SERGE GAINSBOURG - Histoire De Melody Nelson

On this, the first-ever French concept album, Monsieur Gainsbourg alternately murmured and crooned the story of a doomed love affair between a middle-aged man and an adolescent girl, Melody Nelson. Setting the tragic tale to an instrumental accompaniment that perfectly combined bracing hard-rock guitar and funked-up rhythms with sumptuous orchestration, the record didn't sell very well upon release but still wound up becoming a classic, with everyone from Beck to Air having been influenced by the beauty of Melody. This isn't the first re-ish of Gainsbourg's 1971 masterpiece, but the Light In The Attic label has done an absolutely bang-up job with packaging that includes the original French lyrics translated into English, a detailed look at the making of the album, and an early-'70s interview with le grand Serge himself.

TIM HECKER-An Imaginary Country

The one and only time this writer has seen Tim Hecker perform live (giving what now reveals itself to have been a full preview of this new disc), he made a point of setting up perpendicular to the audience, offstage and to one side, so that when the opening 'live' band finished and his performance began, it took a few seconds for us spectators to find our bearings and figure out where this disembodied barrage was emanating from. Combined with an equally discombobulating ceiling-projected slide show, it was the perfect visual analogue to Hecker's work, deep immersion to the point of self-removal, and An Imaginary Country could be his heftiest exercise in dark, granular ambience.

THE PRETTY THINGS - Philippe DeBarge

In 1969, British R&B/psych cult heroes The Pretty Things were somewhat at loose ends. S.F. Sorrow, their innovative rock opera released the previous year, had flopped commercially, although Pete Townshend, then in the midst of creating Tommy, had certainly been taking notes. Into this picture stepped a wealthy young Frenchman, Philippe DeBarge, who commissioned the group to record a new album--with him on lead vocals. Strange but true. The Pretties came up with a batch of sterling psychedelic gems, and the end result, never released at the time, has now seen the light of day. While not sounding as strong as Pretty Things frontman Phil May, DeBarge's raspy voice suits the material just fine. Detailed liner notes courtesy of Mike Stax, publisher of essential garage-psych 'zine Ugly Things, whose offshoot label is responsible for this disc's release.

VETIVER - Tight Knit

Hot on the heels of last year's stopgap covers discs, Thing Of The Past and More Of The Past, Vetiver returns with their first album of original material since 2006. What you get is their most polished and poppy take on psych-tinged folk to date, giving new and improved meaning to the words "laid back". Standout tracks include the bouncy "Everyday", "On The Other Side", and the hypnotic guitar riffing of "Strictly Rule". Dreamy, moody, and blissful, Vetiver leader Andy Cabic's songs are tailor-made for a lazy Sunday, providing the aural equivalent of a nice hot bath.

BIBIO - Vignetting The Compost

Another reminder from Stephen Wilkinson that just because it's electronic doesn't mean it has to be cold and clean. Instead, it seems he's managed to capture exactly what we were all hoping to produce with those hours of bedroom four-track experimentation--Fahey 101 guitar moves and murky vocals ornamented by swirling backwards sounds, all with the wobble of a cassette auto-reversed a few too many times. Dictaphone recordings of bird song and creek water add to the film strip soundtrack vibe and keep the mossy environments of the album's more ambient moments green, even when things enter full-on Penguin Cafe mode on tracks like "Weekend Wildfire".

DOUG PAISLEY - S/T

I love to hear records that are simple (I find them harder to make than prog records), and Doug Paisley (also of Dark Hand And Lamplight and Live Country Music) has made one of the most ear-pleasing, first-listen-simple records I have heard in a long time. Album opener "What About Us" is so strong, one would think it's a cover--it blew my mind that this song had never been written 'til now. The British press, particularly MOJO, know his genius, and the Americans (first and foremost, No Quarter, who have released this solo debut) are catching on, so what's up, Canada? Locally brewed for Grade-A export.

SIN FANG BOUS - Clangour

For those of us who like our pop a little psyched-out--pumped through loop pedals, chopped up in samplers, layered over itself, lost in reverb--Sin Fang Bous' Clangour comes as a welcome new listen. The first solo effort from Sindri Mar Sigfusson, founding member of Iceland's folksy Seabear, provides him a forum to experiment with his hitherto unheard electro-pop urges. Fans of Seabear will be surprised to hear Sigfusson breaking free of his band's slow, quiet folk lullabies in favour of curlicued and rainbow-splashed pop melodies. Comparisons to Animal Collective, Panda Bear and Caribou, which Clangour has garnered, are well-deserved, and are easy but not unfair to make, as their audiences should find much to enthuse about in this Nordic songmaker's particular guise.   

JON HASSELL - Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street

Always one to leave breadcrumbs of esoteric info around for the interested (as on his website's Atmospherics sidebar), Jon Hassell makes a point of musing on the term "montage" in Last Night...'s liner notes, and enough time has elapsed since his Maarifa Street group first assembled in 2005 for a second recording by the band to now arrive, composites of live and studio work that follow last year's long-awaited reissue of Hassell's first session for ECM back in 1986, Power Spot. With Hassell's harmonizer often tracking his trumpet as on past efforts, Jan Bang and Dino J. A. Deane's live sampling particularly helps congeal these tracks into a miasma both tense and placid, nearly New Age but with an unmistakable edge that's been remarkably maintained throughout thirty years of Fourth World formulations.

DAN AUERBACH - Keep It Hid

On his debut solo album, the last thing Black Keys singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach does is keep his ample talents hidden. Even without sidekick drummer Patrick Carney, he cranks up raw, bluesy garage-rock yet also channels his inner folknik on tracks like "Goin' Home". Other songs, like "My Last Mistake", are suffused with strong melodic hooks, all the while remaining crunchingly raucous. Auerbach recorded the album in his Akron, OH home studio, capturing the room's acoustics in spades. Let's hope he continues delivering the solo reverb-drenched goods from time to time.

MOUNTAINS - Choral

The experience of listening to Brooklyn duo Mountains isn't all that unlike burying yourself in a book while riding the subway, only to discover you've overshot by two stops. The pieces develop at such a glacial pace that you hardly realize anything is changing, until suddenly you are faced with an entirely new environment--the opening title track spends nearly 12 minutes exploring a reedy drone before it identifies itself merely as an introduction to the acoustic guitar picking that carries us into the rest of the album. This continues on throughout--strumming guitars somehow become the white noise of a rain storm, and time passes without notice. Not recommended for operators of heavy machinery.

VA - Dark Was The Night

This 2CD compilation, curated by The National's Aaron and Bryce Dessner, sounded exciting at first. Maybe you thought "Oh, wow! There are all sorts of my favourite indie rockers on this thing!", and then worried "But wait, maybe it's all hype...", but then downloaded it anyway, just because you had to know. Well, whether it was the pressure of sharing a tracklist with so many of-the-now acts or just because everyone really gave a damn about the cause, this comp is actually very worthy of a listen, with interesting collaborations (Feist with Grizzly Bear, Bright Eyes with Gillian Welch, Dirty Projectors with David Byrne, Bon Iver and Antony each pairing up with a Dessner brother) and a fine selection of cover tunes (TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek fuzzes over The Troggs; The Books and Jose Gonzalez together make a nice Nick Drake; and Kronos Quartet instrumentalize Blind Willie Johnson for the title track). So, after sorting through all your favourite interpretations and co-written exclusives, you remember that this is a Red Hot record and all net proceeds go to benefit AIDS prevention and awareness, and then maybe decide to buy it.  

VA - Local Customs: Downriver Revival

The fine folks at Numero Group have taken a break from flipping through bins to sort through the reels upon reels of tape at Double-U-Sound in Ecorse, Michigan. Opened in 1967, Double-U was a home studio operated by Felton Williams, an entrepreneur trained as an electrician at the Ford Motor plant, and as a steel guitarist at The Church Of The Living God. He recorded anyone who would knock on his door, in hopes of chancing upon a hit performance by neighbourhood talent. The focus of this compilation is gospel music, although the breadth of activity at Double-U is well-represented by some Hammond jazz, shaggy funk, and a even a garage-punk number that betrays its proximity to Detroit. There's little in the way of polish on these recordings, but the incredible music captured is more than worth the odd bump along the way. In addition to Numero's picks, they've also included a second DVD disc with even more tape to sift through on your own, and a 30-minute documentary about Felton and his studio.  

DEATH - ...For The Whole World To See

Sometimes there's nothing like a little Death to liven up a party, and in this case, Death's ...For The Whole World To See is a very welcome addition to the incendiary legacy of high-energy Detroit proto-punk. Consisting of three African-American brothers, this mid-'70s group recorded some ear-blasting, metallic, jams-kicking songs in the vein of The MC5, especially on this disc's lead-off track "Keep On Knocking", on which Death's lead singer sounds like a dead ringer (no pun intended) for Rob Tyner. Other highlights include the aptly-titled "Freakin' Out" and "Politicians In My Eyes", making for one excellent punkadelic reissue.

VA - Fly Girls! B-Boys Beware: Revenge Of The Super Female Rappers!

In an ambitious two-disc collection, Soul Jazz takes on the once-fertile subgenre of female rap. Celebrating three decades of sister rap, this comp actually digs way back to a couple of excellent early-'70s samplings of proto-rap from Sarah Webster Fabio and Nikki Giovanni. The real focus, however, is on the early '80s, via Roxanne Shante (to the chagrin of The Real Roxanne), MC Lyte, Queen Latifah and others who rocked the mic backed by live DJs, drum machines and the occasional live funky bass player. Going no further than Missy Elliott's "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" from 1997, Fly Girls! drives home the point that hip hop is not nearly as fun as it used to be, and that it may have something to do with the ever-diminishing number of prominent women in rap in this last decade.  

M. WARD - Hold Time

After a decade of releasing modern rustic ballads, rockers and instrumentals, and following some considerable success sitting squarely in the producer's seat for the She & Him project with Zooey Deschanel, M. Ward dials in an assured and accomplished effort on Hold Time. Whether employing heart-tugging string arrangements and wall-of-sound tympanies when merited, or simply stripping things down to let his slapbacked storytelling come to the fore, this latest transistor transmission's a strong signal that Ward will not fade away anytime soon.  

ALELA DIANE - To Be Still

I remember hearing "Age Old Blues" on a Daytrotter session; when it was over I picked up the phone and called my Nan. The song's lyrics evoked the town in Scotland that my Nan grew up in so clearly and beautifully that it made me miss her. That is the sign of a skilled storyteller, one who can create songs that have a magical three-dimensional sound powerful enough to transport the listener somewhere else, slowing down time and creating moments of reflection. The title of this follow-up to 2006's The Pirate's Gospel is quite fitting, as Diane's voice creates a sense of stillness, telling tales of a past where the hills were greener and the thunder of the ocean ran through the veins of many. These stories are given texture and character with the addition of mandolins, banjos and fiddles, but Alela's voice remains To Be Still's driving force.

PHOSPHORESCENT - To Willie

When Alabama-born/-raised Matthew Houck packed up and moved to Brooklyn, by no means was he surrendering his past and roots to start anew, as 2007's Pride was soaked in Southern Gothic tradition. Houck's forsaken voice (often compared to Will Oldham) would shout and holler hallelujahs, creating an atmosphere full of both grace and tragedy that left the listener wanting more from this one-man choir. Now, in further honour of his upbringing, his Phosphorescent project presents To Willie, 11 carefully reinvented covers from Willie Nelson's 1970s catalogue. All of the songs are sung with soul and conviction, full of laidback, down-home arrangements (listen to the choral contributions to "Can I Sleep In Your Arms", and the warm, solemn sway of the pedal steel on "Walkin'"). With songs like "I Gotta Get Drunk", Houck shows that he can not only write (or interpret) hauntingly beautiful songs, but also knows how to start a damn good party.

MADLIB - Beat Konducta Vol. 5 & 6: A Tribute To Dilla

Given how much Madlib and Jay Dee fed off each other's methods and approaches in the years leading up to Dilla's death, not only together as Jaylib but separately with the closely-related (and -released) snippet sounds of Beat Konducta Vol. 1 & 2 and Donuts three years back, Madlib has already consistently kept Jay Dee's spirit close, even on releases less explicitly tied to him in direct tribute. Originally released in late 2008 as separate LP sets (the Dil Withers Suite and Dil Cosby Suite), these two newest volumes exhume forty-two more unadulterated, blazed-out beat sketches from Otis Jackson, Jr.'s endless storehouse of Madlib Invazions.

FLAMIN' GROOVIES - Flamingo/Teenage Head

Courtesy of the excellent Rev-Ola reissue label comes this terrific two-fer of the Flamin' Groovies' seminal 1970-71 albums, Flamingo and Teenage Head. It was from the latter that Hamilton's punk-rockin' finest got their name--fittingly enough, since the Groovies proved themselves to be perfect punk precursors, all the while mining the rich, raunchy heritage of '50s rockabilly and R&B. Both albums feature snarling Stones-y originals, often out-rolling and rocking Mick Jagger and co. The careening covers (including a Randy Newman number!), slide-guitar playing, Roy Loney's snotty vocals, and overall bad-ass attitude make this disc as essential as The Stooges or MC5. And the Groovies' later power-pop excursions are not to be missed either, but that's a whole other story...

ANDREW BIRD - Noble Beast

Noble Beast is songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird's fifth full-length release. Like past efforts, this album showcases the classically trained Bird's ability to meticulously craft songs, adding dramatic flourishes with the help of his violin. Stylistically, much of the album reflects his previous work: dramatic, academic lyrics paired with baroque compositions that variously incorporate whistling, handclaps, pizzicato plucking, stomps, and elements of gypsy jazz, resulting in melodic, accessible pop-folk comparable to the Shins, the Hidden Cameras, Mark Kozelek, or even Bird's recent tourmate, Sandro Perri. Tracks to check out: "Oh No", "Fitz And The Dizzyspells", "Masterswarm", and "Effigy".