ALBUM REVIEWS

Mumford & Sons

Babel

(Glassnote)

When Mumford & Sons quietly released their debut album three years ago, nobody could have guessed that an acoustic folk group from London would go on to sell two million records in the U.S., play a Grammy set with Bob Dylan, and become one of the most popular bands in the world. So expectations are so high for their follow-up LP, Babel, that the quartet aims for the cheap seats with an arena-ready set of songs that makes banjo- and mandolin-fueled folk music sound like the new classic rock. And there are times when they effortlessly pull off this mix of campfire singalong and stadium rock: the forward-marching title track, the horn-kissed “Lover of the Light,” and especially “I Will Wait,” a hook-filled room shaker. But like Sigh No More, Babel is more a scattered collection of songs than a unified work, placing it squarely in folk’s storied tradition.

Django Django

Django Django

(Ribbon)

The Scottish quartet Django Django play art-rock spiked with a dose of psychedelia. In other words, their self-titled debut album is all sorts of messed up, as it weaves from one airborne space jam to another. But Django Django lift enough inspiration from post-punk, spanning the ’80s through the ’00s, to ground it from time to time. Songs like “Hail Bop” and “Default” fuse tribal drumming, handclaps, and far-out synths that trip out on the atmosphere.

John Hiatt

Mystic Pinball

(New West)

When you’ve racked up more than 20 albums in your long career, curveballs, while not entirely out of the question, aren’t expected or even welcomed. The cozily familiar music on John Hiatt’s 21^st album won’t win him any new fans at this point, but those who’ve been there for the long haul will appreciate the bluesy shuffle of “We’re Alright Now” and “It All Comes Back Someday”’s pop push. Mystic Pinball is reliable roots rock from an old master.

Bettye LaVette

Thankful N’ Thoughtful

(Anti-)

On her fourth album since her rediscovery and rebirth seven years ago, the 66-year-old soul singer returns to familiar territory after the slight detour of 2010’s Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook. She covers contemporaries (Bob Dylan), new kids (the Black Keys), and artists who couldn’t be further removed from her comfort zone (Tom Waits). Plus, she reworks Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” into a slow-boiling shuffle, claiming it as her own.

R.E.M.

Document (25^th Anniversary Edition)

(Capitol/I.R.S.)

R.E.M.’s commercial breakthrough from 1987 still sounds like a perfect mix of the band’s indie spirit and the desire for something more (indeed – they jumped labels for their next album, collecting a hefty paycheck). The key tracks – “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” “The One I Love” – are balanced by some of the group’s most political songs like “Exhuming McCarthy.” This two-CD reissue includes a live disc.

ALBUM REVIEWS

Ryan Bingham

Tomorrowland

(Axster Bingham)

Singer-songwriter Ryan Bingham’s big break came three years ago, when a handful of his songs anchored Jeff Bridges’ Oscar-winning movie Crazy Heart. He followed that up a year later with an album that explored America’s, and Americana’s, landscape with broad Springsteenian strokes. On his fourth and most ambitious LP, the 31-year-old New Mexican fine-tunes his observations, while stretching his narrative range: Several songs on Tomorrowland clock in at six and eight minutes, including the rambling call-to-arms “Rising of the Ghetto.” Bingham still makes room for simpler songs, like the barnstorming “Heart of Rhythm,” from time to time. But mostly the overlong Tomorrowland is resolute, a little self-righteous, and a whole lotta angry. On the album’s opening cut “Beg for Broken Legs,” he sings “I ain’t gonna bite my tongue.” It’s a statement of purpose.

Dinosaur Jr.

I Bet on Sky

(Jagjaguwar)

Three albums into their reunion (which is the same number the original trio made before disbanding in 1988), Dinosaur Jr. have settled into their role as indie-rock godfathers with all the respect and familiarity the title affords. But where 2007’s Beyond and 2009’s Farm sparked under the embers of playing together again, I Bet on Sky sags a bit, occasionally sounding like J. Mascis and Lou Barlow solo trips, just like the last time they made it to a third album.

Aimee Mann

Charmer

(Superego)

Aimee Mann has made some indisputably downer records over the years, but on her eighth album, she cracks something that almost can be called a smile. Taking a cue from the pop songs of the late ’70s and early ’80s, when Mann started making music, Charmer is the singer-songwriter’s most optimistic-sounding LP in a decade – from the bubbly title tune to “Living a Lie,” a duet with the Shins’ James Mercer — even with her usual lyrical bite.

Corin Tucker Band

Kill My Blues

(Kill Rock Stars)

Like her former Sleater-Kinney bandmates, who make familiar but satisfying noise in Wild Flag, singer Corin Tucker leads her new group through full-speed-ahead Northwestern punk that’s as timeless as it is now. And like 2010’s debut, Kill My Blues doesn’t linger. Most songs get in and do their thing for two or three minutes and then blow out of there. The best of them – “Groundhog Day,” “Neskowin” – don’t even pause for a breath.

The Whigs

Enjoy the Company

(New West)

This Athens, Georgia, trio has been making records for about seven years now, but on Enjoy the Company, their fourth album, they finally pull together the warm mix of soulful garage-pop they’ve played around with from the start. On songs like the sprawling horn-kissed opener “Staying Alive,” “Summer Heat,” and the stinging “Waiting,” the Whigs come off like a more grounded My Morning Jacket, without the art-rock baggage.

 

ALBUM REVIEWS

The Avett Brothers

The Carpenter

(Universal Republic)

On their 2009 breakthrough album I and Love and You, North Carolina’s Avett Brothers abandoned their DIY roots, packed up their acoustic guitars and banjos, and headed to Rick Rubin’s Los Angeles studio, where the guru-like producer helped shape their most ambitious record. On the follow-up, the Avetts’ seventh album, they once again work with Rubin, who adds some heft to the group’s most personal set of songs. Musically, The Carpenter is a tough record, with Scott and Seth Avett’s tight harmonies, flickering solos, and occasional classic rock-style approach to folk music filling in the empty spaces. But on songs like “The Once and Future Carpenter,” “Live and Die,” and “February Seven,” the band recalls softhearted old-timers, getting all misty-eyed and mushy as they look back on love and life. It’s a midlife collision of their heads and hearts.

Matchbox Twenty

North

(Atlantic/Emblem)

Not much has changed for Matchbox Twenty since their last album five years ago, a greatest-hits set that included six new songs. They’re still pushing guitar-speckled mom-rock (the title of that 2007 release? Exile on Mainstream) and making major issues out of the smallest things. North is their first full album of new material in a decade, and they’re starting to show their age. Only the opener “Parade” and “She’s So Mean” stand out.

Dave Matthews Band

Away From the World

(RCA)

The last time Dave Matthews Band made an album, 2009’s somber Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King, they paid tribute to their late saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who passed away the year before. On Away From the World they return to the amiable but repetitive bro-rock of their early records, even calling back producer Steve Lillywhite, who worked on their first three LPs. Songs like “Broken Things” and “Mercy” sound ripe for onstage explorations.

Metronomy

Late Night Tales

(Late Night Tales)

Mixed by Joseph Mount, frontman for the British electronic quartet Metronomy, the latest Late Night Tales compilation throws together 20 songs – ranging from Outkast to Cat Power to Kate & Anna McCarrigle – for a super-chill set that doubles as a comedown from your after-hours clubbing. Most tracks are obscure enough to blend into their surroundings; only the Alan Parsons Project’s 1982 Top 5 hit “Eye in the Sky” disrupts the flow.

Raveonettes

Observator

(Vice)

A decade and six albums into their career, this Danish duo are still capable of learning a few new tricks. They add some piano to their usual reverb-soaked Jesus and Mary Chain-like guitar assaults on Observator, but this is mostly the same retro-leaning indie rock the Raveonettes have been churning out since 2003’s debut. Keep “Young and Cold,” “Observations,” and “She Owns the Streets” for your mix. Discard the rest.

ALBUM REVIEWS

Animal Collective

Centipede Hz

(Domino)

Nobody fucks with modern music, and its fans, as much as Animal Collective. When normal people say they hate hipster bands, they’re specifically talking about this Brooklyn quartet. And over the course of nine albums they’ve bent and twisted their, and our, perception of what indie rock should sound like. On Centipede Hz they check in with their most primal album, one that pushes aside, for the most part, the arrhythmic sounds and unstructured noise of their past work. There’s still plenty of electronic jetsam and loose psych-out jams moving these songs into place, but the result is Animal Collective’s easiest flowing album, a record that trades head trips for straightforward songcraft, relatively speaking. Tracks like “Moonjock,” “Today’s Supernatural,” and “Monkey Riches” slip in with little aggravation and a smattering of warmth. It’s a welcome evolution.

Melissa Etheridge

4^th Street Feeling

(Island)

On her last album, 2010’s Fearless Love, Melissa Etheridge sounded ready to fight, taking on anti-gay-marriage supporters with her toughest set of songs in years. She takes a breath on her 12^th album, checking in with a bluesy, twangy set that’s more bar-band bluster than change-the-world pensive. The best songs on 4^th Street Feeling (the R&B-leaning title track, the backroads country “Falling Up”) sound folksy, worn-in, and sorta lazy.

Jens Lekman

I Know What Love Isn’t

(Secretly Canadian)

Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Lekman is all about the big statement. The best song on his third album, and first since 2007’s excellent Night Falls Over Kortedala, is called “The End of the World Is Bigger Than Love,” and it’s stuffed with swirling strings, springtime woodwinds, and Lekman’s swooning croon putting a broken heart in perspective. It’s grand, eloquent stuff, and it feeds I Know What Love Isn’t with a sense of magnificence.

Bob Mould

Silver Age

(Merge)

Bob Mould had a hell of a midlife crisis, farting away his late 30s and most of his 40s on disappointing acoustic and electronic albums. The Hüsker Dü and Sugar frontman made a welcome return to guitar-based, hook-filled indie rock on 2009’s Life and Times, and continues the upswing on Silver Age. He hasn’t sounded this vital in 20 years, especially on “The Descent,” which wouldn’t sound out of place on one of his old bands’ albums.

Stars

The North

(ATO)

Stars came up in the same Canadian indie-pop circle as Broken Social Scene. In fact, the groups often shared membership. Now that all the buzz has settled, the Montreal quintet keeps its ambitions relatively simple on its sixth album, as Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan trade vocals on retro-synth songs like “The Theory of Relativity.” The dozen songs average about three and a half minutes each – pure pop for late-summer 2012.

ALBUM REVIEWS

Various Artists

Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac

(Concord)

Tribute albums can work two ways: You stay totally faithful to the source material, or you don’t. The 17 artists gathered on Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac try to have it both ways, with forward-thinking artists like Lee Ranaldo and J. Mascis’ stripped cover of the instrumental “Albatross” and the New Pornographers’ stop-and-go, synth-heavy version of “Think About Me” falling into the latter camp. But for the most part, everyone is too in awe of the original songs to muster much of a departure (looking at you, Antony and Karen Elson). Best are Best Coast’s peppy bedroom take on “Rhiannon,” the Kills’ late-night stumble through “Dreams,” and the vintage “Future Games,” which MGMT turn into a sci-fi synth fantasy, complete with emotionless robots and space static. The album could use more of these shake-ups.

Antony and the Johnsons

Cut the World

(Secretly Canadian)

By now, you pretty much know how an Antony and the Johnsons album will play out. Frontman Antony Hegarty will wow you with his soaring falsetto and hyper-delicate approach to classical-spiked baroque pop. And halfway through you’ll zone out. This live album breaks the pattern a bit by employing a full symphonic orchestra onstage. Still, the highlight is a seven-and-a-half-minute spoken-word piece that doubles as a mission statement.

Dead Can Dance

Anastasis

(Pias America)

The pioneering London dream-goth duo Dead Can Dance haven’t made an album since 1996’s Spiritchaser. Shortly after its release, they broke up. Their new album, their eighth, picks up where they left off, with Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry floating around ambient sounds like lost royalty emerging from the woods and returning to their castle. They don’t break a sweat over songs like “Children of the Sun” and “Amnesia,” and neither will you.

Ben Taylor

Listening

(Sun Pedal Recordings/ILG)

Ben Taylor’s parents are Carly Simon and James Taylor, so his singer-songwriter chops come naturally. On his fourth album he channels his father in both style and sound: He borrows James’ easy flow on songs like “Worlds Are Made of Paper” and the title track, while “Oh Brother” lifts a line from Dad’s “You’ve Got a Friend.” There’s nothing as timeless as “Fire and Rain” on Listening, but it’s pleasant, effortless folk-pop.

Yellowcard

Southern Air

(Hopeless)

The band that made the violin cool for pop-punk kids throughout the universe has been on a roll since returning from a four-year hiatus last year. Their eighth album features a stinging blend of chugging guitar riffs and fist-raising choruses made for bedroom moshing. Southern Air doesn’t reinvent, or even tweak, the formula. But songs like “Awakening” and “Always Summer” blast out of the speakers like it’s 2003 all over again.

ALBUM REVIEWS

Yeasayer

Fragrant World

(Secretly Canadian)

After the weirdly exciting, and kinda surprising, pop detour of 2010’s Odd Blood, the Brooklyn-based Yeasayer make a slight return to their more experimental, psych-pop roots on their third album. But they haven’t completely abandoned the playful, accessible hooks and tribal thumps that made Odd Blood‘s “Ambling Alp” and “O.N.E.” so irresistible. Songs like “Fingers Never Bleed,” “Longevity,” and “Henrietta” skirt along electronic lines that pulse with indie-rock currents. At times, they dip into a nostalgic pool on Fragrant World, recalling ’80s-era Depeche Mode and other synth-pop trailblazers; other times they target the future with robotic vocals and factory-hissing beats. Fragrant World doesn’t have any of the where-did-that-come-from? moments that made Odd Blood so exhilarating. But it’s still weird and wild, and only a little bit dull.

Bloc Party

Four

(Frenchkiss)

On their first album in four years, the London quartet still finds reasons to work in all those cool ’80s and ’90s bands they’re influenced by. So you’ll hear some Cure in “So He Begins to Lie,” Joy Division-style minor-chord brooding in “3X3,” and Blur’s jagged rhythm stutters in “Octopus.” You’ll also hear bigger and more forceful guitars ringing throughout Four, which loses its identity about halfway through. But that’s always been the case.

The Darkness

Hot Cakes

(Wind-Up)

It’s been seven years since British goofballs the Darkness released an album. Not that it matters, since they’ve always sounded stuck in 1979 anyway. Their Spinal Tap schtick wears thin after a few songs, but you should still check out Justin Hawkins’ falsetto-screeched “every man, woman, and child wants to suck my cock” from “Every Inch of You” and the metal cover of Radiohead’s “Street Spirit.” Yes, that Radiohead.

Owl City

The Midsummer Station

(Universal Republic)

Adam Young opens his bedroom project to collaborators on the latest Owl City album, but it’s mostly the same whispery quasi-spiritual stuff that made “Fireflies” a massive hit. Despite help from pros like Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus filling out the sound, The Midsummer Station doesn’t pack the hooks found on Young’s last two albums. One exception: “Good Time” the lustrous single with Carly Rae Jepsen that can fuel a hundred summer days.

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

Mature Themes

(4AD)

Reformed low-fi indie rocker Ariel Pink expands the musical palette he used on 2010’s Before Today for another wild trip through his genre-jumbled mind. He’s still a weirdo, exploring the sonic spaces between garage and psych rock, and combining ’60s organ with Bowie-like space oddities. Proof: Mature Themes‘ first single is a cover of an obscure R&B song from 1979 called “Baby” by the even more obscure Donnie & Joe Emerson.

ALBUM REVIEWS

Various Artists

We Walk the Line: A Celebration of the Music of Johnny Cash

(Legacy)

Earlier this year, a bunch of Johnny Cash’s friends and famous fans got together in Austin to celebrate what would have been the legendary country singer’s 80^th birthday. They ran through many of his best-known songs, mostly in Cash’s signature style. We Walk the Line: A Celebration of the Music of Johnny Cash(part of a new wave of reissues and a DVD of the birthday concert) gathers 20 of those performances. But since Cash was more of an interpreter than songwriter, some of the songs here – like Lucinda Williams’ take on Nine Inch Nail’s “Hurt,” Shelby Lynne and the guy from Train’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe,” and Amy Lee singing Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” – seem a little odd. But Carolina Chocolate Drop’s joyous “Jackson” and Willie Nelson’s faithful “I Still Miss Someone” do the Man in Black right.

Antibalas

Antibalas

(Daptone)

Members of this 12-piece Brooklyn ensemble had major parts in the hit Broadway production Fela!, based on the late African-music superstar’s life.So their Afrobeat chops, which may not come naturally, are unquestionably earned. Their first album in five years is more political than past efforts, with songs touching on the economic crisis, but once the horns and polyrhythmic beats get worked up, your feet will get the real message.

Archers of Loaf

All the Nations Airports

White Trash Heroes

(Merge)

These reissues of the last two albums released by the influential North Carolina indie rockers aren’t as essential as the first two. But there’s still plenty of buzz-saw guitars and larynx-shredding vocals to be found on 1996’s All the Nations Airports and 1998’s White Trash Heroes, both expanded with bonus discs featuring outtakes and demos. The quartet’s experiments with tape loops, synths, and vocoder make these quiet little victories.

Redd Kross

Researching the Blues

(Merge)

The first in album in 20 years by these California rockers, whose membership and legacy pretty much run through the history of indie rock over the past quarter century, gets in and out of there in about 30 minutes. So things haven’t changed much during their break. They still work three chords, they still play chewy power pop, and they’re still more loyal to crunchy riffs than to hooky melodies. Business as usual.

Rick Ross

God Forgives, I Don’t

(Def Jam/Maybach)

The Miami rapper’s fifth LP doesn’t stray far from the various solo mixtapes and albums by his Maybach Music Group crew he’s released since 2010’s Teflon Don. So there’s plenty of rhymes about the rich-and-famous lifestyle Ross has immersed himself in since he launched his career. But there’s also a sense of coming-down reflection, a look back on a life that wasn’t always so glamorous. Big, glossy, and just a bit familiar.

ALBUM REVIEWS

Joss Stone

The Soul Sessions Vol. 2

(Stone’d/S-Curve)

Joss Stone was only 15 when she recorded her first album The Soul Sessions, a collection of R&B covers that were originally released years before she was born. After a decade of self-penned songs and a stint with Mick Jagger’s not-so-super supergroup SuperHeavy, Stone returns to the all-covers format on her sixth album, a sequel to her breakthrough debut. And like the 2003 record, The Soul Sessions Vol. 2 steers clear of the usual karaoke hits and mines more obscure R&B nuggets, like the Chi-Lites’ “(For God’s Sake) Give More Power to the People,” the Dells’ “The Love We Had (Stays on My Mind),” and Sylvia’s “Pillow Talk.” Stone has grown into her voice over the past 10 years, so she gives these songs plenty of sweaty, sexy growl. They’re no replacements for the originals, of course, but they sure beat the usual American Idol recycling.

Blur

Blur 21: The Box

(Virgin)

This massive box – which includes all seven of the band’s studio albums plus a bunch of unreleased tracks and other rarities – should settle once and for all which Britpop group from the ’90s mattered most. Unlike Oasis, Blur didn’t get blustier as they got bigger; they got artsier and smarter. And they were a restless bunch, jumping from ’60s-style garage rave-ups to club-shaking dance music to guitar-stabbing alt-rock without missing a beat.

Elvis Presley

I Am an Elvis Fan

(RCA/Legacy)

Just in time for the 35^th anniversary of the King’s death comes this 21-song collection curated by fans. A quarter of a million Elvis lovers from across the globe voted on the album’s contents, and it’s pretty much what you’d expect: big hits (“Don’t Be Cruel,” “Heartbreak Hotel”), movie songs (“Blue Hawaii,” “Viva Las Vegas”), gospel cuts (“Peace in the Valley,” “How Great Thou Art”), and zero tracks from his influential Sun period.

Various Artists

Sparkle: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

(RCA)

The only reason to hear this soundtrack to the remake of the 1976 movie about a 1960s girl group is for the last two songs recorded by Whitney Houston (who also stars in the film) before her death. She flies solo on the blah gospel cut “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” and duets with Jordin Sparks (who plays Sparkle) on the festive “Celebrate.” A bunch of songs by the movie’s stars and one by Cee Lo Green round out the record.

ALBUM REVIEWS

Passion Pit

Gossamer

(Columbia)

Why go low-fi when there are children’s choirs, wall-rattling synths, and pop hooks the size of a small country out there to explore and use? Passion Pit frontman Michael Angelakos crams as many canvas-covering devices that will fit into the spaces of the Massachusetts quintet’s summer-ready second album. Gossamer is basically more of everything that made 2009’s Manners a hit (you can hear its influence in everything from car commercials to bands like Foster the People). So it’s a bigger and more focused record, from the monster synth attacks of “I’m Alright” and “Cry Like a Ghost” to the album’s sweeping theme of hope amid despair. Nothing seems to bring Angelakos down – not lost family connections or his girlfriend walking out on him. It’s all summed up on Gossamer‘s penultimate track, “It’s Not My Fault, I’m Happy.” Words to live by.

The Gaslight Anthem

Handwritten

(Mercury)

Of course Brian Fallon, the Gaslight Anthem’s frontman, would say something like, “See you on the flip side,” as he does on “45,” the opening song on the band’s fourth album. A tattooed Springsteen freak with a punk past, Fallon is a student of rock history and one of the few guys still around who thinks three chords can still make a difference. Producer Brendan O’Brien gives Handwritten Springsteenian heft. Appropriately.

Micachu and the Shapes

Never

(Rough Trade)

Armed with a homemade acoustic guitar and boundless energy, 24-year-old Mica Levi twists what you know about modern-day indie rock and tosses out something that resembles pop music for open-minded industrialists. Is that a vacuum cleaner we hear in “Easy,” the opening cut on her British band’s second album? And what’s going on with that saxophone-sounding thing in “OK”? Consider it post-post-punk.

Laetitia Sadier

Silencio

(Drag City)

Sadier has been the lead vocalist in London electronic-pop group Stereolab since the early ’90s, so it’s no surprise that her second solo album sounds like a less adventurous record by her band. Bachelor-pad coolness and French-accented cooing drive songs like “The Rule of the Game,” “Find Me the Pulse of the Universe,” and “There Is a Price to Pay for Freedom (And It Isn’t Security).” Mix yourself a highball and settle in.

Sugar

Copper Blue/Beaster

File Under: Easy Listening

(Merge)

Bob Mould’s other buzzsaw-guitar trio filled in the pieces between Hüsker Dü and his erratic solo career. The band’s three records – the 1992 debut Copper Blue, the following year’s Beaster EP, and the 1994 swan song LP – get the deluxe reissue treatment here. The three-CD Copper Blue (paired with Beaster) and double-disc File Under areloaded with B-sides and concerts, but it’s the original spiky indie-punk songs that still sting.

ALBUM REVIEWS

Baroness

Yellow & Green

(Relapse)

Like fellow Georgia prog-metal behemoths Mastodon, Savannah’s Baroness get heavy and heady on their third album. They also bite off a little more than they can chew on Yellow & Green, a concept album of sorts, split into two separate works and filled with the tricky, twisty instrumental chops and complex songcraft that have gained Mastodon a following outside of typical metal fan bases. Don’t bother searching for a tidy theme among the 18 songs scattered among the two records; it’s the minor-chord brooding, genre experiments, and epic thrust of the music that tie it all together. Tracks like “Take My Bones Away,” “March to the Sea,” and “Eula” reveal a growing interest in melody and structure that isn’t just about the push and plunder. And frontman John Baizley has never sounded more at ease with his surroundings, finding peace among the ruins.

Cosmo Jarvis

Think Bigger

(Frame/The End)

This British singer-songwriter caught a ton of buzz a couple of years ago with “Gay Pirates,” the catchiest song ever written about homosexual swashbucklers. His third album still packs plenty of whimsy, but Jarvis cuts a more conventional path this time, targeting – as the title implies – more mainstream topics. The best songs (“Love This,” “Tell Me Who to Be”) are tuneful, filled with playful wordplay, and kinda average.

Jeff the Brotherhood

Hypnotic Nights

(Warner Bros.)

Nashville siblings Jake and Jamin Orrall (sons of a Music City vet who worked on Taylor Swift’s debut) work a Black Keys-style low-fi stomp on their new album. And the comparison is no accident: Dan Auerbach co-produced Hypnotic Nights with the brothers. Fuzzy, scuzzy, and a throwback to Nuggets garage rock, songs like “Country Life” and “Sixpack” are sloppy, solid slabs of primal rock & roll, no subgenres necessary.

Matisyahu

Spark Seeker

(Fallen Sparks/Thirty Tigers/Red)

Even Matisyahu isn’t sure how he fits in these days. After inventing the “Hasidic Jewish reggae rap” genre (and, as far as we know, he’s the only guy to ever dabble in this mix), the Pennsylvania native eased into Jack Johnson-like breezy acoustic folk. His fourth album is all over the place as he grasps for some relevancy in a world grown tired of his gimmick. Over 55 tedious minutes, Matisyahu sings, strums, and, yes, raps, Hasidic Jewish reggae style.

The Very Best

MTMTMK

(Moshi Moshi/Cooperative)

Three years ago, this group – a collaboration between Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya and British producer Johan Hugo, now flying solo – became blog favorites for its mix of traditional Afropop and old-school hip-hop. Their second album is more of the same, with more emphasis on the African music that drives the grooves. The best songs here (“Kondaine,” “Yoshua Alikuti”) transport township jive to the hippest club on the continent.