Living Things, 'Ahead of the Lions' (Jive)

Power rockers find the solution to global conflict: louder guitars.

Getting arrested at the 2004 Republican National Convention, setting fire onstage to a photo of President Bush, hurling meat at a Dubya blow-up doll: Lillian Berlin has earned his spot in the political-rock fray. As the rail-thin frontman of Living Things, the St.

The Fiery Furnaces, 'Rehearsing My Choir' (Rough Trade)

Freak pop about Granny's life -- fun for the whole family.

Rock siblings aren't like the rest of us. Their harmonies can blend almost incestuously, as though locking away family mysteries in a mesh of notes. Though Matt Friedberger mostly leaves the singing to his sister, Eleanor, the duo codes its art pop in a private language only the genetically linked share.

Damian Marley, 'Welcome to Jamrock' (Tuff Gong/Ghetto Youth/Universal)

Bob's son fuels conscious reggae's rebirth.

Welcome to Jamrock may be the best album any son of Bob Marley has ever made. Yet it labors under an almost unbearable burden -- his father's massive legacy. How does one break from a tradition when it's part of the family inheritance?

Animal Collective, 'Feels' (Fat Cat)

Acoustic yawps for your inner enfant terrible.

Using song titles like "Daffy Duck" and cover art that features kids in a farmyard, Animal Collective are still working with children and animals. But the New York group's vision isn't a rose-tinted regression to a lost idyll. It's more like their music is a child -- angelic one moment, monstrous the next. Dulcet passages give way to tantrums of flailing drums and shrieks.

Fiona Apple, 'Extraordinary Machine' (Epic)

Epic bears strange fruit: Fiona's back.

She's been a bad, bad girl. Six years ago, it seemed like Fiona Apple was out of our hair forever -- the doe-eyed ingenue delivered a sophomore album with a 90-word title, had a meltdown onstage in New York, and publicly railed against MTV and eating turkey at Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey!

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