Adrian Mack

While Manic Street Preachers bemoan “a billion lies becoming the truth” in a song from one of my favourite albums this year, a former hacker is hounded by authorities for pulling the curtain on psychopathic governments and lawless corporations, and establishment figures actually call for his assassination. Joy really is a kind of resistance in this climate. All the records here have some truth inside, even if it’s just contained in the noble act of following your own screwy muse, or in simply bringing a little lift to such a heavy world.

The Telepathic Butterflies
Wow & Flutter!
Along with Stephen Harper, Afghanistan, and the province of Alberta, Canada’s greatest embarrassment is its stupid indifference to Winnipeg’s power-pop kings, the Telepathic Butterflies. We make stars out of a bunch of haircuts like Sloan, but not these guys? For shame, Canada.

Listen to "Between the Lines" by the Telepathic Butterflies.

Roky Erickson
True Love Cast Out All Evil
What makes this album great is the way it folds the very meaning of Roky Erickson into one big gut-punch of an experience. From gentle ruminations on the nature of God (recorded in the psych ward) to the loaded, hellhound rock of “John Lawman”, True Love is the most human record of the year.

Listen to "Goodbye Sweet Dreams" by Roky Erickson and Okkervil River.

Manic Street Preachers
Postcards From a Young Man
The Manics celebrate last year’s return to relevance with a dementedly euphoric rock album about everything that’s wrong in the world. Postcards bursts with heart, melody, and the band’s signature “melancholic victory” (mostly victory, this time around).

Listen to "Golden Platitudes" by Manic Street Preachers.

J. Roddy Walston and the Business
J. Roddy Walston and the Business
A totally unlikely clash of scarecrow southern boogie-woogie licks and vintage U.K. glam, if you can believe that. And I still can’t. I”˜m pretty sure I made this band happen with my mind.

Listen to "Uh Oh Rock & Roll" by J Roddy Walston and the Business.

Kem
Intimacy: Album III
This is for the side of me that likes to have cocoa butter rubbed on my ass cheeks after the 1 a.m. “nightcap”, and fuck anybody who says I can’t.

Listen to "Why Would You Stay" by Kem.

Yukon Blonde
Yukon Blonde
Hey, call me old-fashioned, but I’ve been waiting for a new Badfinger record for, like, 35 years now.

Listen to "Brides Song" by Yukon Blonde.

Tame Impala
InnerSpeaker
Australian psych band goes beyond revisionism into a woozy, timeless place where the UFO Club beds down with Meat Puppets and the Slew.

Listen to "Solitude is Bliss" by Tame Impala.

Grinderman
Grinderman 2
Nick Cave can be hit-and-miss, but Grinderman 2 isn’t so much a record as a big, purple contusion that spits out scary lyrics at you. So let’s consider it a hit. Warren Ellis is the real star, though. On the one hand he’s a mando-guitar player, and on the other he’s like a fucking evil mystic transported out of czarist Russia.

Listen to "Worm Tamer" by Grinderman.

Janelle Monaé
The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III)
Good luck finding another wall-to-wall barnstormer like Janelle Monáe’s bonkers, Metropolis-inspired gumbo of every popular musical genre you can think of (but mostly neo-soul). When Monáe—the true descendant of P-Funk, Prince, and possibly the Pointer Sisters on Broadway—says she can travel through time, why wouldn’t I believe it? She can obviously do everything else.

Listen to "Sir Greendown" by Janelle Monáe .

The Volebeats
The Volebeats
They’ve been around for 20 years, and their eighth album isn’t exactly a change of pace. But it’s perfect, and the closest thing we’ll ever have to the Flamin’ Groovies gussied up with some seriously pretty cosmic Americana. Pure bliss, really.

Listen to "See You Tonight" by the Volebeats.