10.000 Maniacs - Our Time In Eden

On their fifth album, 10,000 Maniacs adopt a lush, full sound that more thoughtfully integrates Natalie Merchant's vocals with the rest of the band. The balance also allows her the option to rise above the mix to far greater effect. Throughout the album, keyboardist Dennis Drew shines, especially on "Gold Rush Brides" and on the title track, where his playing adds tremendous depth to Merchant's tales of loss and loneliness. On both "Few & Far Between" and "Candy Everybody Wants," James Brown's horn section brings a previously absent Motown flavor to the Maniacs' folk-rock sound. The rhythm section provides an extremely sturdy backbone for Robert Buck's subtle guitar playing and understated violins on "Stockton Gala Days," EDEN's standout track. "Jezebel" concludes with a powerful, soaring string section after a long introduction that pairs Drew's keyboards with Merchant's vocals. "The sound you're hearing, the sound you're fearing is the hate that parades up and down our streets," announces Merchant over the distorted guitars of "Tolerance"'s chorus, offsetting the much sweeter-sounding verses. The album ends on the chilling notes of "I'm Not the Man," a wrongfully accused man's first-person narrative set to plaintive viola. (10k maniacos)

Grinderman - Grinderman

Beginning sometime in the mid-to-late 1990s, Nick Cave's output became increasingly nuanced, introspective, and even tender. While he was still capable of a snarling rocker now and again, he'd certainly mellowed by the turn of the new millennium. Then came 2007 and the arrival of the mighty Grinderman, a Cave-fronted band featuring longtime colleagues Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey, and Jim Sclavunos. The project marks the first time Cave has ever been featured on guitar, and the first time since nearly the Birthday Party that he's approached his music with such libidinal urgency and swaggering gothic machismo. The music screeches, lurches, and clangs with a loose abandon that reimagines Cave's earlier incarnations in a more self-effacing guise. While Cave's lyrics are as considered and darkly literary as ever, there's humor here ("No Pussy Blues," "Depth Charge"), and the general improvisatory, spontaneous nature of the project is obviously being enjoyed by all. Grinderman is delicious proof that Nick the Stripper isn't gone after all. Parents, lock up the kiddies, it's show time. (The Mercy Seat)

Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike

You can hear it on "60 Revolutions," and even more magnificently on the stomping "ThinkLocally Fuck Globally," whose rhythms subtly quicken into a furious flamingo fire, before sweeping into a tribal tattoo, finally flinging itself out in a gypsy swirl. "Not a Crime" careens into Arabesque, "Immigrant Punk" skanks straight into reggae, while "Underdog World Strike" heads underground, interweaving hip-hop, punk, and reggae to gypsy's own roots. Frontman/lyricist Eugene Hütz explains how his own history drives him on the autobiographical "Undestructable," accompanied by a cheery punky reggae backing that defies one not to sing along. And it's not the only one for much of the set is spectacularly anthemic, from the fist-in-the-air fervor of the Oi!-esque "Not a Crime," the fashion-fling command chorus of "Start Wearing Purple," to the life-affirming "Undestructable." One may even start phonetically parroting the lyrics of "Santa Marinella." That latter song is not sung in English, and there's foreign lyrics sprinkled about the set, but the emotional meaning is always clear. A truly universal album that encompasses America's eternal immigrant story, urban living, and a love of life and music that translates into every language on earth. It's the fire in not just the gypsy soul, but the soul of everyone, and Bordello ignite it into a blaze as bright as life itself. (Start wearing purple wearing purple NA na na na!)

The Bravery - The Bravery

There's a long history of American bands hitting it big in the UK before they become known at home, so the Brooklyn-bred, NME-feted Bravery is part of a hallowed tradition. While the Bravery is solidly in the mold of mid-2000s groups worshipping at the altar of the 1980s, they manage a canny syncretism on their self-titled debut album. While the Rapture, Out Hud, Interpol, and other NYC brethren may have picked up on specific aspects of the Cure, New Order, et al, the Bravery manages to craft an all-inclusive sound that incorporates the most infectious aspects of the aforementioned influences and more. Bleeping Depeche Mode synths, twanging New Order basslines, Robert Smith-inflected vocals, Duran Duran-tinged dance-rock beats, and effects-laden Echo & the Bunnymen-via-Smiths guitar riffs all vie for space here. The Bravery boys are clearly frothing with enthusiasm for the glorious era they're too young to really remember, and their passion for the sound of those halcyon days of eyeliner and synthesizers is bursting from the seams of this disc. (Bravery you've got a cool art work)

Starsailor - Love Is Here

Despite their enormous success in their native England and their inroads into the US market, Starsailor defies expectations at every turn. While the group takes its name from one of Tim Buckley's most experimental albums, there's nothing remotely Buckley-like or experimental about their sound. And though the quartet is often lumped in with Britpoppers, they share neither the laddish anthems and Beatles obsessions of Oasis nor the friendly pop sensibilities of Travis and Coldplay. Instead, Starsailor offers a moody brand of folk-rock that brings late-period Cat Stevens to mind more than any of the band's contemporaries. With a chiming, organic mix of electric and acoustic guitars and '70s-sounding keyboards, Love Is Here takes the listener through an often angst-ridden series of emotional extremes while never becoming too sonically taxing.( Why does it always rain on me?)

REM - The Best Of 1988-2003

R.E.M. began their Warner contract in 1988 as the biggest band to emerge from the college-radio-fueled American underground. Fifteen years later, they released In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003, the first overview of their long stint at Warner Records. During that decade and a half, R.E.M. had a turbulent journey. At the outset, their legend and influence as one of the key -- if not the key -- bands of the American underground was firmly in place, but their success kept growing, culminating in a breakthrough to international stardom in 1991 thanks to "Losing My Religion" and Out of Time. For a few years there, they were one of the biggest bands in the world, standing as role models and godfathers for the alt-rock explosion of the '90s; even as grunge ruled the U.S. and U.K., R.E.M. were having their biggest hits with the brooding Automatic for the People (1992) and the guitar-heavy return-to-rock Monster (1994). Then, midway through the decade, the road got a little bumpy. The Monster tour was plagued with problems, the most noteworthy being drummer Bill Berry's on-stage aneurysm in 1995. He left the band the next year, not long after the band parted ways with Jefferson Holt, their longtime manager who was immortalized in their 1984 song "Little America."(Nightswimming)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

the Yeah Yeah Yeah's 2006 sophomore full-length, was one of the most anticipated releases of the year. The band's fiery, unhinged 2003 major-label debut, Fever To Tell, yanked the band out of NYC clubs and onto the world stage, and while most of the musical cognoscente anticipated a sonic shake-up of some sort for the sequel, in exactly what direction the YYYs would head was a source of much speculation. Would they follow Liars into the murky depths of willfully alienating avant noise, or would they Liz-Phair themselves right into glossy commercial irrelevance? In fact, it's neither of the above. As tracks like "Gold Lion," "Honeybear," and "Cheated Hearts" show, the band clearly isn't out to ruffle any feathers, but they're also not forsaking the infectious, art-tinged punk that got them where they are. Guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase are spot-on as usual, and Karen O is in lovely, if somewhat restrained, voice throughout. The production is bright and full, and enhances the glammy, anthemic underpinnings of the band's sound. And although it's not going to inspire any future prom themes a la "Maps," Show Your Bones has strengthened the YYYs claim to being that rarest of animals--a legitimate Top 40 rock band with a genuine artistic sensibility.(Phenomena)