Various Artists

Son of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys

Anti-

International, Folk, Pop/Rock

This two-disc, 36-track collection is an expanded sequel to 2006's Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys.

— Steve Leggett

Nick Cave / Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Push the Sky Away

Bad Seed Ltd.

Pop/Rock

After a nearly six-year break, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds return with a fine, low-key, brooding set that melds melancholy and menace.

— Thom Jurek

Buckcherry

Confessions

11-7 Recordings

Pop/Rock

As Buckcherry get slightly older, they're winding up relying more on melody than riffs, as the STP-influenced Confessions illustrates.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Matmos

The Marriage of True Minds

Thrill Jockey

Electronic, Pop/Rock

Matmos' exercise in telepathic songwriting delivers some of the most abstract, and most visceral, music in the duo's career.

— Heather Phares

Jamie Lidell

Jamie Lidell

Warp

R&B

A collaboration-free solo affair, and a record that's supercharged with the type of electro-funk and soul he's made a hallmark.

— John Bush

Trinidad James

Don't Be S.A.F.E.

Def Jam

Rap

The rapper's debut mixtape surrounds its massive hit, "All Gold Everything," with like-minded numbers and quirky, creative interludes.

— David Jeffries

Iceage

You're Nothing

Matador

Pop/Rock

With their second album, these Danish punk revivalists branch out from the wiry sounds of their debut to more introspective moods.

— Fred Thomas

Inc.

No World

4AD

R&B

Album one from these 4AD R&B brothers shows promise, but never eclipses the deep and quiet Maxwell album cuts it seems to emulate.

— Andy Kellman

Beach Fossils

Clash the Truth

Captured Tracks

Pop/Rock

Adding live drums and studio production to their already excellent songs, Beach Fossils' second album sounds energized and alive.

— Tim Sendra

Andrew Field-Pickering / Maxmillion Dunbar

House of Woo

RVNG

Electronic, Pop/Rock

House music gets warm and fuzzy on the producer's 2013 effort, but it remains funky and pleasingly deep.

— David Jeffries

Atlas Genius

When It Was Now

Warner Bros.

Pop/Rock

Atlas Genius' debut album proves the earnest synth rock of their single "Trojans" wasn't a fluke.

— Heather Phares

Dawn McCarthy / Bonnie "Prince" Billy

What the Brothers Sang

Drag City / Palace Records

Pop/Rock

A lovingly crafted, laid-back collection of songs from the vaults of the Everly Brothers that is as respectful as they are idiosyncratic.

— James Christopher Monger

Aleister X / The Lexapro Girls

Half-Speed Mastered

Skyscraper Music Maker / Steev Mike

Pop/Rock, Rap

This mysterious New York rapper/producer/sound wizard builds a world too strange to ignore on his proper full-length debut.

— Fred Thomas

The Howling Hex

The Best of the Howling Hex

Drag City

Pop/Rock

Filled with songs in waltz and polka rhythms, this non-retrospective reaffirms the Howling Hex's willingness to challenge expectations.

— Heather Phares

Beat Mark

Howls of Joy

Ample Play

Pop/Rock

Excellent indie pop dunked in noise from a French quartet who'd make the Vaselines very proud.

— Tim Sendra

Eat Skull

III

Woodsist

Pop/Rock

This Portland, Oregon noise pop band's third record is also its most colorful, introspective, and well conceived to date.

— Fred Thomas

Psychic Ills

One Track Mind

Sacred Bones

Pop/Rock

The fourth album from this once heavily experimental New York band takes on a more focused sound steeped in lonely, arid desert psych.

— Fred Thomas

Flume

Flume

Mom + Pop Music

Electronic

The debut album from Australian experimental electronic musician and producer Flume mixes pop, dubstep, indie rock, and R&B.

— Matt Collar

Darwin Deez

Songs for Imaginative People

Lucky Number

Pop/Rock

The eclectic singer/songwriter/producer/hipster gets even weirder on the follow-up to his 2010 debut.

— Jason Lymangrover

Lusine

The Waiting Room

Ghostly International

Electronic

The Ghostly artist branches out from IDM and ambient techno with a fat, straightforward production that features guest vocalists.

— Jason Lymangrover

Flea

Helen Burns

Org Music

Pop/Rock

This daring EP by the Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist is full of pleasant surprises.

— Jason Lymangrover

Sallie Ford / Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside

Untamed Beast

Partisan

Pop/Rock

Sallie Ford is the real deal, her band seems suited, and Untamed Beast is the full-tilt arrival of a rare and special singer.

— Steve Leggett

Sin Fang

Flowers

Morr Music

Pop/Rock

Sin Fang's third album delivers some of Sindri Sigfússon's most confident -- and loudest -- music.

— Heather Phares

Death Cab for Cutie

The Barsuk Years

Artist in Residence

Pop/Rock

Exhaustively captures the band's rise from beloved insular indie darlings to mainstream Grammy-nominated rockers.

— James Christopher Monger

The Relatives

The Electric Word

Yep Roc

R&B

Over 40 years since its formation, this Dallas group delivers a true and powerful debut album -- a fusion of gospel, funk, and psychedelic soul.

— Andy Kellman

Celtic Thunder

Mythology [Bonus Tracks]

Celtic Thunder / Verve

International

Tenth studio outing from the Celtic pop theater troupe presents a musical odyssey that charts the history of the Celts in Ireland.

— James Christopher Monger

Concrete Knives

Be Your Own King

Bella Union

Pop/Rock

French pop outfit offers up a well-executed set of staccato dance-rock anthems that flirt with excess yet never overstay their welcome.

— James Christopher Monger

Dan Friel

Total Folklore

Thrill Jockey

Electronic, Pop/Rock

The Parts & Labor keyboardist/vocalist combines noise pop's crunch with melodic synth anthems to make an enjoyably abrasive album.

— Jason Lymangrover

Dobie

We Will Not Harm You

Big Dada

Electronic

The U.K. underground hip-hop producer messes with house music beats and quirky samples on this attractive and deep set.

— David Jeffries

The Slide Brothers

Robert Randolph Presents: The Slide Brothers

Concord

Religious, Blues

This quartet of pedal steel icons blend gospel music with rock, funk, and blues, making their first album a unique and rewarding listen.

— Al Campbell

Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet / Jason Marsalis

In a World of Mallets

Basin Street Records

Jazz

Vibraphonist Jason Marsalis delivers a cerebral, swinging, and percussion-driven follow-up to 2009's Music Update.

— Matt Collar

Robben Ford

Bringing It Back Home

Provogue

Blues

On his first studio album in six years, the guitarist delivers a very strong set of covers with a crack band, and dazzles as a singer to boot.

— Thom Jurek

STRFKR

Miracle Mile

Polyvinyl

Pop/Rock

On its third album, this Portland, Oregon indie electro act finds its groove with a set of hook-heavy, slow-burning dance-pop.

— Fred Thomas

Bobby Long

Wishbone

ATO

Pop/Rock

On his sophomore effort for ATO, Bobby Long cranks up the electric guitar, tightens his songwriting, and delivers big.

— Thom Jurek

Wingdale Community Singers

Night, Sleep, Death

Blue Chopsticks / Drag City

Country

Another enigmatic set of gospel- and country-infused urban folk songs that swap the porch swing for the front stoop.

— James Christopher Monger

Paul Badura-Skoda

Paul Badura-Skoda Plays Franz Schubert

Genuin Select

Classical

Badura-Skoda essentially offers three quite different readings of the work here. This is a unique project and certainly worthwhile.

— James Manheim

The Soft Hills

Chromatisms

Tapete Records

Pop/Rock

On its third album, this Seattle-based soft psych-rock band is increasingly in control of its powers, blending spacy echoes with indie folk.

— Fred Thomas

Max Emanuel Cencic / Riccardo Minasi / Il Pomo d'Oro

Venezia: Opera Arias of the Serenissima

Erato / Virgin Classics

Classical

These are melodic arias well suited to Cencic's voice, which has a bit of gravel and a nice dramatic flair.

— James Manheim

Art Department

Social Experiment 003

No. 19 Music

Electronic

This seamless 72-minute mix displays Art Department's hypnotic tech-house with tracks featuring Carl Craig, Brigante, and DJ Hell.

— Heather Phares

Boom Bip / Charlie White

Music For Sleeping Children

Lex

Electronic

The banal and unsettling come together on this conceptual piece from producer Boom Bip and visual artist Charlie White.

— David Jeffries

Chris Darrow

Artist Proof

Drag City

Pop/Rock

Drag City's series of great Americana reissues continues with the nearly forgotten country-rock debut by one of L.A.'s studio aces.

O Terço / Marcos Valle

Vento Sul

Light in the Attic Records

Latin, International

In celebration of Marcos Valle's 70th birthday, Light in the Attic offers a reissue of this once misunderstood Brazilian pop-psych masterpiece.

— Thom Jurek

Nicole Willis / Nicole Willis & the Soul Investigators

Tortured Soul

Timmion

R&B, International

NOFX

30 Year Anniversary Box Set

Epitaph

Pop/Rock

Swingin' Utters

Poorly Formed

Fat Wreck Chords

Pop/Rock

Swingin' Utters look to the proto-punk sounds of the Velvet Underground on their eighth album, Poorly Formed.

— Gregory Heaney

The Black Twig Pickers

Rough Carpenters

Thrill Jockey

Country, Folk

The Black Twig Pickers take the template of the old string bands and expand it for a new century, drawing from the form rather than re-creating it.

— Steve Leggett

Voigt & Voigt

Die Zauberhafte Welt der Anderen

Kompakt

Electronic

The first proper album from these two revered techno producers is a creepy delight.

— Andy Kellman

Riccardo Chailly / La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra

Viva Verdi: Ouvertures & Preludes

Decca

Classical

Causal listeners looking for a collection of Verdi favorites might infer that this is one, but some of these pieces qualify as genuinely rare.

— James Manheim

Mark Elder / Hallé Choir / Hallé Choir and Orchestra / Hallé Orchestra

Elgar: The Apostles

Hallé

Classical

Sherratt's voice stands out with terrific dramatic effect here. His mounting worry in the opening tracks of CD 2 really ought to be heard.

— James Manheim

Khatia Buniatishvili / Paavo Järvi

Chopin

Sony Classical

Classical

This Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35, is an absolutely original reading, with real involvement in the emotional content of the movement.

— James Manheim

Jonas Kaufmann / Berlin State Opera Orchestra / Deutschen Opernorchester / Donald Runnicles

Wagner

Decca

Classical

Kaufmann has the power to pull off the high notes and gets able support from the Orchestra of the German Opera Berlin under Donald Runnicles.

— James Manheim

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