired. "There was no second guessing," he recalls. "If I thought something was good, I went with it.

Radio Retaliation, the fifth studio album from the Washington D.C. duo purveyors of cool, Thievery Corporation, is definitely more of a political statement - a lament of the exodus of conscious people who are willing to acknowledge something in wrong with the 'official version' in news and culture. All that said, the sound and groove (less Martini Bar, more World Beat) is still unmistakably Thievery Corporation.

In late 2007, for the first time in six years, the original lineup that wrote and recorded the album Laid, reformed for a series of concerts that reminded everyone of the lasting legacy of James. The reunited band decided to take the ideas they were sharing throughout the tour, and record a new album. With the depth of emotion captured on these 11 tracks (just hear the title cut), Hey Ma has come out of nowhere to compete with the 2008's best records. This is a dark horse you really need to hear.

Stereophonics -
Pull The Pin
Vox Populi Records/
Fontana International

The Streets -
Everything Is Borrowed
VICE

James Taylor -
Covers
HEAR Music

Rachael Yamagata -
Elephants...Teeth Sinking into Heart
Warner Bros. Records

Musically, Pull The Pin brings together the rockiest and most melodic aspects of Stereophonics in a collection of songs that comes out fighting on all fronts. Recorded by an invigorated band after a lengthy time off to deal with personal issues, Pull The Pin blurs politics (The London terrorist bombings, The Iraq War) and life (loosing close family members) into an inspiring piece of art.

From its uplifting title-track - a euphoric meditation on how to make the best of life's infinite possibilities - to the almost mystical finale, "The Escapist" (wherein main Street, Mike Skinner, happily ponders the insignificance of "little, fleeting, momentary me"), Everything Is Borrowed seems to be lit from within by a healing flame of optimism. Freed from celebrity hang-ups and savoring a thrilling rush of newfound perspective, Mike Skinner has made a record to console the lonely and bring a smile to the saddest visage.

James Taylor's new release, aptly titled Covers, is an exceptional collection of covers from notable recording artists from the fifties, sixties and seventies. "I've enjoyed performing these songs over the years," says Taylor, "But to record them live in a room with these incredible musicians was just extraordinary." The album was recorded last January when James Taylor gathered his 'Band of Legends' for a rare 10-day recording session in a converted barn on his property in western Massachusetts, and includes covers of Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog," Junior Walker's "(I'm A) Road Runner" and the Jimmy Webb classic "Wichita Lineman."

Three years after she began to appear on the public's radar with Happenstance, Rachael Yamagata will release a record in two parts: Elephants... Teeth Sinking Into Heart.  "I didn't set out to make a two part album," Yamagata says. "We just followed the songs' lyrical lead and built them up with textures and sounds that served the story." Taken together, the two halves present a complete timeline of the emotions that revolve around complicated relationships and the accompanying fallout.

Dressy Bessy -
Holler And Stomp
Transdreamer

The Spinto Band -
Moonwink
Park The Van

Ben Folds -
Way To Normal
Epic

Jack's Mannequin -
The Glass Passenger
Sire

Following up their critically acclaimed last album, Electrified, Dressy Bessy are back with its highly anticipated new album, Holler And Stomp. Combining uber-indie sensibilities mixed with bombastic style, Dressy Bessy remains inspirational, hook-laden and upbeat with 13 songs that will have you dancing and singing in seconds.

With Moonwink, The Spinto Band is once again ready to dazzle listeners with its skewed approach to song-craft. The new recordings fortify The Spinto Band's ability to interlace rich, textured guitars, unconventional orchestration and multiple-part vocal harmonies into exciting new avenues of indie-pop. The music is at once outlandish, kinetic and luminous, while still restrained in a way that pays homage to the classic pop song, bringing to mind a contemporary coagulum of, Bacharach, Beatles, Berlin, and Bowie.

Over the last 15 years, Ben Folds' first-class melodic gifts, irony-laced lyrics, and punk-rock tendency to play piano as if it were a contact sport have earned the North Carolina native a legion of devoted fans of all ages. If you count yourself among those ranks then prepare to go nuts for Way To Normal, as it's dominated by the kind of irresistible hooks and piano-pounding pandemonium you've been  missing.

"My past is my past and a lot of The Glass Passenger is about that," says Jack's Mannequin frontman Andrew McMahon, "but it's also about trying to write myself out of it. I want people to receive the music for what it is and not have to contextualize it against my own personal battle." That personal battle was Lukemia. McMahon was diagnosed right after finishing his last album, Everything In Transit. Fortunately McMahon went into remission after a stem-cell transplant from his sister (hear that, Fundamentalists?) "The Glass Passenger is not about recovering from cancer," McMahon says. "It's just about recovering."

Anberlin -
New Surrender
Universal Republic

Portugal. The Man -
Censored Colors
Equal Vision

Ben Taylor -
The Legend of Kung Folk Part 1 (The Killing Bite)
Iris Records

Lindsay Buckingham -
Gift Of Screws
Reprise

In today's instantly downloadable and quickly consumed culture, bands like Anberlin are a dying breed. But if you've followed Anberlin for some time, you know this band is about more than glorious riffage. New Surrender fully integrates the band's causes into the lyrics, with topics that include addiction, the human slave trade, and homelessness. So whether you have the volume up or down, New Surrender has something for your head and heart.

Portugal. The Man is a band. So, you know what they do. But to truly understand them, you must know what they are. And it would be devastatingly limiting to label this un-pinnable Portland-via-Wasilla, Alaska, quartet as a mere band, which they are. But they are also fluid, chameleon, inimitable, complicated, simple, disarming and unconscious. Portugal. The Man's newest album features fifteen fiercely transcendent vignettes. The band calls the collection Censored Colors - side one is a half-dozen single tracks, while side two consists of a long suite of compositions, segued together into one seamless presentation. Whoa.

Ben Taylor's The Legend of Kung Folk part 1 (The Killing Bite), finds him comfortably ornate in the somewhat difficult simplicity of his arc and style.  He is surrounded, aided, and abetted by close friends in kind rooms and it is evident in the flow of his Kung Folk. Profound awareness and revelatory catharsis is just as likely to occur in a "Gentleman's Club" as it is beside a clear mountain stream. The Earth smiles when its creatures smile at each other.  She blooms as a result of our enjoying peaceful and sexy Kung Folk together.

Troublemaker, mad scientist, whatever you see him as, Lindsey Buckingham is behind some of the most beloved and creative twists in modern popular music. And with Gift of Screws, he has made the kind of trouble only he can more than ever before, bringing together the broad appeal he's shown as the main force behind the sound of Fleetwood Mac. Gift of Screws is, in fact, a bracing and immediate result of 35 years of exploration and growth, made by an artist who has against the odds found new confidence and new abilities to express himself in ways at once challenging and accessible.

Burning Spear -
Jah Is Real
Burning Spear Records

Innerpartysystem -
Innerpartysystem
Island Records

Keller Williams with Mosely, Droll and Sipe -
Live
Sci Fidelity

Reggae legend Burning Spear has been through more than his share of trials, but the biggest test of Spear's positive message of unity, peace, and love came on his first trip to Kenya last year. "All the guys were fighting each other, hurting each other in some viscous and terrible ways," Spear recalls. But, the 65,000 Kenyans gathered at the outdoor venue came together peacefully, waved their flags, and walked home without incident. "I bring them together for about three hours. One can see the force of the music," Spear said. This unity is what Jah Is Real is all about.

The origins of Innerpartysystem can be traced to 2002 in Reading, PA, an hour outside of Philadelphia. As the band puts it, "we were the only group in our area experimenting with dance sounds," becoming less "rock", more digital, and not afraid of cultural critiques: "Don't Stop," which features singer Patrick Nissley railing against the TMZ-inspired world of fake celebrity. ("I feed the rich and fuck the poor," the front man chastises over a harsh electro-punk beat.) The sound is a dance punk amalgam that's dense, ferocious, and pure rock. Check it out.

Keller Williams has built a career on his uncanny ability to captivate a packed house all by himself. But with Live, Keller taps into the world-class talent of Keith Moseley (bass The String Cheese Incident), Gibb Droll (guitar Marc Broussard, Brandi Carlile), and Jeff Sipe (drums Aquarium Rescue Unit, Leftover Salmon). Recorded at select live shows during a winter 2007-2008 tour, and featuring 17 tracks that span Keller's career, Live is a testament to how a band, with the right chemistry and chops, can take a song to places even the writer couldn't have imagined.