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(Anti-)   www.anti.com       For their sophomore album, Montreal’s Islands indulged in every fantasy. From the evil plotline of death and jails to the symphonic stri more...

(Bar/None)   www.bar-none.com       Judging from the billowing harmonies, the ratcheting guitars, the flower-y pop baroqueness of Clouded Staircase -- not to mention Starli more...

(Sub Pop)   www.subpop.com     Did the past two decades happen? ‘Cause this record kind of makes me feel like 1988 again. But in a good way. Not like Richard Marx. Or that more...

(Stax) www.stax-records.com It’s impossible to imagine Sam and Dave’s “Soul Man” without Steve Cropper’s punctuating guitar run; the one that elicited Sam Moore&rsqu more...

(Ipecac)   www.ipecac.com     Zach Hill is a hell of a drummer. Best known for his work behind the kit for Hella and Marnie Stern, Astrological Straits is his first solo outing. more...

(Everloving)   www.everloving.com The recent arrival on the scene of the excitingly unadorned, vibrato-less voices of Inara George and Eilen Jewell almost makes 2008 feel like a return to t more...

(Decca / Surco)   www.deccalabelgroup.com       Everything about Bajofondo is a hybrid. The Argentine-Uruguayan octet plus string section melds bandoneon-based tango with e more...

  (4AD)     www.4ad.com   Original vinyl pressings of Dead Can Dance’s catalog on 4AD have, for years, fetched top dollar on various auction sites, due primarily to t more...

(Nonesuch)   www.nonesuch.com     You’d think a guy could only write so many Disney hits before whatever edge he may have had is too embarrassed to be seen at his recordi more...

(BluHammock Music)   www.bluhammock.com       In “Listening to NRBQ,” from his third album Misadventures in Stereo, Jim Boggia has created one of the great summe more...