 | Hold on Now, Youngster... by Los Campesinos
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $6.99 Amid a "broken down war economy" they cough up a headrush of cute yet pointed punk. AND they can rock a glockenspiel!
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 | Brighter Than Creation's Dark by Drive-By Truckers
Buy new: $13.97 / Used from: $11.86 Do they miss Jason Isbell? Sure, but not as much you might think. And to compensate both Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley turn in their sharpest songs in a coon's age.
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 | Night Falls Over Kortedala by Jens Lekman
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $8.95 I hated this the first time I heard it, which is sometimes a good sign. I now think it's the most joyful and rapturously beautiful music I've heard so far this year.
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 | Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $8.39 Blissfully short and catchy tunes by four Columbia grads who are priviledged without being snotty, complacent or smug. This guitar band's secret weapon? The keyboard player.
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 | Ishumar by Toumast
Buy new: $17.98 / Used from: $10.75 Electric desert blues from North Africa, recommended esp. to fans of Tinariwen.
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 | Accelerate by R.E.M.
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $3.50 More "Life's Rich Pageant" than "Document," but strong enough to deserve the "comeback" label. Also contains the best Katrina song to date.
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 | Distortion by Magnetic Fields
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $6.71 Imagine The Archies crossed with "Psychocandy"-era Jesus & Mary Chain.
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 | Made of Bricks by Kate Nash
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $5.49 Nash's debut isn't as fetching as Lily Allen's, and she knows it. The humility--combined with the winsome hooks--makes it almost as charming.
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 | Heretic Pride by The Mountain Goats
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $9.75 Darnielle rallies back from his big breakup and big breakup album...sort of. The best songs here still reference romantic travails but with an ironic distance that lends wisdom rather than self-pity. Just wish he would rock out more a la "Lovecraft in Brooklyn."
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 | Setona by Setona & African Crossroads
Buy new: $15.98 / Used from: $12.37 Live afropop, and all the better for it.
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 | Money Music by Dollar Store
Buy new: $13.98 / Used from: $2.83 This Waco Brothers spin-off rocks alt country and cracks wise about everything from life on the road to corporatism.
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 | Elephant Shell by Tokyo Police Club
Buy new: $11.99 / Used from: $7.49 They beef up what would othewise be dinky little pop songs with formal touches like shouted choruses and a drummer who knows how to syncopate the old 4/4.
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 | Asking for Flowers by Kathleen Edwards
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $8.53 Like Christgau, I wish she would goose the tempos. But I remain a fool for her tender-tough schtick, esp. the little catch in her voice when goes for the high notes.
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 | New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War by Erykah Badu
Buy new: $10.49 / Used from: $6.37 Waves her funkadelic freak flag, which is smart and sexy. Thinks Farrakhan is a prophet, which is neither.
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 | Get Awkward by Be Your Own Pet
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $2.94 Spoiled brats, snotty and, here at least, a little too proud of it.
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