This track from Jónsi Birgisson's forthcoming solo album brings a thumping beat.

Saturday Night Live's tribute to '80s hardcore, featuring Fred Armisen, Ashton Kutcher, Dave Grohl, and Bill Hader. How many of the references can you spot?

Tic Toc Tic (Lotus Child Music/604)

It’s pretty clear right from the start that In This Light and on This Evening is not going to be just another Editors record.

There are fans, and then there are superfans. Jimmy LaValle has plenty of the former, and he's lucky enough to have a growing number of the latter.

Ugly Side of Love (Domino Recording Co.)

Sweden’s Wildbirds & Peacedrums plays music of such depth and complexity that it might take the average listener a while to realize there aren’t any chords in it.

Let’s face it: a KISS Army tattoo won’t get you anything other than dirty looks, but Album Leaf ink will gain you free admission to that San Diego band’s gigs.

Blackjazz (Indie Recordings)

The Heritage Hall audience on Sunday night was much more appreciative of what was probably the program’s most challenging music.

To music fans of a certain vintage—those whose tastes were formed back when shoegazer was still a putdown—Adam Franklin has immediate name recognition.

Transference (Merge)

% (RCRD LBL)

Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, featuring the late, great Teddy Pendergrass on lead vocals, in a Soul Train appearance from 1972.

Edgar Allan Poe’s self-mythologizing made creating Nevermore, a musical fable which attempts to construct a narrative based on his life, a little difficult.

Calgary singer-songwriter Mark Hamilton admits he has an obsession with the notion of finding a home.

Prolific indie rocker Jay Reatard has died.

When country icon Johnny Cash died in 2003, he left behind a number of unreleased recordings.

Animal (RCA/Jive)

You box up the music section’s Christmas presents and ship them back to Santa, and we reward you with a Payback Time T-shirt and two tickets to a Live Nation club show of your choice taking place in Vancouver within the next four weeks. Here’s this week’s winning whinge.

James Owen Sullivan, drummer for popular metalcore band Avenged Sevenfold, was found dead in his Huntington Beach, California home on December 28.

The Athens, Georgia-based cult favourite passed away on December 25 after spending two days in a coma brought on by an overdose of muscle relaxants.

If there's a message here, it seems to be summed up by the lines "Forgive them/Even if they are not sorry". Not that Julian Casablancas wants to tell anyone what to think.

The blaze in Mount Pleasant continues to burn.

At this hour, a three-alarm fire is raging in the area of Main and Broadway in Vancouver.

We take one long, last look at the most notable shows, singles, surprises, and washouts of 2009.

Now! Christmas 4 (Universal)

Hopefully, you’ll find something that will make your Christmas just a little merrier. And if you don’t, feel free to take some solace in the fact that there’s always next year.

From the forthcoming Midlake album The Courage of Others. Epic, prog-folk-rock goodness. I like. You like?

A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector (Phil Spector)

Perhaps Neil Diamond is trying to atone for recording the rest of this?

Til the Casket Drops (Columbia/Sony)

Sadly, I lost my copy of the latest Dirty Bear Collective opus before I could give it a proper listen. I’m sure it’s a work of life-altering magnificence, but I had to settle for the following.

Let’s get the full title of the latest Mew album out of the way right off the bat. It takes a while to say (and type), but that seems apt, since the music that the album contains is worthy of spending some quality time with.

It wasn’t a particularly stellar year for music, but our critics managed to find a few things that didn’t suck.

The Fall (Blue Note/EMI)

What's hot this holiday season? Let our veteran reviewers be your guide to the best and brightest CD boxed sets.

When the three core members of a band all live in different cities, working together can be a challenge.

This has really been Charles Darwin’s year.

Kris Allen (Jive) / For Your Entertainment (RCA)

Not sure what point he's trying to make, if any, but it's somewhat amusing.

American Idol runner-up and recent Rolling Stone cover boy Adam Lambert caused a little Madonna-style outrage at the American Music Awards last night.

The first Christmas video of the year!

When the Swell Season performed at the Wiltern in Los Angeles on November 18, actor Jason Segel appeared to perform a song of his own.

Kind of funny. I don't know why.

Julian Casablancas has some advice, but feel free, as the song says, to take it or leave it.

The appearance of the man-sized frog is the most obviously surreal aspect of after the quake, which otherwise deals with people reassessing their priorities in the wake of disaster.

Viewed through the lens of 2009, it seems scarcely possible that a) there was a time when MTV and MuchMusic broadcast music videos, and b) a clip showing a few cross-dressers and a blink-and-you’d-miss-it flash of nipple would be considered too racy for cable television.

Jon Krakauer uses excerpts from soldier Pat Tillman’s diaries and interviews with his widow to paint a vivid portrait of a man motivated by more than blind patriotism.

A Friend of a Friend (Acony)