My Bloody Valentine
You Made Me Realise (live bootleg)
The guitars are too loud, the vocals inaudible, and the whole thing sounds like a bus crash that goes on for 24 minutes. Still, you just know that the first MBV concert in 16 years (at the ICA in London on June 13, 2008) was fucking awesome.

Black Lungs
Fire and Brimstone (Black Lungs)
Alexisonfire’s Wade MacNeil abandons maximum-velocity screamo, briefly embraces his inner dub junkie, and then goes for a ragged-but-beautiful finish, complete with a string section and baby grand.

Team Robespierre
This Feels Perfect (Impose)
Sure, it sounds like something a bunch of 12-year-olds would come up with—and these guys are a lot older than 12—but if you miss the spazzed-out juvenilia of the Dead Milkmen, this will have you pogoing down the street.

Neil Halstead
Paint a Face (Brushfire)
Erstwhile Slowdive/Mojave 3 man gives Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam a run for his money with a hushed bit of folk-pop that seems tailored for mint-julep afternoons and quiet summer sunsets.

System and Station
The Magnetic North (Latest Flame)
The long-running but little-known Portland-based System and Station makes indie rock the old-fashioned way: with soaring melody, thrillingly unpredictable guitar lines, and more heart than a platoon of emo acts.

The Verve
Love Is Noise (Parlophone)
The best part of the first new song we’ve heard from the Verve this decade is the call-and-response monkey chant. Everybody, now: woo-woo, woo-woo, woooo…

Duffy
Rockferry (Mercury)
With Amy Winehouse busy giving herself crack-related emphysema, Pamela Anderson doppelganger Duffy makes a bid for the U.K. retro-soul-queen throne. The fantastically vintage-sounding “Rockferry” suggests she’s ready for her crown.

The War on Drugs
Taking the Farm (Secretly Canadian)
Existential panic has never sounded so sweet, with singer Adam Granduciel’s reverb-drenched voice combining with warm-and-fuzzy guitar textures and a clattering Casio beat for a lo-fi yet lush effect.

Ciara
High Price (Sony)
Over a backdrop that’s like a chopped, screwed, and mammothly codeined Massive Attack, Ciara turns in an operatic tour de force. If Madame Butterfly had grown up crunk, she’d have sounded just like this.

Cute Is What We Aim For
Navigate Me (FueledByRamen)
Sure, the band name Cute Is What We Aim For blows worse than Nick Lachey, but—if you can ignore the lyrics—all is semi-forgiven, thanks to this chiming blast of candy-dipped emo.

Uh Huh Her
Not a Love Song (Nettwerk)
A former Dr. Dre hired hand and a moonlighting cast member of The L Word marry ’80s-tastic synths, serrated-edge guitars, and Dream Whip–sweet vocals to create something that you will, ironically, love from the first listen.